As February comes to an end this week, we’ve been reminded again of the significance of Black History month and the importance of recalling and honoring the contributions of Black Americans. We are extremely grateful to all of the people, programs, events, and resources that have contributed to the department’s success and strengthened our cherished Biostatistics community.
We look toward the coming months with a continued commitment to strengthening diversity, inclusion, and belonging in our department. We are eager to receive the results of our organizational culture assessment, and to discuss new goals based on feedback from the focus groups and interviews conducted by the VISIONS consultants over the last several months. We look forward to engaging with our four new adjunct faculty members, who have shared some thoughts and experiences in their Biostats Briefing interviews over the last several weeks, and will continue to offer valuable mentoring and insights for our students and faculty from historically marginalized groups. We are excited to meet the next cohort of diverse undergraduate students who will join us, virtually, for the 27th year of the Summer Program in Biostatistics and Computational Biology. And we excitedly await additional programming and events from the Donald Hopkins Program and the Biostats Diversity and Inclusion Group, both of which enhance the academic and social experience within the Department.
In recognizing and recalling past endeavors and current efforts, we also understand that there is a lot more work to be done throughout the remainder of this academic year and beyond. We must continue to reflect, learn, listen, and have discussions that drive us toward a more diverse, inclusive, and anti-racist community where Black, Indigenous, and people of color have a true sense of security, support, and belonging.
