Loma Linda University Health established a Diversity Council in 2015 to further Diversity and Inclusion initiatives on campus. This summer, to renew our efforts, a taskforce of the Diversity Council was formed with the goal of creating a new strategic plan and implementing the initiatives. While we have room for modifications as needed, this strategic plan will provide a guide for our journey. Our desire is to be an organization where all people feel welcome, heard, and supported. As a foundation to the plan, we begin with a culture statement.
At Loma Linda University Health, our calling to diversity, equity, and inclusion means providing opportunity and access for ALL people. These principles are critical to continuing the teaching and healing ministry of Jesus Christ. Our aim is to foster a culture where each person in the LLUH community feels valued, supported, and empowered to achieve individual and collective goals.
Through our journey together, we want to acknowledge successes and failures of our history and aspire to focus our individual and corporate efforts on three areas:
- Transforming our hearts through a shared Culture
- Expanding our minds through intentional Education
- Maintaining accountability through comprehensive Policies
And to ensure we are on the same page, we have written guiding definitions for Diversity (D), Equity (E), and Inclusion (I). At LLUH, DEI means:
Diversity
The Loma Linda University Health community reflects a myriad of demographic characteristics, identities, perspectives, and backgrounds. We believe each individual person is unique and our differences provide the potential for greater strength, innovation, and creativity.
Equity
We believe in providing resources to ensure individuals have the opportunity to achieve success. We commit to fair treatment and the elimination of barriers that have inhibited access, professional growth, and advancement by underrepresented groups.
Inclusion
We desire for all members of our community to experience a sense of belonging, a high level of engagement, and shared decision making. Furthermore, we believe it is vitally important for each person to strive toward understanding the needs and perspectives of others.
One of the strategic initiatives your Diversity Council and Taskforce will provide is monthly content in News of the Week. Each month, the second News of the Week publication will contain special content created just for you by our DEI teams. We aim to create content to help you grow and learn personally, as a department, and even provide content you can take home to your family.
We believe there is no greater medium to share the heart of why we focus our efforts on this important topic than to share stories. So each month, we will prepare a few short stories from your colleagues regarding their personnel experience with Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
While we walk this journey together, may we aim be more like the image of Jesus in the Come Unto Me statue that sits outside our adult hospital, arms wide open, welcoming all to Him.
