Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior

Diversity in Action

A dashboard of the department's diversity-related actions and goals.

Diversity in Action

A dashboard of the department's diversity-related actions and goals.

Diversity is not a destination. It is an ongoing action.

In the face of our own biases and privilege, we must continue to push ourselves to be more impactful, more just, and more accessible as a department that cares about equity. Our job is to make sure our actions move us in these directions.

This dashboard is designed to capture our efforts so that we can hold ourselves publicly accountable to one another and to the communities we serve. We invite both feedback and participation.

Latest News

Get up to date on the most recent developments on diversity at DPHB.

Action Areas

Find out what’s happening in education, recruitment, culture, and community.

Big Picture

Learn how today’s diversity and anti-racism efforts build on the work that brought us here.

Latest News

Recent News

Action Areas

Any institutional change typically requires committee work, data collection, community input, and many volunteer hours. However, outcomes – not just effort or intent – are what matter. Below is an accounting of the department’s most significant recent outcomes by activity area.

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Education

Goal: Increase diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism (DEI/AR) learning opportunities for faculty, staff, students, and administration.

Department members have collaboratively:

  • Updated the Academic Grand Rounds policy to ensure that at least three Grand Rounds per year focus on DEI/AR-related issues.
  • Created a tip sheet to help didactics presenters provide DEI/AR context for their content. 
  • Revised the faculty appointment and promotion policy to require ongoing DEI/AR training for faculty. 
  • Launched a curriculum retreat to convene training program directors to share best practices on integrating DEI/AR content into their curricula.

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Recruitment

Goal: Increase representation, retention, and success among historically underrepresented students and employees, as well as women in science and medicine.

Department members have collaboratively:

  • Overhauled trainee recruitment and admissions policies to allow remote interviews (for equity), standardize interview questions (to minimize bias), and include contributions to diversity in the rating scale for applicants.
  • Initiated implicit bias training for faculty involved in the admissions process for trainees.
  • Hosted away-rotations in psychiatry for medical students underrepresented in medicine through the Diversity Visiting Student Scholarship and an NIMH-funded Summer Research Fellowship.
  • Presented departmental diversity metrics and activities to recruits who interview for the training programs.

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Culture

Goal: Improve the climate and culture within and across departments on campus to promote inclusivity, safety, and belonging.

Department members have collaboratively:

  • Formed affinity groups for faculty of color and trainees of color that meet regularly for department-sponsored dinners. 
  • Launched a peer mentoring program that matches trainees of similar backgrounds or interests.
  • Filled a new Communications Manager position to communicate DEI/AR initiatives and other departmental matters internally and externally. 
  • Created a $25,000 award to support an early career faculty member from a historically underrepresented group with a clinical or educational project.

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Community

Goal: Increase relational and transformational engagement with the local community, and increase opportunities to produce scholarship on issues of equity, justice, power, and privilege impacting historically underrepresented groups.

Department members have collaboratively:

  • Developed a STAR COBRE pilot program to award up to $40,000 to research projects focused on health inequalities and/or marginalized groups.
  • Created summer job experiences through Lifespan for first-generation college students interested in learning about research and clinical care in child psychology
  • Penned a Providence Journal op-ed in support of behavioral health response teams as an anti-racist intervention in policing
  • Created a scholarship for investigators from less resourced institutions to train with the Qualitative Science and Methods Training Program (QSMTP)

Big Picture

timeline of DEI milestones

  • 2000: Trainees form the Diversity Committee (now the DEIB Committee). The committee launches a mentoring program, educational workshops, and a community newsletter. 
  • 2018: The department creates a Diversity & Inclusion Action Plan. The plan results in systemic data collection and formalized educational programming.
  • 2020: The Clinical Psychology Postdoctoral Fellowship neuropsychology track creates a JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) Council. The council works to promote greater representation, justice, and fairness in the program.
  • 2020: The Clinical Psychology Postdoctoral Fellowship child track creates a Child Track Social Justice, Antiracism, and Inclusion Committee. The committee works to improve the culture and practice of child psychology training as it relates to social justice, antiracism, and inclusion.
  • 2021: The department forms an Anti-Racism Steering Committee. The committee and its five working groups – composed of leadership, faculty, and trainees – accelerate initiatives in community outreach, education, recruitment and retention, faculty policies, and communications.