Stony Brook Medical Scientist Training Program's Statement On Anti-Racism
Stony Brook's Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) stands in solidarity with the Black, Latinx, and Native communities who are impacted by institutional racism and have disproportionately been affected by COVID-19. Ongoing systemic racism affects the experiences of our community members of color. It is our responsibility to take intentional and collaborative action to build a foundation for anti-racist systems of learning. We commit to making changes to ensure that our students from diverse backgrounds feel supported and heard.
The Stony Brook University MSTP has been and is committed to social justice, equal opportunities, diversity, and inclusion. During recent years, we have been focused on the special challenges faced by women pursuing the physician-scientist career path and have introduced multiple changes to our program to improve recruitment and the educational experience for our female students. With this spring’s national events in mind, the students and faculty have met to discuss how we, as a program, can undertake meaningful action to increase our support of diversity. From these conversations, we have developed a series of short- and long-term initiatives designed to improve our program structure and culture. Our plan includes the following goals and actions:
- Build a healthier and more anti-racist environment that values the contributions and well-being of students from underrepresented groups in medicine.
- Promote and value diverse representation of people at every level, including hiring diverse faculty.
- Implement continuing implicit bias training for MSTP leadership, interviewers, and students.
- Mentor and sponsor members of underrepresented groups to pursue a career as physician-scientists.
- Discuss health disparities and systemic racism in our MSTP journal club and clinician scientist dinners.
