Our department has a longstanding history of leadership in diversity recruitment, mentoring, and education. The department's Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) Committee is very active in recruiting diverse trainees to our training programs, enhancing education on diversity for trainees and faculty, and developing a programmatic approach to diversity mentoring.

This committee assists in recruiting and supporting trainees and faculty from diverse backgrounds or with diversity-related research interests, and promotes cultural competence in training and research. The committee sponsors efforts to integrate diversity-related topics into seminars throughout the DPHB and provides training opportunities on diversity-related topics. The committee has also developed two specific initiatives focused on 1) mentoring trainees and 2) providing continuing educational opportunities for faculty. The committee launched a diversity mentoring program in 2010 to facilitate networking and career development among trainees and faculty in the DPHB and to offer trainees and faculty opportunities to discuss clinical, research, and professional issues relevant to diversity in a supportive collegial environment. Through informal meetings with mentors, this program offers trainees and junior faculty from diverse backgrounds, and/or with interest in working with diverse populations, the chance to explore professional and personal issues.

The DEIB Committee also launched a Faculty Cultural Competence Initiative to ensure that our faculty receive additional opportunities to enhance their cultural competence with respect to teaching, supervision, and research responsibilities. In 2004 and 2012, the DEIB Committee was awarded funding from the American Psychological Association Commission on Ethnic Minority Recruitment, Retention, and Training to support ongoing development of multicultural competence among DPHB faculty via continuing education programs. Presentations that highlight how complexities of race, ethnicity and differences in cultural identities impact teaching, supervision, and research are regularly attended by DPHB faculty.

Brown Psychiatry Summer Research Fellowship

We offer the summer research fellowship for two medical students each year. This program provides an excellent opportunity for students to experience psychiatry and research training in medical school to increase interest, training and opportunities in research. Medical students of all identities are eligible. Students from underrepresented groups in medicine are encouraged to apply. For more information about upcoming summer research opportunities for medical students,, contact Dr. Laura Whiteley.

The Office of Belonging, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (OBEDI) promotes social responsibility, active engagement, and the well-being of our communities in the pursuit of health equity. For more information, please visit the website. 

We know a diverse workforce more effectively meets the needs of the diverse population of patients we serve. The BMHA is an organization that strives to support diverse housestaff through community building, mentorship, networking, and advocacy.

The Brown Minority Housestaff Association (BMHA) became a recognized housestaff organization in 2013. BMHA is advised through faculty, the GME Department and OBEDI.

Code Black was a march that took place on June 14, 2020 in solidarity with Brown Minority Housestaff Association, Brown Sexual and Gender Minority Alliance, Office of Women in Medicine and Science, The Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University SNMA, LMSABrownMed, Brown APAMSA, Brown AMWA, and Spectrum LGBTQ of The Warren Alpert Medical School.

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Students and trainees with disabilities are welcomed at Brown and provided with services through Student and Employee Accessibility Services (SEAS), which ensures adequate accommodation for physical or mental disabilities. SEAS coordinates accommodations with departments throughout the university, provides updates on access conditions, and offers a wide array of assistive technologies.

Brown University executed Pathways to Diversity and Inclusion: An Action Plan for Brown University (DIAP) in 2016. This strategic plan outlines concrete, achievable actions that must be taken to make the University more fully diverse and inclusive. Each academic and administrative unit, including the Warren Alpert Medical School and the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, was required to establish their own plans that support the goals put forth in the DIAP.  

Brown's Office of Institutional Equity & Diversity provides leadership for the formulation and oversight of policies related to pluralism and equity, and initiates programs and practices that promote diversity, inclusion, and fair treatment of all members of the community. More specifically, Brown University directs multiple recruitment strategies toward the goal of achieving greater diversity among its faculty and students. Within the Medical School, the Dean of Biology and Medicine, Associate Dean for Diversity, and Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior are partners in this enterprise. The Division of Biology and Medicine's Office of Belonging, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (OBEDI) focuses on: 1) coordinating recruitment efforts of individuals from underrepresented minority groups; 2) providing academic, personal, and professional career development and social support to students, faculty, and trainees; and 3) collaborating across the university to offer culturally educational curricula. 

The Office of Women in Medicine and Science (OWIMS) provides networking, career development opportunities, and educational programs to meet the needs of its many constituencies in the Division of Biology and Medicine and the School of Public Health. The office works to promote diversity, gender equity, and women's health.

The DPHB is dedicated to supporting and maintaining an academic environment characterized by civility and respect. We follow the policies of Brown University, the affiliated hospitals, and the NIH regarding sexual and gender-based harassment and other prohibited conduct.  

The Brown University Title IX office is an important resource for students, trainees, and faculty:

Title IX

More information about the Brown policies on sexual and gender-based harassment and other prohibited conduct can be found here.

Sexual and gender-based misconduct policy

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) also does not tolerate pervasive or severe harassment of any kind, including sexual harassment, at research organizations that receive NIH funding as described here.

NIH Anti-Sexual-Harassment 

Additionally, DPHB affiliated hospitals have their own policies and reporting procedures to ensure and protect gender equity. 

Mission

The Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity (OIED) serves as a critical leader, resource, and support in sponsoring programs and events related to diversity and inclusion at Brown University. OIED helps lead inclusion efforts across campus through:

• Accountability: OIED monitors and measures progress of Brown University’s Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan (DIAP) and the Departmental DIAPs, produces an Annual Report for the DIAP, and supports the activities of the Diversity and Inclusion Oversight Board and the President’s Advisory Council on Diversity.
• Compliance: OIED oversees compliance with University policies and procedures, as well as and with federal, state and local laws related to discrimination and harassment, sexual and gender-based harassment and violence (Title IX), and disabilities resources and accommodations (ADA/504).
• Fostering Academic Diversity: OIED supports academic and administrative units with their efforts to recruit a diverse faculty and staff by providing training and assistance to search committees as they develop diverse pools of candidates.
• Promoting Diversity and Inclusion: OIED collaborates with offices across Brown to design, implement and promote programs and events related to diversity and inclusion. 

The mission of Brown Psychiatry and Human Behavior's Anti-Racism Steering Committee (ARSC) is to guide departmental leaders in developing and continuously improving anti-racist policies, practices, and climates across clinical care, research, and education. We understand anti-racism to include action against systemic and institutional racial bias, embedded prejudice, discrimination, hate, and other forms of oppression of racially and ethnically minoritized groups. We are committed to efforts that are collaborative, specific, time-based and measurable.