Plan to Enhance Diversity | UVM Cancer Center | The University of Vermont(title)

The UVM Cancer Center's plan to enhance diversity includes three strategic areas: data and tracking, leveraging internal resources, and program development to address health disparities.

Tracking Metrics

The UVM Cancer Center seeks to diversify its membership. To gather baseline data, the UVM Cancer Center is recording diversity demographics including racial identities, ethnicity, gender identities, sexual identities, rural background, first generation college experience, and New American status. 

The following groups are captured through this initiative:

  • Members 
  • Trainees
  • Community Advisory Board
  • External Advisory Board
  • Internal Advisory Board 
Three students at the summer student research fair.

Leveraging Internal Resources

As a matrix'd organization, the University of Vermont Cancer Center has extensive internal resources available to foster a culture of inclusion and support health equity-focused research projects and outreach programs.

Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (LCOM) Division of Inclusive Excellence UVM Health Network Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Program Development to Address Health Disparities

Emerging EAB Experience ("E3") Program

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Early career faculty rarely get invited to participate in leadership-related activities within cancer center. Through this experience, early career faculty will learn about the external advisory board (EAB) process and be prepared to enter in to leadership opportunities related to cancer centers and cancer research in the future.

This opportunity is designed for future leaders who represent groups underrepresented in biomedical science and in cancer center leadership positions across the country.

Learn more about the E3 Program on the External Advisory Board page. 

 

LGBTQIA+ Cancer-Related Health Disparities

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Jay Garvey, Ph.D., associate professor of Education was awarded a Cancer Population Sciences  pilot award to support studies on cancer-related health disparities among sexual and gender minority populations in rural Vermont. Vermont has approximately 5.2% of residents who identify as LGBTQIA+, ranking it as the sixth highest state in the nation. 

Recent studies have shown substantial health disparities among sexual and gender minority communities. However, it is unclear how these communities are specifically impacted by cancer-related health disparities. Working in collaboration with Community Advisory Board member Kell Arbor from the Vermont PRIDE Center, Maija Reblin, Ph.D. (CPS), and Diego Adrianzen Herrera, M.D. (CHE), the team will explore cancer-related health disparities across the cancer continuum in rural Vermont. The findings of this study will inform future research directions and clinical care needs among sexual and gender minority communities.

Vermont Language Justice Project

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Community Advisory Board member, Olivia Moseley from the Vermont Language Justice Project and the UVM Cancer Center's Community Outreach and Engagement team are producing a series of videos designed to educate New American and refugee communities about cancer screening. "What is cancer and what is cancer screening" is expected to be released in 2025 in 19 different languages including ASL.  

Breast Screening Program for Nepali Women

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As part of her outreach role, Hannah Perry, MD, Division Chief and Medical Director of Breast Imaging at the University of Vermont Medical Center, was presenting information to Community Health Centers (CHC) clinicians and staff on breast cancer screening guidelines. After this talk, staff at CHC, who serve 35,000 patients in Chittenden and southern Grand Isle counties, invited her to stay and learn about their own outreach project. 

CHC’s Mammogram Task Force, chaired by Community Advisory Board member, Kerry Goulette,  was eager to address a pressing health inequity in its patient population: the low rate of breast cancer screening for non-English speakers, with its largest group being patients whose primary language is Nepali.  

A partnership was formed and a clinic for Nepali women started in May of 2023. Building on that initial success, an additional screening session with Nepali women was added, along with one each for Maay-Maay speakers from Somalia, and French speakers from several West African countries. A clinic for trans men followed in Fall of 2024. 

Learn more about this innovative partnership. 

Team Members

Diego Adrianzan Herrera, MD
Diego Adrianzen Herrera, MD
Associate Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Ayla Yersel Portrait
Ayla Yersel
Administrative Support Specialist