Addressing known inequities in health and society requires sustained action from committed leaders across multiple fronts. As Vice Chair of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care at UCSF and the Chair of the California Society of Anesthesiologists’ Committee of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, Odi Ehie, MD, FASA, is boldly leading the way.
Within the department, she has developed and implemented a synchronous diversity, equity and inclusion curriculum for faculty, learners, and staff, while serving as a mentor to faculty, learner and staff colleagues. Ehie has also developed structure to support a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace, enlisting teams to tackle specific target areas, including communications, department training, retention, recruitment, women in anesthesia, and research, to name a few.
Importantly, Ehie’s impact has reached far beyond the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care at UCSF. In the last month alone, she led 5 panels or workshops providing strategies for addressing inequities in medicine at various national professional society meetings, working collaboratively with colleagues from across institutions and anesthesiology sub-specialties.
March 17, 2022
Leadership Advisory Board Panel I: Developing the Academic Anesthesiologists of the Future: Diversity, Mentoring, and Coaching
Lecture: Diversity Curriculum for Residents: Unconscious Bias, Allyship, and Microaggression
Dr. Ehie participated on this panel with UCSF Anesthesia and Perioperative Care faculty colleague Solmaz Manuel, MD, who gave the lecture, "High-Impact Mentorship: Elements of Highly Successful Mentorship Programs." Harriet Hopf, MD, anesthesiology leader at the University of Utah, and graduate of the UCSF Anesthesia Residency Program, was also a panel member.
March 18, 2022
AUA Presentation Title 0719
Oral Live Poster: The Individual Impact of Participation in a Diversity Curriculum Among Perioperative Residents
Society for Pediatric Anesthesia (SPA)
April 2, 2022
DEI Workshop
Lecture: Family and Patient-Centered Perioperative Care: Equitable and Inclusive Care for Diverse Children and Families
California Society of Anesthesiologists (CSA)
April 9, 2022
Panel: Why Diversity Matters in Anesthesia
Lecture: How to recognize and combat bias and microaggression
Panelists included (pictured): Harriet Hopf, Solmaz Nabipour, Bukky Nafiu, Odi Ehie, Linda Hertzberg, Christine-Doyle
Transformational Change: Making it Happen in the NICU
March 12, 2022
Lecture: Strategies for Addressing Microaggressions
Reaching out to an even wider audience, in the April 2022 issue of Current Opinion in Anaesthesiology, Ehie, UCSF Anesthesia and Perioperative Care colleague and fellow pediatric anesthesiologist, Justin Libaw, MD, MPH, and first author Jennifer Chiem, MD, from the University of Washington, argue eloquently for a diverse anesthesiology workforce. “To achieve an optimized quality of healthcare, anesthesiologists and other providers should be a reflection of the communities they serve, including women, people of color, and LGBTQ.”
To learn more, get involved, or support Dr. Ehie’s work, email [email protected].