Galvanizing for the future: a bottom-up departmental approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion

As an academic department, we sought to identify effective strategies to engage our faculty and staff in diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and programs to build an inclusive department that would address our needs and those of our community and partners. Over a 4-year period, our faculty and staff have participated in town hall meetings, focus group discussions, surveys, and community-building activities to foster stakeholder engagement that will build a leading academic department for the future. We noted that our faculty and staff were committed to building diversity, equity, and inclusion, and our mission and vision were reflective of this. However, communication and transparency may be improved to help support a more inclusive department for all. In the future, we hope to continue with the integration of diversity, equity, and inclusion into our department’s business processes to achieve meaningful, sustained change and impact through continued focus on recruitment, selection, retention, development, and wellness of faculty and staff—in addition to the continued recruitment of faculty and staff from underrepresented minority groups. Our findings should serve as a call to action for other academic obstetrics and gynecology departments to improve the health and well-being of the individuals we serve.