Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategic Planning

View the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategy for the School of Public Health.

Please read our DEI 1.0 Summary document to learn more about our School's progress over the course of the first DEI strategic plan.

To advance the ideals of academic excellence and its essential relationship with diversity, equity and inclusion, the President's Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Strategic Planning Initiative was officially launched in September 2015. Each school, college and unit has been charged to produce their own five-year strategic plan, which will be integrated to create the overall U-M Strategic Plan on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Implementation of the U-M plan began in September 2016. 

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Five-Year Strategic Objectives

  1. Objective: Create a school-wide Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee to impact SPH culture and practice, and disseminate information to departmental DEI committees.
    Measure of success: Increase the number of people involved in strategic planning, taking action, and evaluating success.
  2. Develop a system for sharing and responding to individual concerns.
    Measure of success: Increase school responsiveness to individual concerns.
  3. Educate our community on sexual harassment and misconduct prevention in an effort to promote a safe and supportive environment for all members to work, learn, and thrive.
    Measure of success: Completion of sexual and gender-based misconduct training module by faculty and staff.

  1. Objective: Recruit and retain a diverse faculty.
    Measure of success: Increased diversity in our applicant pools, interview pool, and overall faculty.
  2. Objective: Improve faculty’s ability to teach and mentor a diverse graduate and undergraduate student body. Using a professional development cycle of learning, feedback, reflection, and implementation, faculty of all ranks and roles will increase their knowledge of and experience with inclusive teaching practices.
    Measures of success: Increased number of course syllabi reflect DEI commitment statements. Course DEI evaluation scores improve. Rackham exit survey scores improve.
  3. Objective: Create a Continuing Professional Education system for faculty focused on the leadership, communication, and supervision skills needed.
    Measures of success: Improve the climate survey scores pertaining to faculty behavior. Reduce the number of faculty-student and faculty-staff incidents reported.

  1. Objective: To recruit and retain a diverse research and administrative staff.
    Measure of success: Increased diversity of the staff.
  2. Objective: To promote an inclusive and supportive staff environment.
    Measure of success: Improved climate survey scores around inclusion.
  3. Objective: Create a Continuing Professional Education system for staff focused on the leadership, communication, and supervision skills needed to develop and maintain a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment.
    Measures of success: Improve the climate survey scores pertaining to staff supervisor behavior. Reduce the number of staff-staff and staff-student reported incidents.

  1. Objective: Recruit and retain a diverse student body.
    Measures of success: Broaden the applicant pool by increasing applications from under-represented minority students. Improve student satisfaction with the SPH climate.
  2. Objective: Improve student-student interactions in the classroom.
    Measure of success: Reduce negative interactions (assess via climate survey).
  3. Objective: Increase students’ understanding of the role of diversity and inclusion in public health.
    Measure of success: Increase in the number of courses that address ASPPH diversity competencies.

Committee Members, 2022

Name Department Group Representative Title Email
Chidimma Ozor Commer BIOSTAT Staff Wellness & Inclusion Advocate, Biostatistics + Epidemiology cozor@umich.edu
David Kubacki BIOSTAT Staff Biostat Staff Rep dkubacki@umich.edu 
Laura Scott BIOSTAT Faculty Biostat Faculty Rep ljst@umich.edu
Andrea Lubetkin Dean's Office Staff Director of Human Resources lubetkin@umich.edu
Bailey Oland Dean's Office Staff Assistant to the Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs bmoreno@umich.edu
Cely Smart Dean's Office Dean's Office  Chief of Staff and Strategic Advisor to the Dean smartca@umich.edu
Enrique Neblett Dean's Office Dean's Office  Faculty Co-Lead/Professor of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health eneblett@umich.edu
Lara Trocchio Dean's Office Dean's Office Chief Operating Officer laratro@umich.edu
Lynda Lisabeth  Dean's Office Dean's Office  Professor of Epidemiology, Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, School of Public Health and Research Professor, Neurology, Medical School llisabet@umich.edu
Marie O'Neill Dean's Office Dean's Office  Faculty Co-Lead/ Professor of Epidemeology  & Environmental Health Sciences marieo@umich.edu 
Mateen Zafer Dean's Office Dean's Office   DEI Program Manager mzafer@umich.edu
Rachel Casanova Dean's Office Dean's Office  Director of Student Affairs racacasa@umich.edu
Sharon Kardia  Dean's Office Dean's Office  Millicent W Higgins Collegiate Professor of Epidemiology, Professor of Epidemiology and Associate Dean for Education, School of Public Health skardia@umich.edu
Whitney Peoples Dean's Office Dean's Office  DEI Director  wpeoples@umich.edu
Whitney Vojtkofsky Dean's Office MarComm Event Strategist and Programming Coordinator whitdix@umich.edu
Anagha Tapaswi EHS Staff EHS Staff Rep atapaswi@umich.edu 
Deborah Watkins EHS Faculty EHS Faculty Rep debjwat@umich.edu
Rachel Morgan EHS Student (PhD) EHS Student Rep rkmorgan@umich.edu
Simone Charles EHS Faculty Associate Chair, Department of Environmental Health Sciences and Clinical Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences simonec@umich.edu
Alexis Handal EPID Faculty Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Associate Professor of Global Public Health ahandal@umich.edu
Alison Walding HBHE Staff Project Manager walison@umich.edu
Paul Fleming HBHE Faculty Assistant Professor of Health Behavior and Health Education pauljf@umich.edu
Vic Strecher HBHE Faculty Professor of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, Professor of Health Behavior strecher@umich.edu
Thuy Nguyen HMP Faculty Research Assistant Professor, Health Management and Policy and Adjunct Lecturer in Health Management and Policy thuydn@umich.edu
Peter Mancuso NS Faculty NS Faculty Rep pmancuso@umich.edu
KC Pepera NS Staff Student Services Coordinator, MPH Internship Coordinator kpepera@umich.edu
Carmen Ramos NS Student NS Student Rep ramosca@umich.edu
Jackie Edgemon NS Student NS Student Rep jedgemon@umich.edu