Dear UCSF Community,
June is Pride Month, when we celebrate the resiliency, vibrancy, and tenacity of the LGBTQIA+ community. In this year, when state lawmakers have targeted LGBTQIA+ rights and introduced a steady stream of anti-transgender bills, showing up for and celebrating the queer community and its allies is more important than ever.
UCSF stands firm in our unconditional support of our LGBTQIA+ colleagues, students, patients, and community members. We are committed to protecting the fundamental rights — including access to health care — of LGBTQIA+ people, and to creating and maintaining a safe, inclusive, and equitable environment for all.
I invite you to show up and support the LGBTQIA+ community during Pride Month and beyond. Pride Month events include discussion spaces, an end-of-year gathering, the Out in Science panel, a film screening, the UCSF Pride Parade contingent, and more. You can learn how to participate on the LGBT Resource Center’s Pride 2023 website.
Sincerely,
Renée Navarro, PharmD, MD
Vice Chancellor
Chief Diversity and Outreach Officer
Professor of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Care
Dear UCSF Community,
On the eve of Pride Month, we are delighted to share the news that UCSF has begun to implement the University of California’s Gender Recognition and Lived Name (GRLN) policy to ensure that all individuals are recognized with their accurate gender identity and lived name.
This UC systemwide policy aligns with our PRIDE Values and furthers our efforts to cultivate a supportive and inclusive environment that recognizes the contributions of everyone – including nonbinary, transgender and intersex people – in fulfilling our public mission.
Using correct names and pronouns shows respect and acceptance and affirms individual agency. Many of us benefit from the GRLN policy, including transgender and nonbinary people, people whose gender identity is different than indicated on legal documents, people whose lived name is a variation of their legal name, such as international faculty, staff and learners who have adopted new names in the U.S., and married people who prefer to use the name in which they are known professionally.
About the Policy
Under the UC GRLN policy, UCSF will ensure that faculty, staff and learners:
- Have at least three gender options to choose from in UC information systems – woman, man and nonbinary.
- May request that their lived name be used in the UC system in all settings and situations that do not require their legal name.
- Have an efficient process for all, including alumni and affiliates, to retroactively amend their gender designations and lived names on UC-issued documents and in information systems.
UCSF is in the process of...
Dear UCSF Community,
We are delighted to announce the sixth annual UCSF celebration of International Women's Day (March 8) and the start of Women’s History Month. From March 6 through March 10, the UCSF community is invited to recognize, honor, and celebrate the contributions of women at UCSF.
Sponsored by the UCSF Committee on the Status of Women, Office of Diversity and Outreach, Women of UCSF Health, and Women in Tech @ UCSF ([email protected]), International Women’s Day programming includes in-person networking events; a Black Women’s Health & Livelihood Initiative panel on community and wellness; stories of women leaders in health care; a discussion on mental health and resilience; and much more.
Please visit the event website for the full schedule of events.
This year’s International Women's Day campaign theme is #EmbraceEquity. The theme asks us all to imagine a gender-equal world, free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination—a world that is diverse, equitable, and broadly inclusive. This theme resonates here at UCSF, where we recognize that celebrating progress and taking action to support greater inclusion and equity go hand in hand.
We hope that you attend UCSF International Women’s Day events. All genders are welcome.
Sincerely,
Renée Navarro, PharmD, MD
Vice Chancellor
Chief Diversity and Outreach Officer
Professor of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Care
Sam Hawgood, MBBS
Chancellor
Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Distinguished Professor
Suresh...
Dear UCSF Community,
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is Monday, January 16. This federal holiday offers us dedicated time to reflect on the meaning of Dr. King’s legacy—and to carry on his tradition of service to humanity. In his 1964 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Dr. King said:
“I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits.”
In today’s turbulent world, with pervasive racism and violence, climate change disasters, and a pandemic that is not yet over, Dr. King’s brilliant words can sustain and encourage us. At UCSF our mission is to advance health worldwide, and we understand deeply how inequity and injustice adversely affect the health of individuals and whole communities. We know—and learn more with each passing day—what is needed to facilitate health: food, housing, education, dignity, equality, freedom.
As members of this dynamic organization, we are committed to achieving health equity by addressing the underlying causes of health disparities; we also have pledged to dismantle structural racism within the University. Across UCSF, individuals and teams are working on a wide array of projects in service of the inextricable goals of health and justice. You can see some recent highlights in this report.
To celebrate Dr. King’s legacy, we encourage all members of UCSF to participate in one...
Dear UCSF Community,
In Colorado Springs this past weekend, on the eve of Transgender Day of Remembrance, five people lost their lives and at least 25 more were injured in another hate crime against the LGBTQ+ community. If not for the heroic actions of the patrons of the LGBTQ+ nightclub that was targeted, more lives undoubtedly would have been lost.
We at UCSF stand together with our LGBTQ+ colleagues, friends, and family.
We will continue to love and support them as we call upon lawmakers to pass legislation to protect LGBTQ+ individuals who are facing the growing prevalence of hate-filled language and crimes. Our elected officials also must take more aggressive action to arrest the epidemic of gun violence, which too often is used against individuals and groups simply because of their sexual, gender, racial, religious, or political identity.
The tragic news out of Colorado Springs has been very difficult for many. For anyone who needs assistance, please avail yourself to the counseling and support of our UCSF resource teams:
- Student Health & Counseling (415) 476-1281
- Faculty and Staff Assistance Program (415) 476-8279...
Dear UCSF Community,
Every year UCSF recognizes and celebrates the efforts of members of our institution who demonstrate commitment and service to diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism. Moreover, these individuals show extraordinary leadership in their respective fields and in the communities they serve. I am pleased to share with you the 2022 Chancellor Awards for Diversity recipients.
Chancellor Sam Hawgood recognized the recipients listed below at a reception on Tuesday last week. Each one of them has gone far above and beyond their day-to-day responsibilities to make UCSF a place that genuinely welcomes, educates, and cares for all.
Please join me in congratulating these faculty, staff, students, and trainees. I invite you to learn about them and their remarkable efforts by watching these short videos.
Chancellor Award for Advancement of Women
- Eleanor Palser, PhD
- Julie Ann Sosa, MD, MA
Chancellor Award for Disability Service
- Diane Ngo, MPA
- Noemi Spinazzi, MD
Chancellor Award for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Leadership
- Gabby Negussie-Retta, MS
- Meshell Johnson, MD
- Nadia Ayad, PhD Candidate
Chancellor Award for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Leadership
- Jay Bindman, MD Candidate
- Luis Gutierrez-Mock, PhD(c), MPH, MA
- ...
Dear UCSF Community,
The recent news coming out of Iran describes scenes of escalating turmoil and protests unfolding across the country, ignited by the tragic death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman who had been detained by police.
We are saddened by Ms. Amini’s passing and the loss of many demonstrators in the protests that followed. We also are very concerned by the mass arrests of Iranian citizens. At UCSF, we are committed to upholding the fundamental human rights of all people, and we condemn the use of violence, intimidation, repression, and discrimination.
Our thoughts are with those who are protesting in Iran, and with those in our community who have family and friends in the region. We want to remind you of the resources we have at UCSF to support you: the Faculty and Staff Assistance Program and Student Health and Counseling Services.
We encourage you to take care of yourself and one another during this challenging time.
Sincerely,
J. Renée Navarro, PharmD, MD
Vice Chancellor
Chief Diversity and Outreach Officer
Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology and Perioperative Care
She/Her/Hers
Dear UCSF Community,
This Sunday, June 19, we will celebrate the 157th anniversary of Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day. Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the United States, specifically the day on which enslaved people in Texas were freed, more than two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. This Juneteenth also marks the second year the day is observed as a federal holiday (observed June 20, 2022). As I reflect on this important day, I'm reminded of our shared and connected history, our present-day challenges to equity, and our hopes and plans for the future.
Over a month ago, we witnessed one of the deadliest racist massacres in recent U.S. history in Buffalo, New York. And just over two years ago, we faced a national reckoning with anti-Black racism after the murder of Mr. George Floyd. To understand the context of these events, we must acknowledge the larger history of anti-Black racism in our country and how it relates to today: from chattel slavery to Jim Crow segregation and systemic racism, anti-Black racism continues to impact our lives and the lives of our patients and community. Thus, in celebrating and commemorating Juneteenth, we also have the opportunity to understand a more comprehensive and honest rendering of our nation's history—and legacy.
I encourage the UCSF community to reflect on the full and enduring significance of June 19 as a day of truth and joy. In doing so, I encourage all of us to commit to dismantling anti-Black racism at UCSF because there is still much work to do to make our institution a truly inclusive and equitable place for all.
Please join one of the many Juneteenth events listed on the...
Dear UCSF Community,
June is Pride Month, and during this month we recognize and honor the valuable contributions of LGBTQIA+ individuals worldwide in the fight for civil rights. Pride's origin dates to the 1969 Stonewall Uprising, which sparked a liberation movement — a call to action that continues today.
As members of the UCSF community, we must commit ourselves to protecting the fundamental equal rights of LGBTQIA+ people. This year there have been more than 200 anti-LGBTQIA+ bills filed in our country. A number of these bills seek to further disenfranchise transgender and nonbinary people, undermining existing protections for LGBTQIA+ children and restricting discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity in schools. We denounce these attacks and reaffirm our support for our LGBTQIA+ students, staff, faculty, trainees, and patients.
At the University of California, we strive to create an inclusive and respectful environment for all people. The UC Gender Recognition and Lived Name Policy is one such effort. The policy requires that at least three equally recognized gender options must be available on university-issued documents and IT Resource systems — woman, man, and nonbinary. The policy also requires that lived names, also referred to as preferred names, should always be used. Implementation of this policy is required by the end of 2023 and will take effort from all on our campus and UCSF Health system.
Many of our employees...
Dear UCSF Community,
Yesterday, we witnessed history: The U.S. Senate confirmed Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, making her the first Black woman to sit on the highest court in our nation since it first assembled in 1790.
Judge Jackson will be the 116th justice to serve on the Supreme Court when she replaces retiring Justice Stephen Breyer at the end of the court’s session this summer.
As we followed, perhaps anxiously, her nomination hearings, we saw the boundaries of what is possible redefined. Judge Jackson’s confirmation gives us all, but especially Black women and girls, a new vision of limitless professional possibility. This vision—this hope—is why diverse representation is essential. Today, as I reflect on this moment, I feel a sense of pride and joy.
According to the American Bar Association (ABA), Black women represent only 4.7 percent of all lawyers nationwide. And just 70 Black women have ever served as a federal judge. These numbers highlight that we still have much work ahead of us to achieve diversity and equity. However, as we work to make UCSF a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive organization, Judge Jackson’s confirmation reminds us that we can make change. So today, let us rejoice in this historic moment.
Sincerely,
J. Renée Navarro, PharmD, MD
Vice Chancellor
Chief Diversity and Outreach Officer