Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) has been a major topic of discussion among APHL’s members, staff and partners as well as in the national discourse. Understanding the minority experience is important so that individual and systemic progress can be made. But what is it like for public health laboratory staff who identify as being in a minority group? The Emerging Leader Program’s (ELP) 13 Fall Cohort decided to tackle this topic as part of their final project. In this episode, four members of this cohort shared pieces of the conversations they had with their colleagues and their overall thoughts on DEI within the public health laboratory as a workplace.
The ELP 13-Fall Cohort is a larger group, but only four members participated in this episode. They are:
Chenelle Norman
Association of Public Health Laboratories
Newborn Screening and Genetics
Manager, Newborn Screening Quality Improvement
Kim Smith
Houston Health Department
Quality and Compliance
QA/QC Officer
Alyssa MacMillan
New Jersey Department of Health Public Health & Environmental Laboratories
Microbiology Program Manager
Jill Simonetti
Minnesota Department of Health
Public Health Laboratory
Newborn Screening Operations Supervisor
Listen here or on iTunes, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts:
Links:
How racism makes us sick | David R. Williams
“Why Diverse Teams Are Smarter” by David Rock and Heidi Grant
“Why The Phrase ‘Pull Yourself Up By Your Bootstraps’ Is Nonsense”
Lab Culture Ep. 9: What is the APHL Emerging Leader Program?
Lab Culture Ep. 10: Public health labs do that?!
Lab Culture Ep. 11: What if there were no public health labs?
Lab Culture Ep. 12: Bitten by the public health bug — How I found my lab niche
