Diversity and Inclusion
UCSF as an institution and San Francisco as a city has a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion and has been at the forefront of promoting diversity and fighting for social justice in many respects. Our cardiology fellowship program has a similarly strong commitment to diversity at all levels. We have partnered with the office of diversity at UCSF leadership to enhance diversity among our trainees and faculty. Diversity and inclusion to us means not only considering race/ethnicity/gender and underrepresented groups in medicine and cardiology but also an individual's background and the distance traveled or hardships traversed when applying to our program. We understand that a workforce of physicians who better understand the culture and customs of patients from all walks of life has a positive impact on patient care, education, and research.
Our selection committee and our interview committees are made of individuals of diverse backgrounds, with equal representation by gender and includes those who are underrepresented in medicine. This is actually a requirement at UCSF for all selection committees. In fact UCSF's hiring practices also mandate that diversity is a key element of evaluation for each individual who is hired as faculty/staff/administration. All members of our fellowship program leadership have all undergone extensive training in diversity and inclusion which included a full-day workshop given by the office of diversity here at UCSF. Diversity is also a key selection criteria for applicants and is assessed on every evaluation form during the interview process.
Additionally, we also have a Council of Women in Cardiology (WIC) which hosts events for female medical students, residents and fellows to promote gender equity, attract more women to apply into cardiology, and helps provide adequate mentorship.
As you can see from our fellow's profiles pages, our fellows come from many different backgrounds and have a diverse array of interests both inside and outside of medicine.