Speaking on the third day of Black History Month, in the post-George Floyd era of COVID disparities, Penn Medicine’s CEO, Medical School dean, and vice dean of Inclusion and Diversity announced the implementation of a new institution-wide program aimed at eliminating structural racism.
As part of their appearance in Penn’s annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Health Equity Symposium, CEO Kevin Mahoney, Dean Larry Jameson, and Vice Dean Eve Higginbotham detailed the new Action for Cultural Transformation (ACT) initiative designed to “develop strategies to ensure equity, mitigate bias, and eliminate racism at Penn Medicine.”
“This year has been an inflection point,” said Jameson. “We’ve seen an outpouring of a deep understanding of the biases and structural racism in our society. And I think we’ve come to recognize that it’s important for all of us not only to look at the external society, but to look internally at our own organizations.”
CEO and LDI Senior Fellow Mahoney said, “Dr. King’s ability to turn the Montgomery bus boycott into a civil rights movement is exemplary of what we want to achieve with ACT at Penn Medicine: to turn moments of sickening injustice against people of color into a movement that will unite us as an anti-racist, equitable, diverse, and inclusive organization.”
Read more at Penn LDI.
