Over the past two years, the Johns Hopkins Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Health Equity has spearheaded and supported increased community outreach, new allyship and anti-oppression resources and training, town hall discussions, health equity legislation and more. Among the initiatives are:

• On June 5, 2020, medical residents, postdocs, students and other health care workers knelt together in a national moment of silence to honor George Floyd and others who died from police brutality, and to show support for equality and racial justice.
• Hundreds of listening sessions were held across Johns Hopkins Medicine. More than 1,200 managers and leaders were trained in how to facilitate these conversations.
• In July 2020, Martin Luther King Jr. Day was declared a paid holiday throughout the Johns Hopkins Health System.
• In 2020 and 2021, Journeys in Healing, a town hall series on structural racism and anti-racism, was held.
• Thirty leaders from underrepresented backgrounds were appointed across Johns Hopkins.
• The Levi Watkins Jr. Mentorship Program launched in October 2021 to help support assistant and associate professors from underrepresented backgrounds.
• More than 3,000 leaders — employees at the supervisor and manager level and above, faculty leaders and midlevel credentialed practitioners (physician assistants and nurse practitioners) — have taken training regarding unconscious bias.
• In 2022, the diversity and inclusion module Toward an Inclusive Culture: Acting Against Disrespect and Bias was added to the annual required staff training for the school of medicine and Johns Hopkins Health System.
• Johns Hopkins Medicine delivered more than 34,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses to communities in Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
• Media collaborations helped get COVID-19 and vaccine information to 150,000 people across Maryland and Washington.
• In partnership with the Johns Hopkins Office of Government and Community Affairs and several Maryland legislators, the ODIHE advocated for five pieces of legislation that passed during the 2021 Maryland General Assembly session to help reduce health disparities.
• On May 20 of this year, Johns Hopkins Medicine introduced its Equity Statement:
  • At Johns Hopkins Medicine, we believe that everyone has a role in promoting diversity, inclusion and equity in health care, research and education.
  • We must acknowledge, actively address and work toward effectively managing our negative biases, so that we collectively make decisions that improve the lives of our patients, our colleagues, our learners and our community.
  • We stand against discrimination and oppression in all their forms.
  • It is important that we achieve equity for all, including those who are most vulnerable.
• Since its founding in August 2019, the work of the Hopkins Diaspora, an employee resource group (ERG) for Black/African American employees and allies that is supported by the ODIHE, included:
  • Sponsoring The New Jim Crow, an online panel discussion about mass incarceration, and donating 100 copies of the book The Master Plan: My Journey from Life in Prison to a Life of Purpose to incarcerated teens at the Eager Street Academy and incarcerated men at the Jessup Correctional Institution who are enrolled in the University of Baltimore’s Second Chance College Program.
  • Creating in 2020 The Hidden History of Juneteenth, an online film about the freeing of slaves in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. In 2021, it was presented with a panel discussion.
  • Partnering with the Mr. Mac Lewis Boxing Gym/Foundation in East Baltimore, which uses boxing to help youth build self-confidence and leadership skills. In February 2021, substance use disorder expert Michael Fingerhood, M.D., and pulmonary and critical care medicine specialist Panagis Galiatsatos, M.D., M.H.S., spoke to children and parents at the facility about wellness and substance use. The two doctors also volunteered at a community boxing event in March of this year.
  • Partnering with the Hopkins Familia ERG (for Hispanic/Latinx employees and allies) on a presentation and discussion on March 31 of this year, hosted by the Association of Latino Professionals for America, about unconscious bias and microagressions.
  • Partnering with the Hopkins API ERG (for Asian and Pacific Islander employees and allies) for a virtual meet and greet on Jan. 25 of this year, as well as hosting a viewing of Race in America: Allyship Between the Black and Asian Communities, a Washington Post Live program featuring the NAACP and the Asian Americans Advancing Justice, on Feb. 23.
  • Supporting and co-hosting Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center’s 2022 Ella M. Durant Black History Month Lecture: An Introduction to the African Diaspora Past and Present. Winners of the medical center’s Martin Luther King Jr. Award for Community Service were recognized during the Feb. 16 event.