UMass Chan Medical School

The school's Diversity and Inclusion Office offers "Foundations Workshops" including "Addressing unconscious bias at UMass Chan" and "Navigating microaggressions: How to be an upstander."

On June 12, 2020, the school's News page published a memorandum from the Department of Health Sciences and School of Medicine titled "Taking A Stand in Support of Positive Change" which outlines its many initiatives and actions in order to "dismantle the centuries-old structures of racism that have marked and marred our systems." The school recommends "requiring the Implicit Association Test, beginning this August, as part of unconscious bias training for all members of the Admission Committee, all faculty who review School of Medicine applications, and all individuals who participate in the interview process" and "Anti-racism training" for "this year’s annual collaborative development session with DCS1 faculty and learning community mentors."

The school announced, "We have heard our learners’ calls to update the curriculum for current and future classes. Our commitment to the DRIVE initiative—which stands for Diversity, Representation, and Inclusion for Value in Education—is unchanged. This means our teaching will continue to concretely address bias and racism in the health sciences and we will continue to do all we can to eliminate bias and racism in the learning environment."

As part of the school's IMPACT 2025 Strategic Plan, it will, "Implement and integrate anti-racist curriculum, enhance inclusive pedagogy and practices, and increase opportunities for expanding awareness and knowledge on matters of racism and bias in medicine and the impact of structural racism in healthcare."

On June 12, 2020, the school's News page published a memorandum from the Department of Health Sciences and School of Medicine titled "Taking A Stand in Support of Positive Change" which outlines its many initiatives and actions in order to "dismantle the centuries-old structures of racism that have marked and marred our systems." The outline includes changes to curriculum and states, "As part of Curriculum Revolution for AY21, a team has been engaged to support appropriate and consistent threading of issues related to diversity and inclusion throughout the curriculum" and "Expansion is recommended of the three-school and GME Diversity, Representation and Inclusion for Value in Education (DRIVE) initiative to specifically address anti-racism curricula."

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) reported that a school policy "bans faculty from actions that 'could' enable or 'contribute' to the use of capital punishment, including 'providing . . . information' to 'governments engaged in execution by lethal injection.'"

UMass Memorial Health's senior leadership participated in "a racial literacy training."

As part of the school's IMPACT 2025 Strategic Plan, the school will, "Increase DEI education, engagement, and capacity through professional development, community building, and educational opportunities."

As part of its "Diversity and Antiracism Resources," the school links to "Black Lives Matter Boston," "MedEdPortal: Anti-racism in medicine collection," and "White Coats for Black Lives."

The 2021 annual Steven Putterman Lecture, organized by UMass Chan Medical School’s Department of Family Medicine & Community Health was titled "Moving Towards Health Equity: Why Anti-racism Must Be a Core Value in Medicine."

On November 2, 2021, the school's "UMass Chan News" published an article titled "Addressing racism in medicine is ‘everyone’s job and not a few’" which discusses racism in the field of medicine. According to Marlina Duncan, EdD, Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Inclusion, "Positioning the longstanding issue of racism as a public health crisis is not just a matter of semantics. This should compel organizations like UMass Chan to address the crisis in a broad and systemic way.”

On August 10, 2021, the online publication "Worcester Business Journal" published an article entitled "UMass Medical School joins other Mass. medical schools to dismantle racism in medicine." The school was among several groups to release a set of principles taking aim at racism in medical education and healthcare organizations. Massachusetts Public Health Commissioner Dr. Monica Bharel stated, "With this set of principles, we are committing to create and sustain a culture across medicine in Massachusetts that is equitable as we seek to dismantle racism in all of its forms, starting with our medical students’ education for years to come."

UMass Chan has a diversity and inclusion blog.

The UMass Chan Medical School's Committee on Equal Opportunity and Diversity was created in December 2022 to ensure everyone in the Medical School community "feels seen and heard and has access to opportunities that make them feel a part of the work to create a more diverse, equitable, inclusive and just organization."

In conjunction with 3 other medical schools, the state department of public health, and the Massachusetts Medical Society, the school "worked to form a set of principles that will guide deliberate actions that will create an antiracist, diverse, inclusive, and equitable medical culture...The principles include acknowledge and learn, lead and commit, disrupt and transform, and cultivate."

The school announced that it "made much progress; our strategic plan, IMPACT 2025, is imbued with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion."

The school had its first vice provost for health equity,

The school said, "The University of Massachusetts Medical School is a founding member of The Equity Collaborative, a group comprising academic health organizations from across the nation that are committed to working together to share best practices and enhance fully inclusive gender equity within our institutions. You are invited to read the first annual report of The Equity Collaborative."

The UMass Memorial Health Board of Trustees approved the "creation of the Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging." UMass Memorial Health also hired its first Chief Diversity, Inclusion, Equity, and Belonging Officer.

The school posted on its Facebook page, "Read about the changes UMass Medical School faculty said they've made in their professional and personal lives after reading Ibram X. Kendi's How to Be an Antiracist, this fall's campus read."

UMass Chan Medical School encourages students to participate in the 31-day Antiracism Challenge for the month of May to deepen the university's "collective understanding of race, power, privilege, supremacy, and oppression." The challenge invites participants to complete a series of 31 short assignments, including readings, videos, podcasts, and intentional days of rest to explore the history of racism in the United States and how the school can develop antiracist practices to "confront the structural and behavioral norms that perpetuate racism within [the] institution and nation."

On June 29, 2023, the school published its response to the Supreme Court's decision regarding race-conscious admission policies and stated the following: “University system officials are working with the Provosts and Admissions Directors on the five UMass campuses to assess how the University’s admissions processes may be influenced by these changes to the law. The University of Massachusetts will continue to follow the law, and will do so while sustaining its deep and longstanding commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. We believe this is essential to the advancement of academic excellence and critical to the preparation of our students to succeed in a global economy.”