Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Committee on Equity, Diversity & Civility (CEDC)
ACTIVITIES AND RESULTS REPORT
September 2012 – August 2013
COMPLETED ACTIVITIES
I.
Communications and Education
A.
Event, October 8, 2012: Living with Visible and Hidden Disabilities
Coinciding with the 22nd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the event
featured a panel of five people, four of whom spoke of their own experiences with
disabilities both visible and hidden: Raymond Robinson, MD, a MPH/MBA candidate;
Carlos Mora, a Medical Interpreter at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center; Sheila
Fitzgerald, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Health Sciences; and
Michael Trush, PhD, Professor, Department of Environmental Health Sciences. The final
panelist, Abigail Hurson, JD, Johns Hopkins University Disability Services Officer,
provided an overview of the legal framework for accommodating employees or students
with disabilities. The event was thoroughly publicized as with past Committee events. An
important aspect of publicity, which the Committee has employed for all events, is for
Committee members to greet those entering the School on the morning of the events.
This has been most effective in turning out attendees. Approximately 180 people attended
“Living with Visible and Hidden Disabilities.” During the lunch following the panel
discussion, each panelist held a group discussion session. School leadership applauded
the event and cited the courage of the panelists to speak out about their disabilities.
B.
Event, February 6, 2013: Multigenerational Groups in the Workplace
The Committee was asked by School leadership to consider sponsoring a session on this
topic. The Committee is working with the Johns Hopkins University Office of Talent
Management and Organization Development to identify a presenter and plan the session
content. The session emphasized a positive, partnership/collaborative approach rather
than a more negative, removal-of-obstacles approach and combined strategies/skillbuilding with scholarly content. Approximately 150 faculty, staff and students attended.
Dr. Lisa Prosser-Dodds of Journeys, a training, consulting and coaching firm, was the
event speaker. She also conducts trainings on this topic for the Office of Talent
Management and Organization Development.
C.
LGBT public health speaker series
The Committee was approached by the School’s LGBT Public Health Certificate
Working Group for co-sponsorship and assistance with marketing and logistics for the
first in a series entitled “Realizing Equality: LGBT Communities, Human Rights and
Public Health.” This January 24, 2013 session focused on “Getting to Yes on Question 6:
The Road to Marriage Equality in Maryland.” Same sex couple Lisa Polyak and Gita
Deane shared a public health perspective on marriage equality and discussed their roles in
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Maryland’s successful campaign. The LGBT Public Health Certificate Working Group
went on to sponsor four more events in their series.
D.
Campus Conversations on Diversity and Inclusion (CCDI) workshop
Ten Committee members participated in a session of the University CCDI workshop. The
purpose of the workshop is to provide a safe environment for discussions about equity,
civility and respect at JHU; minimizing conflict; perceptions of power; diverse
perspectives in a globalized world; and action planning for workplace, classroom and the
larger Hopkins community. The School facilitated 2 sessions this year and there are 3
planned more planned through November 2013.
E.
JHSPH Diversity and Inclusion website
The Committee is currently concluding work with the School’s Office of Marketing and
Communications around the creation of a Diversity and Inclusion website on the School’s
public website. The website will include definitions of the Committee’s core values of
equity, diversity and civility; links to the School’s Diversity Plan, resources, Office of
Student Life, information on the Committee and the OUTList, which consists of members
of the Johns Hopkins community, including faculty, staff, students, postgraduate
students, house staff and fellows, who identify as LGBT. OUTList members are willing
to serve as mentors and/or part of an informal network for the LGBT community. The
Committee’s section of the Diversity and Inclusion website will include information on
past and planned events and accomplishments.
II.
Diversity Plan
The School of Public Health is accredited by the Council for Education in Public Health
(CEPH), which since the School’s last reaccreditation added a criterion on diversity. This
criterion requires the School to “demonstrate a commitment to diversity and shall
evidence an ongoing practice of cultural competence in learning, research and service
practices.” In order to comply, the School must prepare and adopt a diversity plan with
the broad participation of faculty, staff, students and leadership; and describe practices
for monitoring the plan’s implementation; and assess the School’s strengths, weaknesses
and future plans related to the criterion. One aspect of the plan generating considerable
discussion within the CEDC asks that the School identify “measurable objectives by
which the school may evaluate its success in achieving a diverse complement of faculty,
staff and students, along with data regarding the performance of the program against
those measures for each of the last three years.” It is clear from these discussions that the
Committee will recommend to School leadership that these measurable objectives not
take the form of quotas.
Overall, the CEDC will prepare the plan for review and adoption by School leadership.
One aspect of the plan is a definition of diversity that “describes the school’s underrepresented populations, including a rationale for the designation.” The Committee is
developing such a definition to encompass faculty, staff and students. Three
subcommittees began work on their portions of a plan:
 Faculty Recruitment and Retention Subcommittee;
 Staff Recruitment and Retention Subcommittee; and
 Student Recruitment and Retention Subcommittee.
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The Faculty Recruitment and Retention Subcommittee collected summary data, prepared
a set of questions for academic departments regarding their practices and achievements in
the area of faculty diversity and drafted a list of data to be collected. The Staff
Recruitment and Retention Subcommittee collected existing policies and procedures and
data and drafted several of the nine plan components. The Student Recruitment and
Retention Subcommittee collected summary data and recruitment practices and
developed further research questions.
III.
Faculty Recruitment and Retention
A.
Guidelines for a Broad and Inclusive Faculty: An Executive Summary for Faculty
Search Committees
These Guidelines have been implemented after the following steps were taken. Final edits
were made on the faculty search guide, Guidelines for a Broad and Inclusive Faculty: An
Executive Summary for Faculty Search Committees, and the completed guide was
accepted by the Committee. Co-chairs Dr. Michael Trush and Ms. Cherita Hobbs
presented the Guidelines to the Faculty Senate, where it was well-received. They then
presented the Guidelines to the School’s Committee of the Whole, comprised of deans
and department chairs. That body accepted the document. The Guidelines have been
distributed to academic departments which will in turn disseminate them to faculty search
committees.
B.
Faculty Salary Analysis
The Committee received a summary report of this annual analysis conducted for the Dean
by the Department of Biostatistics. The report was initiated some years ago by the
Committee’s predecessor, the Committee on Affirmative Action. In response to the
report, School departments are asked to justify or make adjustments to salaries that are
significantly lower than statistically predicted.
PENDING ACTIVITIES
I.
Communications and Education
A.
Fall 2013 event planning
On October 8, 2013, the CEDC will sponsor an event with the working title
“Professionalism: the Practice of Civility.”
II.
Diversity Plan
Work on the Diversity Plan will form a large part of the Committee’s agenda for the
coming year.
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III.
Faculty Recruitment and Retention
A.
Faculty Search Committee presentations
Going forward, members of the Committee will meet with faculty search committees to
discuss broadening searches and eliminating bias from searches. The presentations will
be based on the Committee’s Guidelines for a Broad and Inclusive Faculty: An Executive
Summary for Faculty Search Committees and on Vice Provost Caroline LaguerreBrown’s presentation Diversity Matters: Faculty Searches at JHU. Initially, the
Committee co-chairs will make the presentations and from these craft a script. The goal is
for the faculty who are Committee members to make future presentations, and several
have already volunteered.
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