Welcome to Spring! We have come through our early spring holidays of Nowruz, Purim, Holi, St. Patrick’s Day, Isra and Mi’raj, and Ash Wednesday with another whole set to follow: Good Friday and Easter, Passover, Earth Day, Cinco de Mayo, and Ramadan. Some of these are more solemn and others more celebratory, but I hope they are meaningful to those who observe them! If you celebrate a holiday that I missed here, please let me know so I can highlight it next time!
Here are this month’s Neurology D&I updates.
We are currently well into our year of Community. Dr. Mantri has been leading our efforts to build community though social gatherings at Namu, which have been very well-received. The committee is also attempting to build more bridges with North Carolina Central University, our nearest academic neighbor to expand our academic community. To that end, Neurology faculty will soon receive a Qualtrics survey from Ashley Moore, our departmental NCCU Liaison, and me asking about interest in working with, mentoring, lecturing to, or other ways getting involved with NCCU students. Please be on the lookout for this email. The survey is very brief.
We continue to raise funds to support Habitat for Humanity. We have done a great job so far, but there’s still a ways to go to reach our goal. If you haven’t yet, please consider donating here.
Many of you attended the Grand Rounds talk in January by Drs. Deyrup and Graves discussing the use of race in medical education. I’ve attached their NEJM piece on the subject that is well worth the quick read. Thanks to Dr. Burke for sending me a copy.
On the subject of Grand Rounds, our next D&I grand rounds will be April 13. Drs. Sarah Cook and Jill Stuart from our neuropsychology group will be presenting on norming of neuropsychology testing, inspired by the recent NFL controversy about race-norming of cognitive testing leading to racial bias in settlement awards.
The Committee’s other projects include analyzing racial and ethnic disparities in care within the department and our ongoing teleshadowing program targeting underrepresented pre-medical students to expose them to neurology early in the academic careers.
Here are the dates of some upcoming holidays and celebrations. Please consider if meetings are necessary these days.
4/15 Good Friday
4/15 Passover (first night)
4/17 Easter
5/5 Cinco de Mayo
5/8 Mother’s Day
5/21 Armed Forces Day
5/30 Memorial Day
Also note: Ramadan is 4/2-5/2 this year