We are committed to fostering a diverse, equitable, and inclusive academic environment and to promoting equity in research and healthcare. Please see links below to find out more about our outreach programs to develop the careers of students and trainees who are underrepresented in medicine (URiM), our seminars and discussion groups to develop anti-racist programming, and our research on health equity.
Margee Louisias (MD, MPH) is the Director of Diversity and Inclusion in the Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She is an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and a pediatric and adult allergist-immunologist and a health-services researcher, focused on community-based interventions to reduce racial disparities in pediatric asthma. Dr. Louisias received her undergraduate degree in chemistry from New York University, her M.D. from Stony Brook University School of Medicine, and her MPH at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Louisias is recognized locally and nationally through honors and awards for her work on asthma and disparities. Her other interests include quality improvement, implementation science, community engagement, translation of research into policy, and the role of racism in health outcomes.
Fostering Diversity in Medicine and Science at all levels:
Institutional programs:
Faculty members participate in a BWH-wide research mentoring program, Summer Training in Academic Research and Scholarship (STARS), for underrepresented in medicine (URM) students who are rising juniors and seniors and first-year medical students with a strong interest in pursuing advanced careers as research scientists and physicians.
Faculty mentor college interns through the Student Success Jobs Program at the BWH Center for Community Health and Healthy Equity.
We have collaborated with the Boys and Girls Club of Dorchester for a Medical Careers Week. Here, high school students participate in one week of medical and science sessions to learn about different career paths within healthcare and allow them to network.
Dr. Joshua Boyce, Chief of the Allergy and Clinical Immunology Division, is a member of the BWH Department of Medicine Diversity Council which provides support, guidance, and accountability for strategic planning in DEI efforts across divisions.
Individual efforts:
Tanya Laidlaw, Section Chief of Translational and Clinical Sciences in Allergy and Clinical Immunology, has developed a Summer Internship Scholarship Program for the Dorchester Boys & Girls Club alumni (current college students) who secure an unpaid summer internship within a STEM field. This scholarship program will provide financial support up to $15/hour for each student.
Margee Louisias has developed outreach initiatives to medical students and residents through Historically Black Colleges and Universities Connect (HBCU Connect) and the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology Chrysalis Project to introduce trainees to Allergy and Immunology as a career.
Generating a culture of inclusion and equity:
Unconscious Bias Training for faculty and staff
Seminars addressing systemic racism in academia, research, and clinical care
Certificate program in Anti-Racism for Systemic Change in Healthcare
Facilitated discussion groups
Transparency in promotions, academic opportunities, and salary
Racial equity in clinical trial recruitment
Research focused on health equity and healthcare delivery:
Margee Louisias, MD, MPH
Grants:
- “Adapting and Pilot Testing a School-Based Intervention to Improve Asthma Self-Management in Minority Children in Underresourced Schools”
Selected related publications:
- Income is an independent risk factor for worse asthma outcomes. Cardet, J Allergy and Clin Immunol 2018
- Implicit bias: what every pediatrician should know about the effect of bias on health and future directions. Schnierle, Current problems in pediatric and adolescent health care 2019
- Intersectional identity and racial inequality during the COVID-19 pandemic: Perspectives of Black physician mothers. Louisias, Journal of Women’s Health 2020
- Disentangling the root causes of racial disparities in asthma: the role of structural racism in a 5-year-old black boy with uncontrolled asthma. Louisias, J Allergy and Clin Immunol 2020
- Health Disparities in Allergic and Immunologic Conditions in Racial and Ethnic Underserved Populations: A Work Group Report of the AAAAI Committee on the Underserved. Davis, J Allergy and Clin Immunol 2020
- Use of a School-Based Survey to Screen Students for Symptoms Concerning for Asthma. Louisias, Clinical pediatrics 2019
- School-Based Asthma Education Intervention is Associated with Improved Asthma Knowledge in Spanish bi-lingual children with asthma. Louisias, J Allergy and Clin Immunol 2021
Dinah Foer, MD
Grants:
- Gender Identity in the Electronic Health Record as a Patient Safety Priority (PI: Foer)
Publications:
- Gender reference use in spirometry for transgender patients. Foer, Ann Am Thorac Soc. 2020
- Challenges with accuracy of gender fields in identifying transgender patients in electronic health records. Foer, J Gen Int Med. 2020
Mariana Castells, MD PHD
Clinical study:
- NIH trial to improve equity in COVID-19 vaccination delivery aimed at vaccinating highly allergic individuals including African American, Hispanic, Asians populations.
