Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

UC Irvine is committed to ensuring that our medical student, resident, and faculty workforce can meet the needs of our diverse patient population in Orange County. The Department of Emergency Medicine embraces and celebrates diversity of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, language, military service, ability, and socio-economic status at all levels of our institution.

UCI Emergency Medicine values and strives to enhance diversity and inclusion in our learning environment. Our goals are to:

• Create strong mentorship relationships from the medical student to faculty level that will lead to a safe, supportive, and engaging learning environment.
• Provide world class patient care grounded in cultural humility and guided by social determinants of health.
• Serve at-risk population of Orange County through community engagement efforts.

Inclusive Excellence Committee

Our role as clinicians places us in the position of witnessing injustice and health disparities that have long affected our nation. We want to ensure that our medical students, residents, and faculty workforce can meet the needs of our diverse patient population in Orange County while serving as change agents to improve healthcare delivery to all. This committee also supports the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Alliance, which is a mentoring group for pre-medical and medical students who are underrepresented in healthcare to connect with faculty and residents as mentors.

Mentorship And Pipeline Initiatives

Our department strives to recruit and support a diverse set of healthcare professionals and bring up the next generation of leaders in emergency medicine. Our residency program participates in outreach activities including:

• Mentorship within the UCI PRIME LC program
• Mentorship from our department JEDI Alliance (includes residents, faculty, and fellows) to UCI Medical Students of these backgrounds
• UCI Open Medical School
• Attending and presenting at regional and national SNMA, LMSA and AAEM conferences

Diversity Visiting Student Scholarship

The UCI Emergency Medicine Residency Program offers Diversity Visiting Student Scholarships for visiting students to our Emergency Medicine clerkship. Each academic year, we offer two $1000 scholarships for travel-related costs associated with attending the clerkship. Through the application, students should demonstrate how their background and experience help to promote an environment of inclusive excellence at our residency program. See UC Diversity Statement.

Students should apply to our Advanced Emergency Medicine 630D through the VSLO/VSAS website and submit the Diversity Visiting Student Scholarship Application.

DEI Recruitment & Retainment Programs

1. UCI Residents & Fellows Scholar Academy: This program is designed for UCI residents and fellows from diverse backgrounds who are interested in a career in academic medicine and serving underrepresented groups. The program includes an annual Diversity Recruitment Day and stipends to help the resident/fellow complete meaningful pilot projects focused on the promotion of health equity, as well as career guidance and mentorship by UCI faculty to support participant success in securing academic positions.
2. UCI ADVANCE Program: The mission of UCI ADVANCE is to promote an inclusive culture for faculty and graduate student excellence. A dedicated team of faculty Equity Advisors and DECADE graduate program mentors carry out this mission in the 11 general campus schools, providing a critical link between central administrative support services and individual faculty and graduate students. This distinctive model of peer-to-peer collaboration is designed to advance excellence through an intentional commitment to equity and diversity. Equity Advisors are senior faculty members who participate in faculty recruitment by approving search strategies and raising awareness of best practices. Additionally, they organize faculty development programs, with both formal and informal mentoring, and address individual issues raised by women and underrepresented minority faculty.

Implicate Bias & Holistic Interview Approach

The UCI Graduate Medical Education Office and the department provide workshops on implicit bias and the standardized, holistic approach to the selection and interview process, which the Program Director, the Program Coordinator and all members of the selection committee must attend. The UCI School of Medicine Chief Diversity Officer provides a workshop with step-by-step guidance on how to standardize the review of applications, create a selection committee, choose applicants for interviews, design interview questions and perform an equitable ranking process. The program's selection committee will design a rubric using these principles in order to have a holistic and fair review of applicants.

Social Determinants of Health Book Club

Our department hosts a book club discussion group for students, residents, fellows, and faculty. The group is open to anyone that would like to join and typically meets once a month to examine issues relevant to racism in medicine through the written word, movies, or other outings. The topics can be triggering for many to discuss, but the goal is to create a safe space for peers to share perspective on lived experience in a judgement free setting.

LGTBQ+ Support

The UCI Department of Emergency Medicine supports our LGBTQ+ patients, faculty, trainees, and staff. Our residency program addresses LGBTQ+ health issues in our weekly didactic teaching with past sessions including transgender health and health disparities in the LGBTQ+ community. We welcome LGBTQ applicants to join our UCI family! UCI and UCI Medical Center offer extensive support and resources that include:

• LGBTQ+ Monthly Meetings for Residents and Fellows
• UCI LGBTQ+ Resource Center
• UCI LGBTQ+ Mentoring Program

UC/UCI Diversity And Inclusion Resources

Some UC/UCI diversity and inclusion resources include:

• Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity (UC Irvine)
• Counseling Center (UC Irvine)
• Gender Neutral Bathrooms on Campus (UC Irvine)
• Intolerance Report form (UC system)
• Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Transgender Resource Center (UC Irvine)
• LEAD-ABC (Leadership Education to Advance Diversity-African, Black, and Caribbean) (UC Irvine)
• Student Health Center (UC Irvine)
• UCI Libraries (below available with UCInetID login)
  • Streaming Media Guide on Anti-Racist Films: Highlights film and documentary resources that explore issues of civil rights and unrest, mass incarceration, racism and white privilege, and policing in the United States.
  • Understanding and Combating Racism OverDrive eBook Collection: Read eBooks online and download titles (click here for more information).
  • Click here to explore the diversity of UCI Libraries’ collections.