Diversity at Harvard Chan School
The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is committed to building an inclusive community that welcomes and supports individuals with a broad range of lived experiences, cultures, identities, backgrounds, ideas, and perspectives.
Embracing and engaging with diversity in all its forms is essential for progress in public health. It is also a critical foundation for academic excellence.
At Harvard Chan School, we recognize the vital importance of drawing on a multiplicity of backgrounds, experiences, perspectives, and skills to solve the urgent challenges facing our society. In our approach to equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging, we strive to integrate these practices into every facet of School life as we work to achieve our shared vision of a world with health, dignity, and justice for all.
The Office of Diversity and Inclusion collaborates across the School to:
- Recruit and retain a diverse community of students, staff, faculty, researchers, and trainees
- Nurture a culture of equity and belonging, where every individual is respected and valued
- Build capacity for dialogue across differences
- Support historically marginalized members of our Harvard Chan community
- Surface and address both historical legacies and current structural, institutional, and personal biases that may negatively affect members of our community
- Work with the community outside our campus on initiatives to improve health and advance equity for our neighbors in Boston and our partners around the world
- Promptly address complaints of discrimination, bias, or harassment
We carry out that work by taking the following approaches to implement coordinated and integrated EDIB practices:
- Engagement, partnership, and collaboration with leadership at multiple levels
- Partnership across departments on programs and initiatives; problem-solving when issues arise
- Involvement of students in thought partnership, planning, and implementation
- Initiatives, workshops, and resources to build capacity for understanding and engagement across differences in our interpersonal interactions, teaching, research, and professional endeavors
- Communication and alignment of practices with the University, other Harvard schools, and departments at Harvard Chan School
- Regular and transparent communications on priorities, updates, and planned activities
- Dedicated roles and assigned responsibilities among personnel essential to advancing our equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging goals
What’s new
Learn more about our work:
Whom does the Office of Diversity and Inclusion serve?
Everyone!
We define “diversity” in the broadest possible terms. It encompasses all the ways we differ from one another, including age, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, political ideology, cognitive and physical abilities, education, income, work experience, job responsibilities, military experience, family status, and much more.
We work to ensure that individuals from all backgrounds feel that they belong at Harvard Chan School, are treated with respect and dignity, and can participate fully in all aspects of our community.
Do you practice DEI at Harvard Chan School?
The phrase “DEI” means different things at different institutions. Here, all members of our community have an opportunity to actively participate and contribute to our diversity goals. At Harvard Chan School, we focus on striving for institutional excellence, by also working to establish inclusive cultures as defined through the Inclusive Excellence Framework. We actively work to advance our three priority areas:
- Build institutional systems and policies, coupled with leadership practices and organizational resources, that allow for sustainable diversity best practices and progress across core functions of the School
- Establish institutional policies, practices, and expectations for our leaders and all community members that center on the development of awareness, knowledge, and skills necessary for fostering cultures of belonging and inclusion
- Increase representation of historically marginalized communities, underrepresented Black, Indigenous, and communities of color, and access to resources, programs, and networks that promote success and value unique perspectives in an anti-oppressive environment
What do you mean when you say you foster an “anti-oppressive environment”?
In the context of our work, we use “oppression” as an umbrella term, which captures the various “isms” we encounter, such as sexism, racism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, transphobia, islamophobia, xenophobia, ableism, and more.
Additionally, we use this concept to help guide our thinking and practice, by prompting ourselves to think about issues and solutions within four dimensions:
- Cultural (e.g. societal values)
- Institutional (e.g. policy level)
- Interpersonal/individual (e.g. comments and behaviors)
- Internalized (e.g. personal beliefs about others)
While no framework is perfect, it can be a useful tool to guide our practice, and to ensure that our approaches are fully thought out and multi-dimensional when needed.
At the same time, much of higher education diversity work deals with people, group dynamics, and organizational dynamics and because of the nuance and contextual variables, no one framework can capture the entirety of this work. Additional frameworks are often used to further efforts tied to facilitation, conflict mediation, bias response, dialogue on difficult and polarizing subject matter, affinity programs, and more.
Does diversity education aim to silence certain individuals?
No. Our aim is for all to feel they can share their thoughts, opinions, and perspectives in a dialogue setting.
We believe that forums designed for education and group dialogue must take intentional steps to ensure that the learning is accessible and inclusive for all participants, which means that people are also able to develop understanding of others and critical issues through engagement with new and different perspectives.
We believe that through deeper understanding of the various issues impacting the lived experience of others, we can also increase our capacity for deeper relationships, connections, and a greater sense of community.
Who can participate in diversity activities and join diversity committees?
Everyone. All members of the Harvard Chan School, which includes students, researchers, staff, faculty, other academic appointees, and alumni, are able to get involved in diversity-related activities through ODI and/or at the academic and administrative department level. Our aim is to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to contribute to and participate in efforts at the School.
Additionally, the office is available to all members of the community regardless of their identity, culture, viewpoints, or lived experience. To learn more about current opportunities, please contact the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.
Do you have affinity groups?
At Harvard Chan School, all our organizations spring up organically, when students, staff, or faculty decide to organize around a common interest, issue, or identity. In any given year, some groups will go dormant while new groups will form.
Groups currently active on campus include the Black Student Health Organization, the Christian Student Fellowship, the Intersex and Trans Justice Student Society, the Harvard Chan Native and Indigenous Health Forum, the Jewish Student Association, the Korean Student Group, the Muslim Student Association, the Immigrant Health Forum, the European Student Society, the Multicultural Staff, Faculty, & Researchers Association, and many more.
The Office of Diversity and Inclusion will work with any officially recognized group upon request. All our formally recognized student affinity organizations are housed under the Office of Student Affairs.
How can I get involved?
All members of the Harvard Chan community are encouraged to engage with us and be active on matters of inclusion and belonging.
There are many ways to get involved vary, including pursuing leadership roles on committees and working groups; accessing and using our resources on ways to foster inclusion and belonging in team, staff, or group settings; attending our lectures and workshops; learning about our non-discrimination policies and resources; and sharing your thoughts and ideas with us. In addition, all students are invited to apply for our EDI Fellowship program.
To hear the latest from our office, please subscribe to the ODI listserv. Please also feel free to drop by during our on-campus office hours or arrange a Zoom meeting. We’d love to hear from you!
