Institutionalizing Workforce Diversity: What It Really Takes to Make It Work
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Programs designed to enhance opportunities for young people and adults from historically underrepresented groups in professions such as teaching, engineering, evaluation, medicine, and nursing play a major role in our nation's response to workforce diversity (see, for example, Collins & Hopson, 2014; Fenwick, 2001; Greer, Clark, & Bankston, 2015; Nivet & Berlin, 2014). This article discusses why such programs are necessary and what it takes to institutionalize workforce diversity without compromising the focus on equity-ensuring that everyone is treated fairly before and after they enter the profession regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, and other demographic characteristics-and quality-holding everyone, regardless of their background, to the highest level of competency and professional standards.
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SPOTLIGHT ON:
Urban Universities Diversify the Healthcare Workforce
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Data-informed decision-making and a stronger, more effective healthcare workforce. This is one of the goals of the Urban Universities for Health Equity through Alignment, Leadership, and Transformation of the Health Workforce (UU4HEALTH). To achieve this goal requires a systematic process for identifying metrics that can be used to help university leaders understand the state of diversity among their institutions' student population and faculty, and how this could impact our nation's future healthcare workforce. Equally important, the data for the metrics must be feasible to collect across health profession colleges-consistently and in a sustainable manner. This article describes the UU4HEALTH initiative and Community Science's involvement.
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| Staff Profile: Daniel Pagán |
 Daniel Pagán, M.A., M.P.H., is a Research Assistant at Community Science. He assists with data collection and analysis, literature reviews, and report writing for several projects, including the Office of Minority Health's Community Data-Sharing Initiative and the national evaluation of the National Partnership for Action to End Health Disparities. Prior to working at Community Science, Daniel spent time working for two county departments of public health as a Randal Lewis Health Policy Fellow. As a fellow, he developed a policy brief describing the county's initiatives to reduce adolescent obesity, relating their successes to established theoretical concepts and allowing for a deeper understanding of their programs.
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New Projects at Community Science
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Community Science is working on several new projects. They reflect our commitment to advancing the science around building the capacity of organizations to develop healthy and equitable communities.
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