Staff-Faculty Partnership Blazes New Path for DEI Efforts

blurred people walking across Parnassus Avenue

The murder of George Floyd and subsequent national discussions about race galvanized the UCSF Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care’s commitment to fully executing on its vision for diversity, equity and inclusion. A series of determined actions followed aimed at coordinating and optimizing department-wide efforts already underway, initiating others and accelerating progress.

Leah Pimentel, MBAThen, in January 2022, Leah Pimentel, MBA, came aboard in a groundbreaking staff role as the inaugural director of DEI and Culture. Her innovative collaborations with Odi Ehi, MD, the department’s vice chair of DEI are already sparking genuine progress. The latest diversity report for campus leadership, for which the department received an exemplary rating, demonstrated how the department’s efforts have begun to bear fruit.

A Time for Change

“When George Floyd happened, we were already in the process of bringing Odi on board as vice chair,” says Carroll Schreibman, the department’s associate chair for Finance and Administration. “We’d been working on many initiatives, but they were not as well connected or resourced as they needed to be. We recognized we needed to do something different and part of that was getting staff more involved in this work.”

One of the first steps was the creation of ASCEND (Anesthesia Staff Committee for Elevating and Nurturing Diversity), a group of staff members each of whom had four dedicated hours a week and financial support to engage in DEI activities. The group's original members,  Mario Sanchez, Martie Santos, and Serena Smith had already been active on the department's diversity committee. Later joined by Byron Decuire and Morgen Ahearn, among the initiatives the group created were staff trainings and a DEI-focused book club.

Excited by those initial successes and determined to take next steps, department leadership decided it needed to hire a staff person to spearhead this work full-time, despite the fact that there was no UCSF precedent for such a position at the department level.

Enter Pimentel.

“We’ve been so pleased that in such a short time, Leah has made these amazing contributions – coordinating and communicating and stitching all of this together,” says Schreibman. “This can be tough, ongoing work that won’t be resolved any time soon, but Leah has the emotional and intellectual fortitude, and a way about her that makes DEI something people want to engage with…. That's why she's here.”

A Diverse Role for A Complex Challenge

Odi Ehie, MDWith Ehi focused on faculty and Pimentel on staff, the two are in constant communication to ensure consistency and keep concerns from falling through the gaps. “My focus is making this a place where all people feel seen, heard and valued,” says Pimentel, who also manages the department’s DEI committee and is working with Ehi and the rest of the leadership team to create a strategic plan for DEI, including a different structure for staff involvement in DEI.

As part of that effort, Pimentel has been on a listening tour of the department, asking individuals and different groups how they understand DEI and culture and using a variety of fun vehicles, including a trip to a museum, to catalyze discussion. “We're all participants in this,” says Pimentel. “We're painting our culture together so we need to decide, together on what type of culture we want to paint.”

She is also forging partnerships with departments that include Radiology, OB/Gyn and General Surgery to create inspiring DEI events and revive what she calls “morale events,” recurring activities in which the contributions of faculty and staff are acknowledged, and teamwork is built through activities that people enjoy. Movies, hikes, speakers, or cultural lunches to experience foods of different cultures are among the events. She has also created a newsletter to keep people aware of these events and of the ways they can participate in this effort.                   

Pimentel understands, however, that given the demands on people’s time and the way the COVID-19 pandemic has changed how and where people work, not everyone can or wants to participate in some activities. For those who can’t, she actively tries to find ways for them to participate remotely, reaching out to people individually so no one feels left out. And she actively solicits input on which activities work, which don’t and how to improve each event so as many people as possible choose to participate.               

Finally, Pimentel is also encouraging department members to connect with the surrounding community by volunteering with local nonprofits. “My community roots mean I can usually find community partners who enable us to expose who we are and what we do to give the community a sense of what’s possible in health care,” says Pimentel. “It’s also an opportunity to mentor and create a pipeline…and another way to empower people to create a culture by working towards solutions in the community where we live and work.”

 

Written by Andrew Schwartz.