Duke University School of Medicine

The school's Occupational Therapy Doctorate Program has created a "holistic admissions process to welcome students from wide-ranging backgrounds" and a "Faculty position focused on minority recruitment and retention."

The school's Cell Biology department in partnership with Dr. Paige Cooper offers "an Implicit Bias training ahead of recruitment season for all to participate in before recruits arrive on campus. Cell Bio will be working with Dr. Cooper to offer this training for our department for future recruitments through CMB and DSCB."

On January 31, 2023, the school's Vice Dean of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion published an update to the school's Anti-Racism Strategic Plan and stated that "Unit EDI [Equity, Diversity, Inclusion] leaders are participating in EDI educational and strategic development programming to ensure they have the necessary resources to guide the work in their respective units." Additionally, "they are participating in the Racial Equity Learning Arc, which focuses on promoting strong racial equity and anti-bias practices."

On February 2, 2023, the Vice Dean for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion and the Assistant Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion spoke with faculty about "EDI initiatives in the SOM [School of Medicine], how to create a shared language for conversations about EDI, and the sense of individual responsibility for contributing to EDI efforts."

Another of the committees’ goals was to, “Incorporate teaching racism and racial inequities through our teaching, research, and clinical missions.”

The strategic plan recommended that the School, “Ensure that our learning environments teach cultural humility and foster the ability to practice equitable and anti-racist care and research.”

On March 24, 2021, the school published an article entitled "Jumping in Feet First" which discusses the school's launching of a new “patient first” curriculum which "puts students in the clinic earlier and trains them in social determinants of health, data science, and leadership." Essential to the new curriculum "is the principle of inclusion – promoting meaningful connections through addressing racism and health care disparities." Implementation of the new curriculum "has already begun and will continue to roll out over the next four years."

On August 5, 2020, the school published its "Duke Clinical Research Update" which includes information on the "2020-2021 Health Disparities Research Curriculum." The curriculum addresses, in part, the "Role of implicit bias in disparities."

The strategic plan recommended that the School, “Strengthen our institutional systems and resources for reporting and resolving concerns around bias, micro- and macroaggressions, racism, harassment, and discrimination.”

The school’s strategic plan will aim to, “Catalyze anti-racist practice through education of our current and future workforce.”

One of the committees’ goals was to “Train an intentionally anti-racist healthcare and biomedical research workforce.”

The strategic plan recommended that the School, “Implement a comprehensive anti-racism, bias, and discrimination training and education program for our workforce.”

The school’s strategic plan will aim to, “Stimulate and promote evidence-based discoveries and their translation to reduce racial health disparities, promote equity, and improve health.”

The strategic plan recommended that the School, “Build anti-racist and health equity processes into our research systems” and “Enhance alignment and opportunities in health equity research.”

The mission of Duke's "Biosciences Collaborative for Research Engagement Program" is to "increase the diversity of scientists in the biosciences, which starts with promoting the holistic development of scholars throughout their PhD training within the Duke University School of Medicine."

The Office of Diversity and Inclusion offers Anti-Racism resources, which include “An anti-racist reading list from Ibram X. Kendi” and a whole section on health disparities.

Participants “from each participating medical school will engage in experiential learning, assessments, outcome and performance monitoring sessions, and coaching to move beyond knowledge transfer to enact change that is systemic and adaptive. This will be primarily led by two named groups at each institution, the Cohort and the Guiding Coalition.”

In June of 2021, the school published its "Dismantling Racism and Advancing Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the School of Medicine" strategic plan, which outlines its many initiatives in addressing anti-racist education, training, hiring, and other policies.

Duke University School of Medicine is joining the Anti-Racist Transformation in Medical Education Community of Practice cohort.

The medical school was “selected as one of 11 medical schools from across the United States and Canada to participate in the Anti-Racist Transformation in Medical Education (ART in Med Ed) project, a national collaborative to dismantle systemic racism and bias in academic medicine.”

The health system “organized a walk of solidarity ‘to take a collective stand against systemic racism and injustice and to show the world that we are stronger together.’”

The school “released its Moments to Movement strategic plan, ‘Dismantling Racism and Advancing Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the School of Medicine,’” which aims to “Enhance racial diversity and equity, inclusion and respect for all of our constituents.”

As part of its initiative, the school “created and empowered four committees representing all stakeholders within the School: health professions students, graduate students and postdocs, staff, and faculty,” which in turn “made recommendations for School-wide change to our Oversight Committee, which synthesized and evaluated the final recommendations of the other four committees and proposed a plan based on those results.”

The school hosted an event titled, "Missing Not at Random: Disparities in Public Health and How Data Scientists Can Help." The event discussed COVID's Disparate Impact on Historically Marginalized Populations," among other topics.

The Dean's 2020 State of the School Address was on the topic "Turning a Moment into a Movement: Dismantling Racism in the Duke University School of Medicine."

In 2021, the Duke Clinical & Translational Science Institute "launched the Center for Equity in Research to advance equity, anti-racism, and anti-bias in clinical & translational research. Its Equity in Research Core (EIR) provides support for Duke's research teams."

The school tweeted, "At Duke today, thousands walked together in solidarity against racism and injustice. We are stronger together!"

The school tweeted, "The School of Medicine is dedicated to honoring the dream of Martin Luther King Jr., by working to dismantle racism within our institutional walls and in our surrounding community, on this day and every day. #MLK2021"

The school tweeted, "New in Magnify - Heeding the Call: Dismantling Racism. How the School of Medicine, along with other schools across Duke and throughout the country, have made a commitment to heed the call to eliminate racism and take a stand against racial injustice."

The school tweeted, "Check out the Fall 2020 DukeMed Alumni News, which highlights how the School of Medicine is providing a medical education during a global pandemic, and how it is embracing the challenge of dismantling systemic racism."

The school tweeted, "Since launching its Moments to Movement initiative in June 2020, Duke University School of Medicine has begun work to better understand the root causes and harms of racism and to develop strategies to reduce racial inequity."

The school appointed its first Vice Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

In January 2021, "Black faculty members from across the School of Medicine wrote a joint letter to their colleagues within the School, the Duke University Health System and Private Diagnostic Clinic (PDC) detailing their experiences dealing with the effects of systemic racism and the COVID-19 pandemic."

On July 4, 2023, Dr. Barbara Hooper, Occupational Therapy Program Director, issued a message in response to the Supreme Courts ruling on affirmative action in higher education which states the following: "The US Supreme Court decision lands hard for many in academia because learning through diversity has become an established best practice in education. And in health professions education, learning through diversity has become a means for addressing health disparities...Therefore, Duke OTD’s commitment to holistic admissions is also undaunted. Like good occupational therapists, we may need to adapt within the new context prescribed by the SCOTUS and changing policies, but we will always use diverse life experiences aligned with our Curriculum Vision and Aim to select each new cohort of students."