The Keck School of Medicine Anti-Racism Task Force is an initiative envisioned and proposed by medical students in the fall of 2020 and enthusiastically endorsed by the KSOM administration. Our goal is to design and implement anti-racist initiatives in all aspects of the medical student experience at KSOM. The task force aspires to dismantle any and all areas of racial inequality and promote racial justice in Keck’s administrative offices of student affairs, wellness, curriculum, admissions, and leverage the expertise in our surrounding community to support advocacy efforts of students. Additional information on the background of the Anti-Racism Task Force can be found here.
The task force is composed of a Steering Committee, comprised of 10-12 students, Vice Dean Donna Elliott and Joyce Richey, Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion. This committee was charged with ensuring accountability and forward momentum for the task force as a whole, as well as assessing the progress of the task force at the end of the academic year to inform ongoing goals and to institutionalize task force recommendations.
In addition to the Steering Committee, there are five working groups with representation from KSOM’s administrative offices. Working groups are composed of students and faculty, who were charged with developing and communicating recommendations to appropriate individuals and offices with the goal of minimizing racism in specific aspects of KSOM. These working groups report to the Steering Committee regularly with their progress. The goals of the 5 working groups include (but are not limited to) the following:
1) Wellness – Faculty Lead Dr. Chantal Young
- Continue to advocate for trauma-informed and culturally aware mental health and wellness resources for students, especially Black students, as they cope with the stress of current events including police brutality.
- Add a component to Student Wellness Survey that evaluates student experiences with racism.
2) Admissions and Pipeline Programs – Faculty Lead Dr. Kairos Llobrera
- Work with Keck and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) to make existing pipeline programs supporting Black and Latinx students from East and South Central LA more robust and known throughout campus.
- Determine how to strengthen the connection between the existing pipeline programs at KSOM and at USC to support admission of URM students to medical school.
- Set a target admission rate of students from URM groups and students from East and South Central LA to KSOM and develop recommendations to reach those goals.
3) Student Affairs – Faculty Lead Dr. Stephanie Zia
- Evaluation of existing systems for reporting mistreatment, and if necessary immediate implementation of a visible process for reporting and collecting student and faculty reports of racism and discrimination.
- Develop a process for rapid acknowledgement to students addressing instances of racial violence at USC and at the local and national levels.
- Provide information about protesting and support for students facing physical or legal consequences as a result of protesting.
4) Curriculum – Faculty Lead Dr. Ron Ben-Ari
- Develop an inclusive and continuous curriculum on systemic racism and bias in healthcare.
- Implement a system by which the curriculum office monitors ALL lecture and small group content in Years I- IV to ensure that any discussion of race is framed in contemporary anti-racist thought.
- Enforce the zero-tolerance policy for racism for all instructors and establish mandated anti-racism training for all instructors.
- Add a component to weekly lectures and end of system evaluations concerning adequate and culturally sensitive representation of BIPOC patients and lecture content.
5) Community Engagement – Faculty Lead Dr. Ricky Bluthenthal
- Facilitate discourse between public officials, local community leaders, grassroots organizations (such as Black Lives Matter LA) and KSOM faculty and students on how to advocate for racial justice.
- Work with Keck administration to communicate any concerns about DPS practices and policies to the University.
Working Group Reports and Implementation Timelines
Wellness
Working Group Report
Summary and Implementation Timeline
Working Group Members
Admissions and Pipeline Programs
Working Group Report
Summary and Implementation Timeline
Working Group Members
Student Affairs
Working Group Report
Summary and Implementation Timeline
Working Group Members
Curriculum
Working Group Report
Summary and Implementation Timeline
Working Group Members
Community Engagement
Working Group Report
Summary and Implementation Timeline
Working Group Members