Diversity Statement

The Med-Peds program at ECU Health celebrates diversity and recognizes that diverse teams lead to improved patient care.  We welcome differences in age, sex and gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, ability status, veteran status and political persuasion.  The population we serve in Eastern North Carolina is diverse with ~40% of the population being historically marginalized and many living in rural and underserved areas.  Thus it is important to have a diverse workforce to meet the needs of our patients.  We recognize we have work to do to improve the diversity of our team.  Our faculty and resident interviewers are required to do implicit bias training prior to interview season, and they participate in implicit bias workshops with the residency program annually.  Once the initial review of ERAS applications is complete, all further interviewers are blinded to Step/Level 1 and 2 scores so that applicants are not continually judged on this data point.   Our residents participate in mitigating microaggression training annually in order to promote a psychologically safe learning environment.  This is additionally important to model for our Brody medical students with whom our residents interact frequently in both inpatient and outpatient settings.  Brody School of Medicine was recently named the most diverse medical school in North Carolina and ninth out of 125 schools ranked in the nation.   Additional diversity efforts include faculty in our program have started a gender affirming clinic to provide much needed care to the LGBTQ+ community.  This initiative has received widespread support from our Chair, the Executive Dean and leaders in the community.  Our residents, faculty and staff in our ECU APHC clinic participate in Safe Zone training. 

Institutional Diversity Resources

East Carolina University has a vibrant network of offices and centers that work together to weave diversity and inclusion education, service, and research into every aspect of university life. Below is a list of the primary resources available to the campus community.