Happenings in the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Welcome our new members to ODEI

Aneisha Tucker, Executive Assistant for the Office of DEI

Aneisha Tucker joins us with years of experience in public health and health sciences. Her broad skill set, including mucomplex organizational management, communication, outreach and stakeholder responsiveness, make her an ideal member of our team.

Mumtaj Mustapha, MD, Assistant Dean of DEI and Chief of Equity Strategy, M Health Fairview

Dr. Mustapha is well known to many as a key contributor to DEI in her roles as clinician educator and clinician. She contributes to improving DEI education across the learner continuum. She lends her many skills to advancing evaluation and metrics of DEI efforts.

Jill Foster, MD, Associate Dean of DEI Pipelines & Pathways, COVID Community Taskforce Co-lead

Dr. Foster brings her deep experiences with expanding options for those under-represented in medicine into her Pipelines and Pathway position. Working with Cooper, they will lead an exciting phase for our learners who are coming ‘next’ across our two campuses. At her heart, a community advocate and public health changemaker and with her many years of HIV-associated community engagement prior to joining the U of M Medical School family, Dr. Foster co-leads efforts and strategies to enhance community expert voices associated with the pandemic. 

James Cooper, MA, Director of Pipelines

James Cooper brings his many years in higher education diversity development and community connections into his new role as Director of Pipelines. His primary focus is the curricular revisions and enhancements to the BA/MD program. He will also provide leadership in high school to college focused programming. 

Dia Yang, MS, Project Manager, Research & Community Engagement, COVID Community Taskforce Co-lead

Dia Yang brings her many years of community engagement and provides leadership in DEI research initiatives, including the FIRST grant. She, with Dr. Foster, co-leads the transformation of the COVID community taskforce to achieve greater voice of our community experts.

New Initiatives

BIPOC Scholars Community

To counter a big place, space and the isolation of COVID, the Office of DEI has created a new way to connect, network and provide support — the BIPOC Scholars Community. These bimonthly meetings alternate with ‘in real life’ and virtually to maximize connection across our two campuses. The goals of the gathering are to promote relationship development, synergies and address common issues and challenges. 

American Indians in Medicine and Science

Acknowledging the importance of our tribal community partners and our own amazing Native American faculty, the American Indians in Medicine and Science (AIMS) group focuses on gathering Native American faculty members to discuss issues of common interest and provide support to them as they work on thriving and being responsive to Native American health issues and needs.