Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Resource Center
What is Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion?
Diversity is about representation. It is the collective mixture of human beings and their individual identities co-existing within a specific space. These identities must be considered holistically to include race, age, gender, sexual orientation, religion, sex, disabilities, culture, and educational backgrounds.
Equity is about creating a space that promotes fairness for all regardless of their individual identities.
Inclusion is about creating a space where individuals feel they can bring their individual identities without judgment and can feel a sense of belonging and respect. Inclusion in the workplace provides opportunities for people of all identities to participate and have an impact in a meaningful way.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statements
AAPA DEI Commission
AAPA’s Board of Directors established an AAPA DEI Commission in August 2020. Director-at-Large CDR Billy Collins, DHSc, MS, PA-C, led an ad hoc committee to create meaningful and measurable commission charges, which were approved by the Board in September 2020. Robert Wooten MS, PA-C, DFAAPA, Assistant Professor, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Department of PA Studies, and past president of AAPA, serves as chair of AAPA’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Commission.
CME, Webinars, & Podcasts
RECENTLY RELEASED
PAs are the Catalyst of Change to Close the Health Equity Gap
Bias: What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You and Your Patients
Integrating Race Conversations into Healthy Patient-Provider Interactions
The Role of Social Determinants of Health CME
Research in Action 2020 – Wage Parity CME
Vital Minds Podcast Episode 21 – Health Inequities: Understanding Data and Bridging the Care Gap
Please return to this page for more CME content.
Scholarships for Students
The PA Foundation has awarded more than $2.3 million in scholarships to PA students, benefitting more than 1,400 future PAs. Scholarships are awarded based on the availability of funds provided through contributions from PA Foundation donors and other partners. The Foundation’s scholarship offerings include opportunities for Black PA students and students who identify as an underrepresented minority and/or economically disadvantaged and/or educationally disadvantaged.
LBGTPA Caucus Student Leadership Fellowship
Student Leader Fellows are out and openly self-identified lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or gender diverse PA student members of the LBGTPA Caucus who are chosen through a competitive selection process to participate in a 12-month fellowship to foster leadership and professional development within the PA profession.
African Heritage Caucus-LBGTPA Caucus Student Leader Fellowship
The purpose of the fellowship is for leaders in medicine to reflect the communities we serve. The jointly-sponsored fellowship program was piloted in 2020 in the hopes that, together, we can support PA students who identify as Black or of African heritage, as well as LBGT, and who desire service through leadership.
PAs for Latino Health-LBGTPA Caucus Student Leader Fellowship
The purpose of the fellowship is for leaders in medicine to reflect the communities we serve. The jointly-sponsored fellowship program was piloted in 2020 in the hopes that, together, we can support PA students who identify as Latino/a/x or of Hispanic heritage, as well as LBGT, and who desire service through leadership.
News & Communication
AAPA Reflects on Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2021
AAPA Reports on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Efforts To Date
The Case for Diversity and Inclusion in PA Cohorts
PA Foundation Announces Scholarship for Black PA Students
Charting CME on Health Disparities Leads to Positive Changes in PA Practice
Constituent Organizations
Constituent organizations (COs) are independent organizations affiliated with AAPA. COs are comprised of state and federal chapters, specialty organizations, special interest groups, and caucuses. They provide their members with locally based CME, networking opportunities, social gatherings, timely information, advocacy and job resources. A number of COs have ongoing DEI efforts:
Does your CO have ongoing DEI efforts? Please contact [email protected] to be included in this list.
Research & Policy
Gender Equity
JAAPA article: Reexamining the persisting wage gap between male and female PAs
Racism
AAPA Resolutions Pertaining to Racism in 2020-2021 Policy Manual
- HP-3700.1.2 – Guidelines for Ethical Conduct for the PA Profession policy paper.
- HX-4100.1.4 – AAPA supports equal rights for all persons and supports policy guaranteeing such rights.
- HX-4100.1.5 – AAPA supports laws, policies, regulations, and judicial precedents regarding people living with HIV/AIDS that are in accordance with certain principles.
- HX-4100.1.11 – AAPA believes that PAs should provide culturally effective care, which is defined as the delivery of care to a diverse population within the context of appropriate knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of all cultural distinctions leading to optimal health outcomes.
- HX-4100.13 – AAPA recognizes that racism, in its systemic, structural, institutional, and interpersonal forms, is an ongoing urgent threat to public health, the advancement of health equity, and excellence in the delivery of medical care. AAPA affirms its commitment to anti-racism values, defined as the intent to change institutional culture, policies, practices, and procedures to remove systemic, structural, institutional, and interpersonal racism. AAPA supports the elimination of all forms of racism.
- HX-4600.1.5 – AAPA believes that PAs should endorse and support policies and programs that address the elimination of health disparities and commit to activities that will achieve this goal. AAPA supports forming “strategic partnerships” with other organizations that will help advance the elimination of health disparities.
- HX-4600.1.6 – AAPA recognizes that discrimination contributes to health disparities. AAPA supports 27 legislation and policies that will eliminate discrimination.
- HX-4600.1.6.1 – Health Disparities: Promoting the Equitable Treatment of All Patients policy paper.
Partner Organizations
AAPA works closely with three other partner organizations on behalf of the profession. Here is additional information about their diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the PA Inc. (ARC-PA)
External Resources
Articles
“Why I don’t facilitate privilege walks anymore and what I do instead” by Meg Bolger
“White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh
“Allies, Advocates, and Accomplices Are Critical to Diversity and Inclusion” by Dara Kass, MD
“Diversity and Inclusion in Medical Schools: The Reality” by Jennifer Tsai
Books
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
Those Who Forget: My Family’s Story in Nazi Europe – A Memoir, A History, A Warning by Geraldine Schwarz
Mind the Gap: Hierarchies, Health and Human Evolution; The Impact of Inequality: How to Make Sick Societies Healthier; Unhealthy Societies: The Afflictions of Inequality by Richard G. Wilkinson
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria, and Other Conversations About Race by Beverly Daniel Tatum, PhD
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
This Book is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work by Tiffany Jewell
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen
Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present by Harriet A. Washington
Best Sellers in Children’s Prejudice & Racism Books
Resources on Health Equity/COVID-19
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality – Social Determinants of Health Database
All of Us Research Program – Diversity and Inclusion
All of Us Research Program – Program FAQ Fact Sheet
All of Us Research Program – Diversity Fact Sheet
CDC – COVID-19 Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities
CDC – Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health
National Academy of Medicine – Resources on Health Equity/COVID-19
HHS Office of Minority Health – COVID-19
CDC – Health Equity and COVID-19
COVID-19 Vaccine Education and Equity Project
Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ Equality
Asian Americans Advancing Justice
Asian American Racial Justice Toolkit
Podcasts
The Health Disparities Podcast: Movement is Life
This podcast highlights disparities evidenced in common chronic conditions featured in the “vicious cycle” (e.g. diabetes, cardiovascular disease, chronic pain, mental health) and musculoskeletal/arthritis conditions, with emphasis on disparities and how social determinants of health impact these conditions and their management.
Videos
What is Intersectionality? – Professor Peter Hopkins
Intersectionality 101 – Teaching Tolerance
Intro to Intersectionality – Taryn Lee Crenshaw
On Intersectionality in Feminism and Pizza – Akilah Obviously
“The Look”- Proctor and Gamble
“The Talk” – Proctor and Gamble
“The Choice” – Proctor and Gamble
Webinars
George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences Health Equity Series
If you have recommendations for additional external resources, email [email protected].