Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Health Equity

February is Black History Month, and we invite you to take this time to recognize our Black faculty and staff members, students and trainees, patients and community partners. We at Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM) celebrate the diversity that strengthens us. It helps us push boundaries of discovery, transform health care, advance medical education and create hope for humanity.

With Black employees representing 29% of the JHM workforce (as of 2019), we appreciate the quality care and comfort they provide to the patients we serve, their contributions to scientific advances and their involvement in extending the Johns Hopkins mission to Black communities locally and globally. To learn about how the Black community has been affected by COVID-19, click here

For an in-depth understanding of African American culture, challenges and contributions to Johns Hopkins history, we invite you to read this heritage guide as a starting point for celebration and conversation about African American history and legacy.

View the National Black History Month events happening throughout Johns Hopkins Medicine over the next month.

2021 Black/African American History Month Achievers Award Winners

Kellee Brown, Medical Office Coordinator, Wound Clinic Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine is a vital part of the center’s mission, working to prevent limb amputation and the morbidities and mortalities related to diabetes. Kellee works with vascular surgery patients in coordinating their care/ appointments, while attentively answering questions and concerns. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Kellee has been volunteering once a week at her church’s food pantry, packing and distributing food for a predominately African American community. Kellee and a small team of volunteers serve between 25 and 75 families per week in the food pantry, which is sponsored by the Maryland Food Bank.

Edwina Kisanga, Medical Student, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, co-directs the preclinical student curriculum review process, which has led to the incorporation of lecture time on racism in genetic medicine and the history of medicine, inclusion of patient-centered language throughout lectures, and an increased preclinical focus on equity in access to health care. While still in the preclinical years of training, Edwina has dedicated efforts to increasing recruitment, test-taking, and success of Black premedical students from local colleges. As president of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Student National Medical Association (JHUSOM SNMA) chapter, Edwina has led and supported fellow medical students through several initiatives that provide resources and opportunities to students from historically excluded backgrounds.

Jessica Queen, MD, Clinical Fellow, Infectious Diseases Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, believes, as a black female physician, it is critical to serve as a liaison to communities that traditionally experience disparities in access to health care, providing culturally competent public health education and serving as a trusted resource. She has engaged with her local church to provide guidance to its predominantly African American congregation during the COVID-19 pandemic, while also advising her local pastor and the leadership of her national church organization on policies and procedures for responding to the pandemic, including church closure and distribution of public health recommendations to church members. For the past two years, Jessica has volunteered as a facilitator for a Saturday Leadership Program sponsored by the Greater Baltimore Urban League, a monthly, virtual mentorship program aimed at preparing Baltimore high school students for college and professional careers by teaching them about interviewing, networking, professional ethics, leadership skills and political engagement.

Dany Westerband, MD Trauma Director, Suburban Hospital touches the lives of trauma patients with the same care and concern that he does with his staff. He is a member of the Resilience in Stressful Events (RISE) Team, which supports victims who were emotionally impacted by a stressful patient-related or unanticipated event. Outside of his responsibilities at Suburban, Dany has a special interest to improve the lives of those in the African American community, often taking medical missions to Haiti to perform surgery for that nation’s underserved. Additionally, he sits on a number of hospital committees, encourages excellence in every department and mentors several minority colleagues.  

Do you have questions about the COVID-19 vaccines? Do you need help setting up your MyChart account? 

Help is available in-person and with online resources!

Your MyChart account is used to:

• manage your health
• schedule a COVID-19 test
• answer the COVID-19 vaccine questionnaire and/or schedule a vaccine appointment

If you are not able to attend one of our information sessions the week of January 18th, check out these resources that can help answer your questions.

· COVID-19 Vaccine Equity Playlist on YouTube

Topics for the videos are:

• What You Need to Know ##1- Clinical Trials and How They Work
• What You Need to Know ##2- Explanation of Operation Warp Speed
• What You Need to Know ##3- mRNA Vaccine Technology
• What You Need to Know ##4- Pfizer Vaccine Trial Information
• What You Need to Know ##5 - Moderna Vaccine Trial Information
• What You Need to Know ##6 - Vaccine Allocation - Who Gets the Vaccine
• What You Need to Know ##7 - Monitoring Vaccine Safety
• COVID-19 Disparities in the Black/African American Community
• COVID-19 Disparities in the Latinx/Hispanic Community
• JHM COVID-19 Vaccine Community Education and Outreach

· Pfizer and Moderna Vaccine Clinical Trial Demographics

· People of Color and COVID-19: Addressing Health Disparities and Vaccine Equity

· Center for American Indian Health: COVID-19 Resources for Native American Communities

· Información y actualizaciones sobre el coronavirus (COVID-19) (in Spanish)

We need your help!

If you work at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, use this form to sign up to volunteer to help your fellow employees set up their MyChart accounts, answer questions about the vaccine, etc.

If you are interested in volunteering at another entity, please email Nicole Iarrobino at nicole@jhmi.edu

JHM Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Health Equity
Fast Facts Definition Sheet

Diversity: Any collective mixture characterized by differences including (but not limited to) socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, language, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, ability status, or veteran status. Diversity focuses on representation.

• Being invited to the dance.

Inclusion: A practice of encouraging belonging and participation and celebration of differences. Inclusion focuses on involvement.

• Being asked to dance.

Equity: According to the World Health Organization, equity is the absence of avoidable or remediable differences among groups of people, whether those groups are defined socially, economically, demographically, or geographically; equity is the process and equality is the outcome (see the graphic below). Equity focuses on justice.

• A practice of addressing the unique barriers that disadvantage a subset of the population because of their differences—providing transportation for those who do not have a ride to the dance.

Download the full fact sheet 

To the Johns Hopkins Medicine Community

Dear Colleagues,

The mission of Johns Hopkins Medicine speaks to the values of our organization — namely, to “improve the health of the community and the world by setting the standard of excellence in medical education, research and clinical care.” Deeply embedded in this objective is the recognition that our institution cannot fulfill its mission without appropriately focusing on the values that guide us. This can be best described as our embrace of diversity and inclusion.

Johns Hopkins Medicine is fully committed to serving the broader community. We must, and will, celebrate not only what makes us individually different and unique, but also what binds us together as a society. The health and well-being of the people we serve as an historic medical institution is critically important. Also vital is our respect for everyone employed by our organization, as well as anyone with whom our institution comes into contact. Johns Hopkins supports the noble cause of promoting social justice and joins the greater community, both near and far, in condemning and opposing racism, bigotry and intolerance in all forms.

Black lives do indeed matter. This nation’s history does not always reflect the lofty sentiments expressed in its founding documents. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness were not ideals originally afforded to everyone. For far too long, our nation has struggled to ensure equal justice under law for all its citizens. From the abolition of slavery, to efforts to desegregate how we interacted with one another in public places, to the civil rights movement of the 1960s, finding a more perfect union has always been our shared burden.

Now, present day, we occupy another defining moment in our nation’s history. A time when we are presented with yet another opportunity to demonstrate that we, collectively, can rise above partisanship and deeply entrenched cultural beliefs to become better versions of ourselves. We can, and must, face this opportunity collectively. In doing so, we have the ability to steer the direction of our nation to its proper path. As an institution, Johns Hopkins Medicine is committed to undertaking this endeavor by doing its part to foster understanding, collaboration and dialog designed to bridge whatever artificial divides or obstacles have served as barriers to progress in the past.

Black Lives Matter is not a political statement. Rather, it is the expression of a core value and principle that was unfortunately long denied to many of our citizens. Just as with White Coats for Black Lives, it is a statement of peace and solidarity that our organization embraces, not a comment meant to sow division and mistrust.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. remarked, “We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.” These powerful words recognize that we are united by a common destiny. One that requires shared sacrifice and mutual understanding. Together, we have the power to make permanent and lasting change for the better. And together, we can create a better future for the generations that follow. We are guided by these values, and we will live up to our obligations.

Sincerely,

Paul B. Rothman, M.D.

Dean of the Medical Faculty

CEO, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Kevin W. Sowers, M.S.N., R.N., F.A.A.N.

President, Johns Hopkins Health System

EVP, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Inez Stewart, M.Ed.

Senior Vice President

Chief Human Resources Officer

Johns Hopkins Medicine

As we face this unprecedented challenge of the COVID-19 outbreak, we would like to highlight available resources for our Johns Hopkins employees and the within our community.

JHM Internal Staff Resources
JHM Internal Clinical Resources
Johns Hopkins Children’s Center Resources for Families
Johns Hopkins Community Resources

Spanish Patient COVID website