DEIA Statements Added to BU Profiles

When launched in 2012, BU Profiles served as an online dossier for biomedical researchers engaged in research networking and collaboration by employing software that automatically updated user profile categories like publication, citations, grant funding, honors, coauthor research networks, and publication timelines. Over time, BU Profiles has evolved to provide researchers with metrics that monitor and assess their research productivity, impact on science and policy, and influence on the public through social media and news stories.

Now, the platform has been further enhanced to give the nearly 5,000 biomedical faculty, researchers, and staff users the option of adding a personalized Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) statement to their profile.

“A DEIA statement is really about the importance overall of diversity in our organization, in society, and a recognition that higher education has to be a leader,” says Christopher Dorney, director of BUMC IT’s application services. The site has 4,662 profile users and 16,000 unique visitors monthly.

Advocates hope DEIA statements will resonate within the academic community by inspiring and sustaining the collective multicultural growth of students, staff, and faculty.

Part of a translational research networking initiative supported by BU’s Clinical & Translational Science Institute, “BU Profiles now enables our community to convey a unified public message on how they see their research, mentoring, teaching, clinical practice, and service contributing to a campus culture that values diversity and inclusion and accessibility,” says Deborah Fournier, PhD, former assistant provost for institutional research & evaluation.

“We’re asking profile users to reflect on the meaning of [DEIA] in their professional lives and to join us in a collective response in documenting our commitment to enhance our culture of inclusive excellence that enables students, staff, and faculty to learn and work on a campus where they feel valued, seen, and heard,” says Fournier, who oversees BU Profiles with Dorney and Christopher Shanahan, MD, associate professor of general internal medicine, director of the Community Medicine Unit, and BUMC faculty lead for research networking.

Recent personnel decisions may help gain widespread adoption. The medical school’s executive committee approved including DEIA statements as part of new job applications and they are now an optional question in annual reviews for basic science and clinical faculty.

BU Profiles users completely control what gets displayed on their profile and can remove or edit their DEIA statement at any time. A statement can be a personal essay of how past experiences have contributed to one’s personal and professional growth, for example, or a description of academic pursuits and accomplishments.

In her profile, Assistant Professor of Medicine Mara Murray Horwitz, MD, MPH, included a few brief paragraphs to filter her work as a clinician, researcher, and teacher through the lens of “improving healthcare outcomes and equity and helping build a more diverse workforce in medicine.”

Befitting her background and new role as associate dean for diversity & inclusion, the DEIA statement of Angelique Harris, PhD, details her work on issues of diversity and inclusion, listing her awards, involvement on BU and national committees, courses taught, publications, and speaking engagements.

“I am deeply familiar with the benefits, challenges, and opportunities that come with promoting inclusive excellence,” Harris wrote.

Faculty have varying levels of experience and fluency in the language of diversity and inclusion and may have concerns about staking out a public position on what has become a politically divisive topic—or may simply want help in thinking through their experiences and ideas. Online faculty seminars were held on how to write diversity statements and incorporate DEIA work into CVs and BU Profiles. ●