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<p>The Indiana University School of Medicine will host five programs for the 13th annual Diversity Week speaker&#8217;s series which begins Jan. 12.</p>

IU School of Medicine Diversity Week expanded throughout January

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INDIANAPOLIS — The 13th annual Indiana University School of Medicine Diversity Week speaker’s series has been expanded to include an entire month of programming on the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis campus. 

The month will kick off at noon Monday, Jan. 12, in Walther Hall Auditorium with a one-hour presentation by Deborah Deas, M.D., MPH, professor of psychiatry and interim dean of the College of Medicine at Medical University of South Carolina. 

Under Dr. Deas’ leadership, the number of underrepresented-in-medicine faculty members at the Medical University of South Carolina has doubled — and the number of underrepresented residents has quadrupled. The school’s successful pipeline and mentoring programs are considered national exemplars.

Each lecture in the Diversity Month series features different perspectives on diversity and inclusion in health and medicine. Additional events include:

Jan. 21: Terrell Strayhorn, Ph.D., professor and director of the Center for Higher Education Enterprise at the Ohio State University, will speak on developing a sense of belonging among students as a key to educational success from noon to 1 p.m. in the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Hospital auditorium. 

Jan 22: The IUPUI Office of Social Justice Education will present Safe Space Training for all faculty, learners and staff interested in developing welcoming environments for LGBT individuals from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Glick Eye Institute. 

Jan. 23: Kameron Leigh Matthews, M.D., J.D., chief medical officer of the University of Illinois Mile Square Health Center and co-director of the Tour for Diversity in Medicine, will speak on mentoring, recruitment and retention of medical students from noon to 1 p.m. in a location to be announced. Dr. Matthews will also appear at 5:30 p.m. in the Eskenazi Hospital Rapp Conference Room as a participant in “The Physician’s Role as Community Trustee: Intersections of Health and Community Responsibility,” a panel discussion serving as a forum to brainstorm long-term solutions to racial equities that plague the nation’s health care system.

Jan. 29: Mary Guerriero Austrom, Ph.D., Wesley P. Martin Professor of Alzheimer Disease Education and professor of clinical psychology at the IU School of Medicine, will present a Stepping Stones of Women in Leadership conversation from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. at a location to be announced. Dr. Austrom also serves as an associate dean of diversity affairs and chair of the committee on faculty development and diversity in the Department of Psychiatry at the IU School of Medicine.

Established in 2003, the IU School of Medicine Diversity Week speaker series was created to focus attention on the issues of diversity in medical education, including disparities in health care access, infant mortality rates and the lack of underrepresented minorities in U.S. medical schools and in practice. The program aims to create an open and honest dialog between minority and non-minority students, faculty, community leaders and patients.

All events are free; registration is not required. These events are sponsored by the IU School of Medicine Office of Diversity Affairs in partnership with the IU School of Medicine Diversity Council and IU School of Medicine Office of Faculty Affairs and Professional Development.