Infrastructure
Assessment of DEI Advisory Board composition and member participation in DEI activities.
Offer “special projects” to members with time constraints that make it difficult to attend group meetings and participate in subgroup initiatives. Such projects could be worked on individually and according to a more flexible schedule, for example, developing surveys and collecting data vis-a-vis departmental DEI events. (See also above, Climate and Intra/Intergroup Relations, initiative #2.)
Status: On timeCompleted: The Radiation Oncology DEI Advisory Board was formalized and held its first committee meeting in December 2020, with a total membership of 6 women.
Completed: Elaine Zeman took over as Acting DEI Liaison and Head of the Advisory Board in late January, 2021, replacing Sarah Tatko, who was redeployed to the Friday Center COVID Vaccine Clinic.
Completed: As of September, 2021, the Advisory Board grew to a total of 17 full members and 6 Ad Hoc members, with equal representation of men and women, and now includes more than one member from each of the department’s operational units.
Update: Sarah Tatko has returned 75% time from her COVID deployment, and will now share DEI Liaison and Advisory Board leadership with Elaine Zeman.
Person/Dept Responsible: Khasawneh / Tatko
Develop DEI goals as part of all individual faculty annual reviews.
This goal was first formalized in July, 2020.
Status: On timeOngoing.
Completed: Annual faculty reviews conducted during Summer and Fall, 2021 included questions about DEI activities over the past year and goals for the coming year
Person/Dept Responsible: Marks / Saponaro
Department-specific DEI overview as part of all new faculty and staff on-boarding.
SOM employees will be required to attend the unconscious bias workshop, and for UNC Health employees, viewing three short Skillsoft videos related to unconscious bias, diversity, and working well with others.
This goal was first formalized in July, 2020, and implemented in July, 2021.
Status: On timeOngoing.
Update: Of the staff hired since July 1, 2021, medical and physics residents have received e-mail reminders from their program directors where to sign up for SOM unconscious bias training and that they need to complete this by the end of 2021. The radiation therapy and administrative supervisors have also notified their new hires to complete either the SOM or UNC Health trainings, also by year’s end. New hires in nursing have already taken their training, so are 100% compliant at present.
Person/Dept Responsible: Saponaro / Williams
Access and Success
Annual recruitment for positions in our radiation oncology residency program will include particular attention and outreach to URM applicants with advertising on Twitter and during our three Zoom prospective resident “Meet & Greet” sessions.
First discussed at the DEI Board meeting held on September 22, 2021.
Status: On timeOngoing.
Eventual goal is to do the same for our three other radiation oncology-based education programs: the medical physics residency program; and our radiation therapy and medical dosimetry certificate programs
Person/Dept Responsible: Jones / Shen / Weiner / Zeman
Evaluate the diversity of applicants to our radiation oncology residency program with respect to gender, ethnicity, hometown (urban vs. rural vs. small town), medical or graduate school location and military status.
First discussed at the DEI Board meeting on February 10, 2021.
Status: On timeUpdate: Rank lists and applicant ERAS files have now been identified and collected dating back to 2009. Data analysis is in progress, with 350+ applicant files with complete or near-complete data available.
Once completed, these data will be used for comparison with the current year’s recruitment efforts.
Person/Dept Responsible: Jones / Moore / Weiner / Zeman
Faculty and/or resident participation with Carolina First Look.
Status: On timeOngoing.
Update: Completed for 2020 and 2021.
Person/Dept Responsible: Sud / Weiner
Work toward further diversifying Radiation Oncology faculty and staff.
Status: On timeCompleted: During 2020 and 2021, the Department of Radiation Oncology recruited 3 new female radiation oncologists (one Black). Three new female medical physicists were also recruited over this time period, as was a new Black Chief Radiation Therapist.
Update: Recruitment is currently underway for 2 additional radiation oncology faculty members, one medical physics faculty member, new radiation therapists and a new program director for our education programs in radiation therapy and medical dosimetry. Special attention is being paid to outreach to URM candidates.
Person/Dept Responsible: Marks / Saponaro
Evaluate the diversity of our radiation oncology faculty, past and present, in terms of gender, ethnicity, rural vs. urban upbringing and military status.
First discussed at the DEI Board meeting held on March 24, 2021.
Status: On timeUpdate: Data collection in progress.
Person/Dept Responsible: Jones
Climate and Intra/Intergroup Relations
Bias training (at least 1 hour) for all SOM faculty and staff.
Bias training (at least 2.5 hours) for all faculty and staff serving on search committees.
Status: On timeCompleted: As of May, 2021, 100% of SOM faculty and staff hires have received either implicit bias and/or unconscious bias training.
Update: New hires will receive bias training as part of their onboarding process. (See also Institutional Infrastructure, Objective #3, below)
Person/Dept Responsible: Marks / Saponaro / Tatko/ Zeman
Attendance-taking and development of survey instruments to better assess the success of all departmental DEI activities.
First discussed at the DEI Board meeting held on May 26, 2021
Status: On timeEarly stages of development.
Developing surveys and collecting and analyzing results could be assigned to a member as a “special project”. (See also below, Institutional Infrastructure, initiative #1.)
Person/Dept Responsible:
Curriculum and Scholarship
Increase Spanish speaking participants on clinical research studies.
First discussed at the DEI Board meeting held on February 10, 2021.
Status: On timeCompleted: Spanish interpreters are now available both through the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and on a freelance basis to facilitate discussion about clinical trial enrollment with Spanish-speaking cancer patients.
Person/Dept Responsible: Jones / Xu
Radiation oncology resident-run initiative to feature DEI-related topics, speakers and trainings as part of the department’s daily morning conference schedule. Goal is to have a DEI-related morning conference on at least a quarterly basis.
First discussed at the DEI Board meeting held on April 28, 2021.
Status: On timeOngoing.
Completed: A total of 3 DEI-themed morning conferences were held between May and September, 2021.
Update: Going forward, attendance will be taken at these events, and attendees will be asked to complete a short survey about their experience. Surveys are currently in development. (See also above, Climate and Intra/Intergroup Relations, initiative #2.)
Person/Dept Responsible: Sud / Jones / Weiner / Zeman
Schedule periodic “Lunch & Learn” sessions for the department with UNC and community leaders/stakeholders.
First discussed at the inaugural DEI Board meeting held in December, 2020.
Status: On timeOngoing. Potential speakers have been identified and invitations extended.
Update: Going forward, attendance will be taken at these events, and attendees will be asked to complete a short survey about their experience. Surveys are currently in development. (See also above, Climate and Intra/Intergroup Relations, initiative #2.)
Person/Dept Responsible: Williams
Reach out to student leaders of DEI groups at UNC and in local community to discuss areas of common interest and possible collaborations.
First discussed at the DEI Board meeting held on February 10, 2021.
Status: On timeOngoing. (See also initiative #1 above, where UNC and community DEI leaders will be invited to speak during Lunch & Learn sessions.)
Person/Dept Responsible: Saponaro / Willians
Community Engagement
Standardize the presentation of DEI-matters across all the department’s communication outlets, e.g., morning conference announcements, Good News board, SOM website, Chair’s weekly e-newsletter, Twitter account, etc.
First discussed at the DEI Board meeting held on February 10, 2021, and again on September 22, 2021.
Status: On timeOngoing.
Completed: Deen Gu was appointed head of the Social Media, Communications and Department Presence subgroup to help coordinate the varied, but related, activities.
Update: Plans to add a new page to the website outlining the department’s DEI-related activities, and to increase use of the department’s Twitter account to highlight DEI events.
Person/Dept Responsible: Gu / Moore / Saponaro
Assign select DEI Board members to serve as liaisons to other DEI groups across the SOM and beyond, with special emphasis on the UNC Hospitals and Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center DEI committees.
First discussed at the DEI Board meeting held on September 22, 2021
Status: On timeEarly stages of development.
This could be challenging based on finding a “fit” between one or more of our Board members’ schedules and the meeting schedule for the hospital and cancer center DEI groups.
Person/Dept Responsible: Tatko / Zeman
DEI-themed banners and infographics under development for posting in the department’s conference room, classroom, staff lounges and the clinic area.
First discussed at the DEI committee meeting held on April 28, 2021.
Status: On timeUpdate: DEI Advisory Board approved several banners addressing the difference between equality and equity at the August 25, 2021 Board meeting, and others are under consideration for the future.
These will be posted around the department beginning in October, 2021 and then rotated on a monthly or bimonthly basis and will cover different DEI-related themes (e.g., the difference between equality and equity, minority representation in radiation oncology, gender harassment, etc.).
Person/Dept Responsible: Zeman
DEI Book/Movie Club”: an initiative to engage the entire radiation oncology department in reading books, listening to podcasts or viewing videos (movies/ documentaries/university or public events) with a DEI theme, and then holding review and discussion sessions thereafter.
First discussed at the DEI Board meeting held on September 22, 2021.
Status: On timeEarly stages of development.
Identification of potential books, documentaries and films is underway. Some candidates include the Netflix series “Amend”, the Amazon Prime documentaries “Wilmington on Fire” and “My Name is Pauli Murray”, and the films “Do the Right Thing” and “The Best of Enemies”.
Person/Dept Responsible: Tatko
Liaise with our Division of Healthcare Engineering to explore possible collaborations on the intersection between DEI and healthcare provider wellness.
Status: On timeEarly stages of development. To be discussed at the November DEI Advisory Board meeting.
Person/Dept Responsible: Amos / Zeman
Post a DEI solidarity statement in the clinic area, add to the landing page of the department’s website, and include on the web pages for our 4 education programs.
Originally completed July, 2020 in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.
Status: On timeCompleted: Revised statement extending solidarity to other marginalized groups – including Hispanic/Latinx, Asian/Pacific Islanders, Native Americans, members of the LGBTQ+ community and other marginalized groups – was approved by the DEI committee at their meeting held on May 26, 2021, followed by a public comment from from Radiation Oncology faculty and staff.
Revised statements were posted in September, 2021.
Further revisions will be made as needed.
Person/Dept Responsible: Tatko / Zeman
Radiation oncology faculty participation in community COVID-19 vaccination and treatment effort, including outreach to marginalized groups.
Status: On timeCompleted: Radiation Oncology physician assistant and Co-DEI Liaison and Head of the DEI Advisory Board Sarah Tatko was reassigned from January through July 2021 to serve as the Advanced Practice Provider Lead at the UNC COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic at the Friday Center. Her activities included: creating and distributing “refer-a-friend” flyers to all patients with the goal of outreach and engagement with URM groups disproportionately affected by COVID-19; hosting several vaccine outreach events across North Carolina; and developing and implementing a policy on distribution of leftover vaccine doses in an equitable manner.
Update: A one day per week second deployment to the monoclonal antibody COVID-19 treatment clinic began in September 2021, with an indeterminate end date.
Person/Dept Responsible: Tatko
Have physician biography sheets for patients translated into Spanish.
First discussed at the DEI committee meeting on March 24, 2021.
Status: On timeUpdate: Physician biography sheets have now been updated for 2021, and will be forwarded to Spanish interpreters working with our clinical trials group for translation assistance.
Person/Dept Responsible: Xu / Moore / Zeman