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Message from the Co-Chairs

We are humbled and honored to be selected as co-chairs of the newly formed Clinical Practices of the University of Pennsylvania (CPUP) Committee on Anti-Racism, and to lead such an impressive team of thought leaders, rich in its diversity, life experiences and knowledge. 

America is currently experiencing a veritable sea change in its awareness of race and the all-encompassing and determinative role that systemic racism has played and continues to play in our society.

The high proportion of Black and Brown deaths as a result of COVID-19 has highlighted the race-based inequality in the health care system.  It affects both the health of individuals and the public health of the community. The disadvantages minorities contend with in not having adequate health care coverage are intensified by their experiences in the health care system itself. The literature abounds with examples of the negative attitudes and implicit, unconscious biases which minorities encounter in health care settings. 

In recognition of the pervasive problem of structural racism in health care systems, and the uneasy history of racial discrimination locally and in society at large, the Clinical Practices of the University of Pennsylvania has made a conscious commitment to tangible change.  This is an ingrained, sustained, societal problem that needs to be addressed, remedied and fixed.

This Clinical Practices of the University of Pennsylvania (CPUP) Committee on Anti-Racism has been formed to contribute to effecting that change.

This Committee is committed to making concrete, positive and fundamental changes to reject and eliminate the longstanding and established disparities and inequities which provide support, and form the basis of racist views, actions, attitudes, and philosophies.

Our overall intent is to create a safe space for reporting examples of racism, and to create a process to train personnel to have conversations about race.  As we go forward, we will institute a Follow, Listen, Learn and Lead approach.  We will focus on the Clinical Practices of the University of Pennsylvania (CPUP), its administration, its departments and its clinical sites, and will seek to understand and address any and all issues of structural racism in the workplace and with patients.  We will increase our awareness of, and immediately address, any disparities of care we identify.

To date, we have finalized the membership of our committee to ensure diversity and inclusion and have established various sub-groups and working teams.  We have launched a website wherein we have defined our Vision and Mission, provided information on our Areas of Focus and Speaker Series, highlighted our Committee Members, and explained our connectivity with other Anti-racism efforts across the Penn system.  The website will also serve to document our progress and our efforts.

Going forward, we will gather data to develop training sessions / activities with the aim of defining the shape of the problem in each department in the Clinical Practices of the University of Pennsylvania (CPUP) and developing processes to address them.

We are delighted to all be here.  As we look around at the supportive team assembled for the Committee, and note its broad diversity, we are more convinced than ever of the incredible value of the work which the Clinical Practices of the University of Pennsylvania (CPUP) Committee on Anti-Racism will perform and the inroads it will make.

Maria Oquendo, M.D., PhD and Frances Jensen, M.D., F.A.C.P

Vision Statement

Devising and implementing concrete, positive, measurable and fundamental changes to eradicate racism within the Clinical Practices of the University of Pennsylvania (CPUP).

Mission Statement

The Anti-Racism Committee develops, promotes and advances wide-ranging and exemplary approaches and practices to expand and progress the understanding of racial actions, attitudes and unconscious biases.  We will work to understand, address and durably change the longstanding, ingrained, sustained and established societal racial disparities, inequities and structural racism within the Clinical Practices of the University of Pennsylvania (CPUP).

Links to content are being shared to stimulate discourse.  Providing links is not a tacit endorsement of all messages in the content.

June 16, 2023, 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm

June 21, 2023, 5:30 pm

Click here and Speak Up For Inclusion.

June 22, 2023, 12:00 pm

As part of the new Leadership and Career Development Series in partnership with IDARE – Committee Chair: Dr. Nabila Dahodwala .  Neurology Faculty Leadership and Professional Development Series.

January 19, 2023

Facing Microaggressions in the Workplace

Please join us for AMP's in-person event, Facing Microagressions in the Workplace, on 1/19 from 6:30 - 8:00 pm at The Hub auditorium where free food and drinks will be served. We will be joined by two guest speakers, Dr. Marc Parris and Dr. Kristyn Smith. Please register for the event by clicking here.

November 7, 2022 to November 23, 2022

2nd Annual Winter Coat Drive

October 21, 2022, from 9:00 AM to 11:30 am

Bridging the Gaps, 32 Annual Symposium Invitation

Join the Bridging the Gaps network and keystone speaker Dr. Heather McGhee, a leading racial-justice activist and best-selling author, for an information-packed morning of discussion with individuals promoting health and well-being in urban communities.

Heather McGhee, JD, is an educator, an activist, and the board chair of the of Color Of Change, the nation’s largest online racial justice organization. She has crafted legislation, testified before Congress and helped shape presidential campaign platforms. Her book, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together, spent 10 weeks on The New York Times best-seller list. She regularly appears on NBC and MSNBC and contributes to the The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and other top media outlets.

Click here to register.  Want to learn more, click here.

September 8, 2022, from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM

Panel Discussion “Anti-Asian Violence: In History and Now”

Duhring Lectureship Conference: Health Equity Rounds

Speaker: Ben Takeshita; "Never again: a firsthand account of Japanese American concentration camps in the U.S."
Panelists: Helen Gym, Philadelphia City Council Member
Wei Chen, Director of Civic Engagement, Asian Americans United
Anh Le, Chair, Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery
Ben Takeshita, Internment Camp Survivor

Location: Virtual Session

Click here to launch the Zoom session.

Meeting ID: 854 0369 2618
Passcode: 153658

Click here to join the meeting.

To join, click here.

For NCPD credit, register here on KnowledgeLink.

To email Annie Perng, click here.