The mission of Brown Psychiatry and Human Behavior's Anti-Racism Steering Committee (ARSC) is to guide departmental leaders in developing and continuously improving anti-racist policies, practices, and climates across clinical care, research, and education. We understand anti-racism to include action against systemic and institutional racial bias, embedded prejudice, discrimination, hate, and other forms of oppression of racially and ethnically minoritized groups. We are committed to efforts that are collaborative, specific, time-based and measurable. We pursue this mission in the following intersecting domains:

• Recruitment and retention of faculty and trainees from excluded backgrounds. We know that diversity strengthens the quality of clinical care, research, and education we can offer and must be pursued intentionally through specific goals related to enhancing outreach, removing existing barriers, allocating resources, and creating pathways and reinforcers for hiring, promoting, and supporting the work of faculty and trainees of color.  We also aim to alleviate the undue burden placed on faculty and trainees from historically underrepresented backgrounds to lead the charge on DEI efforts and initiatives (often referred to as the “minority tax”) by promoting buy-in and collaboration from non-minoritized faculty and leadership.
   
• Faculty development and continuing education. We are committed to providing rigorous, accessible educational opportunities to ensure faculty better understand the impact of past and present bias and racism on mental health and mental health care across settings. We seek to empower, support, and fund faculty to develop and practice anti-racist clinical care, research, and supervision and teaching of trainees. 
   
• Trainee education. We know that we must critically evaluate and enhance didactic and experiential educational content and environments to educate trainees about the impact of past and present racism on mental health and mental health care and to train future clinicians and researchers to take leadership positions in the further dissemination of anti-racist clinical care, research, and education. This includes ongoing examination of our current didactics to ensure we are teaching all concepts from an anti-racist perspective.
   
• Community engagement. We recognize that the effectiveness of our clinical, research, and educational programs relies on actively engaging with the diverse communities in which our patients live. We are committed to assessing the needs of these communities, involving community partners and stakeholders in planning and implementation of clinical and research interventions, and continuously seeking feedback to enhance future partnerships in mental health services.
   
• Communications. Success in each of the above domains will require a commitment to transparency and careful attention to communications with all of our stakeholders, including faculty, trainees, staff, and members of the community. We recognize that we must learn from our stakeholders about what their priorities and concerns are, and that we must communicate our plans, goals, and progress with our academic and broader communities. 

If you would like to learn more about the Anti-Racism Steering Committee, contact ARSC chair Beth McQuaid, Ph.D.