Responsible Officers: Dean of Faculty Affairs/Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Policy Contact: Office of Faculty Affairs
Approved: December 17, 2020
Diversity Commitment
The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth (Geisel) believes that a diverse and inclusive community of students, residents, fellows, staff, and faculty enhances our mission to address the world's health problems through research and discovery, evaluation and improvement of systems of healthcare, and the education and the development of the best health professionals and scientists of the future.
Geisel (and Dartmouth, writ large) recognizes diversity in all of its forms relating to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, veteran status, marital status, or any other legally protected status. Furthermore, Geisel recognizes that diversity includes differences in socioeconomic background and other less easily defined measures that comprise the rich breadth of human experiences, talents, and attributes.
Research demonstrates that working and learning in an environment that is diverse in thought and perspective results in improvement in the educational quality and organizational outcomes at all levels and for people of all backgrounds. Therefore, we commit resources to initiatives that will recruit, support, and retain students, trainees, faculty, and staff that encompass the full diversity of our population.
Diversity Policy
Within this broad scope, we set out the following objectives:
- To make known to the public Geisel’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
- To ensure that all members of the community are informed of expectations for professional behavior and to understand how to build a diverse, inclusive, and respectful academic community through online workshops/programs for all faculty, staff, and students.
- To build upon online modules that establish foundational learning and community expectations by establishing local diversity networks within departments and instituting programmatic approaches, such as Restorative Justice, that will put into action principles set out through e-learning.
- Consistent with the goals of Dartmouth’s Inclusive Excellence Action Plan, to increase recruitment and retention and provide enhanced professional development opportunities for women and under-represented groups, as recognized by the National Institutes of Health, with an emphasis on female, Black/African American, and Hispanic/Latinx faculty and senior leadership.
- To emphasize the recruitment of Black/African Americans, Indigenous Peoples of North America, Hispanic/Latinx, and active and former members of the U.S. military service to our student programs (MD and MPH), as well as to provide appropriate support to enhance their academic success. We also commit to working with the Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies to meet their own recruitment goals for PhD/MS students.
- To educate students on best practices within a complex society by providing curricula that address the role of society and disparities in health and healthcare.
- To work with our academic and clinical partners to ensure that we commit infrastructure and resources towards building a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive community.
Geisel commits to these objectives, to assessing outcomes, and to evaluating programs in order to monitor progress in attaining these goals.