Current Activities/Resources
Inclusive Hiring Advisors
What is the Inclusive Hiring Advisor Program?
Inclusive Hiring Advisors are experienced faculty and staff who serve on faculty and staff hiring committees to help ensure that best practices are applied throughout the recruitment and selection process.
- The program was originally developed based on a framework by partnering offices across WashU Medicine and has been adapted to meet the specific needs of our department.
- Once a hiring manager submits a job requisition, they have the option to be paired with an Inclusive Hiring Advisor to support a thoughtful and effective hiring process.
How Can an Inclusive Hiring Advisor Help?
Inclusive Hiring Advisors can offer valuable support in several key areas:
- Recommending platforms, networks, and forums to help broaden and strengthen the applicant pool.
- Assisting with the review of applications and resumes using a comprehensive and strategic lens.
- Offering well-crafted interview questions to support deeper candidate evaluation.
- Identifying opportunities to enhance the overall hiring process and ensure it aligns with departmental goals for excellence and innovation.
Culture & Inclusion Speaker Sessions
In Summer of 2024, we launched a new series of focused Speaker Sessions. This initiative allows us to invite folks from our WashU community (and eventually beyond!) to share their Culture and Inclusion related interests with our department. Previous sessions have been on healing relationships with those who have been harmed by research, addressing ableism in medicine, and building healthy lab spaces. If you have a topic or speaker suggestion, please reach out to us here.
Culture & Inclusion Listening Sessions
We regularly hold Department of Psychiatry listening sessions to answer questions and address all concerns related to our practices. We also use these listening sessions to get fresh perspectives on ways to further elevate inclusionary practices and especially to improve the culture and climate within our psychiatry department. If you would like to schedule a listening session, please contact us here.
Culture and Inclusion Newsletter
We disseminate a monthly departmental newsletter that relays information about various cultural and inclusive topics and activities that are occurring across our department, campus and beyond. We also highlight success stories, including accomplishments from our residents and fellows as well as groundbreaking research studies and clinical resources that have relevance for our department.
Climate Survey
The Department of Psychiatry is committed to creating the most effective and productive team to address the challenges of mental health as possible. To create that team, we understand that the culture of the department and our ability to create an environment where all feel included is vital. To create this culture, we conducted a focused department wide survey to better understand the climate in our department and to give everyone in psychiatry an opportunity to voice their concerns and opinions about how we approach the department culture and inclusion for everyone.
The survey prompted us to start our Climate Listening Sessions and start funding opportunities to elevate culture and inclusion across the missions of the department.
Wellness Survey
After launching a wellness survey to our department, we took a deep dive into the results and have shared it with our executive council as we start to plan for how to implement the suggestions and feedback we received from our colleagues and students.
Our department has zero tolerance for all types of harassment and discrimination.
We want everyone in our department to feel safe, supported, and welcome. WashU Medicine has dedicated resources in place for our community members.
1. SAFE (preferred mechanism for initial reporting on the School of Medicine’s campus)
2. Medical Student Ombudsperson, Dr. Karen O’Malley (a confidential, neutral, informal, independent resource), Karen.ombuds@gmail.com
3. Peer Advocate Program
4. Student Health Services
5. RSVP Center
6. Title IX Coordinator
In addition, there are Equity Champions for our department. They are available to you if you ever need help to speak up and/or take action when you become aware of inappropriate behavior directed toward yourself or others. You are encouraged to reach out to us at DEIpsych@email.wustl.edu or 314-362-2152.