February comes to us full of cultural significance. Tomorrow marks the Lunar (or Chinese) New Year. To our Chinese and Asian team members and all those who celebrate tomorrow, happy new year! As I wrote about last March, this has been a particularly difficult year for our Asian colleagues as they have faced increasing racism related to COVID-19. Dr. Wayne Feng was pleased to share with me this article that I am passing along about efforts to combat this racism. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/biden-executive-order-anti-asian-racism-covid-19_n_600f30e0c5b600a279622501
As you likely know, it’s Black History Month. I could never do justice to all of the achievements made by Black neurologists over the years, but I would like to recognize Dr. Solomon Carter Fuller, the first recognized Black neurologist/psychiatrist in the United States. Much of his career was spent studying Alzheimers pathology, including working directly with Dr. Alzheimer in Germany. He lived and worked in Massachusetts and was on faculty at Boston University. He is the namesake for the Dr. Solomon Carter Fuller Mental Health Center in Boston. Read more about him and his work here.
And, of course, we have the cultural celebrations of Valentine’s Day and Presidents’ Day coming up in a few days also. I hope everyone has the opportunity to enjoy these in some way.
Announcement:
Drs. Mariam Wasim and Suma Shah have agreed to take on the role of Anti-harassment officers. If any of our Neurology team members is experiencing sexual or gender-based harassment or discrimination, we hope that you will report this to Drs. Wasim or Shah. Dr. O’Brien and I are also more than willing to discuss these concerns with you, but we recognize that having more options for reporting will encourage more reporting. Drs. Wasim and Shah are co-chairs of the Women-in-Neurology Group, and their efforts to ensure equity and inclusion for the women of Duke Neurology are tremendous and much appreciated.
Upcoming event:
Dr. Katy Peters has asked me to share with you an opportunity provided by the Society for NeuroOncology, a webinar entitled “Diversity in clinical cancer care: Does it matter?” This takes place tomorrow, 2/12 from 3:00-5:00 EST. One of the panelists will be our recent grand rounds guest speaker, Dr. Alyx Porter. Dr. Peters is one of the organizers of this event. You can register here.
Please check out the Duke Neurology D&I internet and intranet websites.
https://neurology.duke.edu/about/diversity-and-inclusion
https://wiki.duke.edu/display/DON/Diversity+and+Inclusion
Stay safe!
Andrew