Diversity & Inclusion Council

Mission Statement

Strengthening departmental function and effectiveness by empowering a community where diversity, equity, and inclusion are promoted; enabling everyone to feel valued, engaged, and supported.

Overarching Goals:

  • To renew the structure of and further diversify the departmental Diversity Council and its leadership by mid academic year.
  • To enhance our departmental diversity with continuing efforts to recruit and retain a diverse faculty, and by being intentional about diversity and inclusion during the trainee recruitment process in order to increase successful recruitment of underrepresented individuals by 10% in three years.
  • To strengthen the sense of community across the department by organizing a community activity twice a year to which each departmental section, trainee, and staff group will have representative participants, such that everyone feels valued, engaged, and supported.
  • To increase our cultural competency by initiating at least three cultural sharing sessions over the next year, so that all members demonstrate the knowledge and skills to work with diverse people, to educate diverse students, residents and fellows, and to treat diverse patients.

Current Events:

 

DOSAR event

DOSAR Event

On Saturday, July 16th, a group of radiology staff and faculty participated in the UChicago Medicine Day of Service and Reflection (DOSAR) event. After a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19, DOSAR was back in person this year and our team showed up with strong support to welcome back this important annual event. Team members spent the day volunteering their time at surrounding community sites like Eden Place and Roseland Christian Ministries thrift store. From gardening to donation sorting—our team donated over 70+ volunteer hours to our community! We are always grateful for the opportunity to engage with and support our south side community. Thank you to the Urban Health Initiative for their leadership in organizing the DOSAR event, we are already planning for next year! 

“It was a wonderful, fulfilling experience to get together with friends and colleagues at the DOSAR activity. We were able to connect with our community members while working on various outdoor activities planned by UCM to help our community. Kudos to the organizers for such a wonderful event and thanks to everyone who attended!"

Ayetkin Oto new

— Aytekin Oto, MD
Chair, Department of Radiology

More about DOSAR

Recruitment:

  • Holistic application review
  • Focused discussion on Diversity & Inclusion with applicants with Departmental D&I Council leadership during each radiology residency interview day
  • Pairing URiM candidates with relevant URiM faculty for interviews
  • Methodic review of current Radiology recruitment and enrollment trends based on current research
  • Participated in Student National Medical Association (SNMA) and Latino Medical Student Association (LMSA) Virtual Residency Fair –  September 12, 2020
  • Chicagoland Radiology Expo – November 6, 2021
  • Will sponsor departmental representative to attend the Annual Medical Education Conference (AMEC) hosted by the Student National Medical Association (SNMA) in Hartford, CT from Wednesday, April 5 through Sunday, April 9, 2022
  • New RadExpo, in collaboration with New York radiology programs - November 5, 2022 - radexpo.org

Training:

 

Support:

  • Dedicated residency administrative liaison to Diversity Council
  • Resident liaisons to the Diversity Council

The Department of Radiology Graduate Program in Medical Physics Book Club is held quarterly and is open to students and faculty. The book club is supervised by Dr. Kenneth Bader,  head of the GPMP Diversity Committee, and coordinated by graduate students Inna Gertsenshteyn and Brittany Broder. Book club dates are based on group availability and books are ordered for students/faculty who confirm attendance.

Please contact Inna Gertsenshteyn (innag@uchicago.edu) or Brittany Broder (bbroder@uchicago.edu) if interested in participating.

Department Member Spotlight

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Diversity and Inclusion Events

WiR Inaugural Grand Rounds Welcomes Dr. Kate McGillen

On September 28th, our department's Women in Radiology (WiR) group welcomed Dr. Kate McGillen to campus for their Grand Rounds lecture. This lecture series was created to bring inspirational and influential women into our department to share their research and clinical expertise. Dr. McGillen is an associate professor of Radiology at Penn State Hershey. Her research focuses on ultrasound with a focus on collaborating with other specialties on high-end applications such as contrast ultrasound, elastography, and endometriosis imaging. Dr. McGillen spoke to our department on contrast ultrasound – a high value tool for diagnostic problem-solving.

SSSF Event

South Side Science Festival

On Saturday, September 17th, the Graduate Program in Medical Physics (GPMP) Diversity and Outreach Committee and the Department of Radiology Diversity and Inclusion Council hosted a hands-on educational booth at the South Side Science Festival held at the Eckhardt Research Center at the University of Chicago campus. Volunteers put their heads together and crafted several fun hands-on learning opportunities to teach booth visitors about wave properties, radiation detection, and image-guided radiology procedures. The event was attended by visitors of all ages. Researchers and clinicians were able to answer booth visitors’ questions about the important work they do daily in a fun and immersive environment.

Dr. Hightower

Diversity Grand Rounds: Maia Hightower

Dr. Hightower is an expert and a nationally sought speaker in Responsible AI and the intersection of digital technology with health equity, diversity, and inclusion. She strives to ensure that the value from digital transformation of healthcare is equitable across all stakeholders, including our most vulnerable. In addition to leading digital strategy and operations at UChicago Medicine, she leads Equality AI, an early-stage investor-backed healthcare tech startup. Equality AI empowers digitally enabled care teams to achieve health equity goals through responsible AI and tools to develop algorithms that address bias, fairness, and performance.

Resources