On a brisk Friday morning, the sound of envelopes ripping open and shouts of joy could be heard from Koret Quad on UCSF’s Mission Bay campus in San Francisco. Serendipitously falling on St. Patrick’s Day, this year’s Match Day celebrated 184 soon-to-be UCSF graduates, as they found out where they would be continuing their medical training journey in residency.  

This fall marks the completion of the first full academic year of the UCSF School of Medicine’s Anti-Oppression Curriculum (AOC) Initiative – the three-year process of evaluation, reflection, and redesign to move the entire four-year Bridges Curriculum towards an anti-oppressive approach.

The UCSF School of Medicine recently announced that Heather Hervey-Jumper, MD, has been named the Director of the Program in Medical Education for the Urban Underserved (PRIME-US), effective August 1, 2022.

I had the opportunity to catch up with Denise Connor, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, who is the new Director of UCSF's new Anti-Oppressive Curriculum in the School of Medicine. Denise also serves as the Director of the Diagnostic Reasoning block, Co-Director of the Academic and Leadership Academy ALAS Program and the Gold-Headed Cane Endowed Teaching Chair in Internal Medicine for the Academy of Medical Educators.

After the School of Medicine launched “Differences Matter,” many faculty members recognized the need to expand upon Champion Training to equip our faculty to bring equity and inclusion into medical education. Kate Lupton, MD, took on this challenge in 2018. Dr. Lupton is a graduate of the Teaching Scholars Program and a member of the Academy of Medical Educators, both programs within the Center for Faculty Educators (CFE).

Since its inception, the Equity and Justice in Education (EJE, pronounced “edge”) Works-in-Progress meetings provide a supportive and welcoming forum to promote and guide educational scholarship on equity, justice, diversity, and inclusion health sciences education. The monthly meetings empower educators, education researchers, and learners to utilize rigorous education research methodology to identify bias and unequal power distribution to advance equitable and inclusive solutions in opportunity and achievement across the continuum of health sciences education.

The Center for Faculty Educators will host Equity and Justice in Education (EJE), pronounced (“edge”) Works-in-Progress meetings which empower educators, educational researchers, and learners to utilize rigorous educational research methodology to identify bias and unequal power distribution to advance equitable and inclusive solutions in opportunity and achievement across the continuum of health sciences education.  

The aims of the EJE are to: 

Academy of Medical Educators member and Teaching Scholar Program graduate, Denise Davis, MD, has been appointed to the Executive Committee of the Academy on Communication in Healthcare to serve as VP of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.