Office of Diversity and Outreach Nurtures a Welcoming University Culture

“Diversity – a defining feature of California’s past, present and future – refers to the variety of personal experiences, values, and worldviews that arise from differences of culture and circumstance. Such differences include race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, language, abilities/disabilities, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, geographic region, and more.”

As the Vice Chancellor of Diversity and Outreach, I would like to welcome new and returning members of our campus community to UCSF. The Office of Diversity and Outreach, established in 2010, serves as the campus leader in building diversity in all aspects of UC San Francisco’s mission of advancing healthcare worldwide through ongoing assessment, development of new programs and consensus building. Our mission is to nurture a culture that is welcoming and supportive and to engage diverse ideas for the provision of culturally competent education, discovery, patient care and community engagement.

The office provides ongoing cultural competency training and support for first generation, underrepresented minorities, GLBT, women, the disabled and others within our campus community.  We host an Annual Leadership Forum on Diversity, campus-wide outreach initiatives, Diversity month celebrations in October, and contribute to ongoing enhancements to our curriculums.

This year we are excited to welcome Alejandra Rincón, PhD and LaMisha Hill, PhD to the Diversity and Outreach team. Dr. Rincón, chief of staff, Diversity and Outreach, brings a breadth of experience to UCSF working on issues affecting students of color, English language learners, and undocumented immigrants in higher education. Prior to UCSF, she worked for the Hispanic Scholarship Fund managing programs and scholarship funding for the organization.

Dr. LaMisha Hill, the newest member of the Diversity and Outreach team is the director of the Multicultural Resource Center. Dr. Hill will work to continue the mission of the Multicultural Resource Center promoting a campus culture of inclusion and equity for faculty, students, trainees and staff. She has extensive experience in the UC system completing a pre-doctoral internship at UC Riverside and a post-doctoral fellowship at UC Berkeley.

I encourage you to visit the Diversity and Outreach website which will provide you with information on campus resources, events, and links to our divisions: Affirmative Action/Equal Employment Opportunity; Early Academic Outreach Program (EAOP), LGBT Resource Center; Multicultural Resource Center; and University Community Partnerships. http://diversity.ucsf.edu/

In addition, I invite you to join the Diversity listserv. To subscribe send a message to listserv@listsrv.ucsf.edu. The one line of the message should read: Subscribe UCSFDiversity first name last name.

Please don’t hesitate to contact my office.

J. Renee Navarro, MD, Pharm D
Vice Chancellor, Diversity and Outreach
Professor of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care
Email:  Diversityoutreach@ucsf.edu
415 476-7700