The previous version of this message incorrectly spelled Mahika Nayak's name in the Summer 2024 Curriculum Ambassador Program (CURAM) section. | |
Highlights and Milestone Updates | |
Wrapping up Phase 1 of the AOCI
As we near the conclusion of AOCI 1.0 on June 30, 2024, we are grateful for the many collaborative efforts and partnerships that have moved our curriculum towards anti-oppression across many domains. The dedication and contributions of our AOC Initiative Core Team, AOCI Workstream Leads, Curricular Component Liaisons (CCLs), AOCI-Student Collaborative members, yearlong AOCI Student Fellows, summer CURAM students, Bridges Course, Block and Clerkship Directors, teaching faculty, staff partners, community partners and consultants, collaborators across our partner health professions schools at UCSF and other many University-wide partners such as the Office of Restorative Justice, and our Medical Education Deans have been pivotal in creating a spirit of collaboration to advance this work and to support continued momentum.
We look forward to sharing an updated timeline that documents our major milestones across the first three years of the AOCI and to updating you on Phase 2.0 in the fall!
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Spotlight on Dissemination: Recent Conferences | |
At recent conferences such as the Western Group on Educational Affairs (WGEA), American Educational Research Association (AERA), Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM), and UCSF FCM Rodnick Colloquium, our AOCI members have been sharing strategies for building institutional and faculty capacity for anti-oppressive efforts, integrating anti-oppression into curricula, promoting equity, inclusivity, and engaging learners and communities in educational change in meaningful ways. | |
Anti-Oppressive Small Group Facilitator Training | |
 |  | In May 2024, in collaboration with the AOCI, Honeycomb Justice Consulting (HJC), a consulting group led by Queer and Black educational experts, commenced a pilot Train-the-Trainer program for small group facilitators in the School of Medicine. This training program is drawing upon trauma-informed/healing-engaged, restorative, and other anti-racist/anti-oppressive educational frameworks and practices. While partners from across the Bridges Curriculum and beyond are participating in the pilot, the primary focus of the training is to equip facilitators for the Justice and Advocacy in Medicine (JAM) Block. HJC is committed to guiding communities in creating and implementing anti-racist practices, and addressing deep-seated structural, historical, communal, and emotional wounds. This partnership represents a significant step towards learning from community-based experts and enhancing our faculty's capacity to embody anti-oppressive teaching practices, fulfilling a core recommendation from many student leaders and activists at UCSF.
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Coming Soon: New and Revised Recommendations from AOCI Task Forces and Working Groups | |
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Disability and Working Against Ableism Task Force Recommendations
Initial recommendations have been shared with the Education Deans and curricular leadership groups, with streamlined recommendations currently being developed to share with our broader educational community. An Executive Summary of the Task Force’s recommendations will be available this summer. We extend our gratitude to the dedicated members of the Disability and Working Against Ableism Task Force, including faculty, students, staff, and a community partner, for their invaluable contributions, and look forward to sharing these recommendations with our learning community.
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Race/Ethnicity and Sex/Gender/Sexuality Task Force Recommendations
Thanks to the efforts of our AOCI Student Fellows, our Race/Ethnicity and Sex/Gender/Sexuality Task Force Recommendations are also undergoing refinement, with updated recommendations expected this summer.
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Guidance on Content Advisories and Land Acknowledgments
The AOCI team, in partnership with our AOCI-Student Collaborative and other student groups and partners, has developed guidance focused on the use of Content Advisories and Land Acknowledgments within the Bridges Curriculum. We are gathering feedback from our Education Deans and curriculum committees and look forward to sharing this guidance in an upcoming newsletter.
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We're also grateful for the ongoing student-led efforts focused on weight and size inclusivity, along with the continued work of our AOCI Trauma Informed/Healing-Engaged Care and Structural Competency working groups—we look forward to sharing updates in the coming academic year. | |
AOCI Student Positions and Contributions
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Members of the AOCI-Student Collaborative and faculty mentors at the December 2023 meeting. | |
AOCI-Student Collaborative Updates
We're thrilled to shine a spotlight on the invaluable contributions of the AOCI-Student Collaborative. Meeting bi-monthly, this dedicated group of students provides essential guidance and input across our AOCI efforts. Their contributions include advising on curricular sessions and assessment, offering input into AOCI recommendations, tools, and guidelines, providing guidance as new curricular structures and processes are built, fostering campus-wide coalition-building, and enhancing student engagement strategies. The AOCI-Student Collaborative's commitment to collaboration and to fostering an inclusive and welcoming medical education environment are integral to advancing anti-oppression in medical education.
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Welcome the Newest AOCI Student Fellow
We're thrilled to introduce our yearlong 2024-2025 AOCI Student Fellow, Jessa Culver (she/hers), a member of the graduating class of 2026. Jessa will be joining the AOCI and our many partners in developing a collaborative strategy for respectful engagement with community members and organizations to better integrate community voices and expertise into medical education. As part of her fellowship, Jessa will lead the AOCI-Student Collaborative, mentor fellow students, contribute to curricular adaptation and innovations, contribute to AOCI Task Forces and working groups, and engage in scholarly projects to advance anti-oppression in medical education. We are honored to have Jessa joining our team.
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Summer 2024 Curriculum Ambassador Program (CURAM)
The Curriculum Ambassador Program is a funded summer fellowship for medical students to collaborate closely with faculty mentors in enriching the School of Medicine curriculum.
Four students will be partnered with AOCI faculty mentors to work on projects tied directly to the AOCI.
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Korena Boyd
(she/her)
MS1
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Skin of Color: Curricular Needs Assessment and Resources
Focus: Enhancing medical education by integrating visual representations of dermatologic conditions across the full spectrum of skin tones into the medical school curricula to foster greater inclusion and equity into medical education.
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Sidney Ezenwugo
(he/him)
MS1
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Trauma-Informed Care Needs Assessment and Curriculum Development
Focus: Conducting a needs assessment and enhancing our pre-clinical curriculum to foster more exposure to trauma-informed/healing-engaged principles.
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Destigmatization and Redesigning Substance Use Disorder Curriculum: Exploring and Adding More Tools for Future Physicians
Focus: Investigating evidence-based methods to address a range of substance use disorders that may be underrepresented in the curriculum, and to explore and develop effective strategies for integrating these methods into Bridges.
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Mahika Nayak
(she/her)
MS1
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ABC Health Equity Project
Focus: Longitudinally integrating themes of health equity and race in medicine into ABC content by developing curriculum that highlights the underlying factors contributing to disparities in diagnostic workup, treatment and prevention, and health outcomes.
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Student Experience Team AO Programs
Launch Week
Launch Week for incoming first-year medical students will take place from August 5 to 9, 2024. The Student Experience Team has continued to emphasize inclusion and belonging throughout Launch Week and Diversity Matters Orientation (DMO) in partnership with students, faculty, staff, and an expert DEIA consultant. In addition to an orientation to communication skills and teamwork, incoming students will learn about the pivotal role of communication skills in addressing health disparities.
Student Support Gatherings
Gatherings are held quarterly in support of students from socially or economically disadvantaged backgrounds. All students are welcome. In addition, residents, fellows, and faculty are invited to provide mentoring for all attendees. Please contact Dr. Denise Davis, Associate Director, AOCI Student Support, for details or questions.
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Student Wellness and Mental Health
Wellness Rounds
Alice Hua, PhD Clinical Psychologist in the Medical Student Well-Being Program, is facilitating Wellness Rounds for third-year medical students at various clerkship sites. Wellness Rounds include student input on selecting a mental health topic, guided discussion on the topic, peer sharing and normalizing of experiences while on clinical rotations, and learning a psychological skill (e.g., assertive communication, emotional validation, navigating perfectionism, navigating grief, etc.).
Clerkship Reflection Sessions
Jess Crockett, MS4, and Thu Dam, MS4, are facilitating voluntary reflection sessions as an opportunity for clerkship students to come together and reflect with peers in a safe, trusting small group setting on experiences encountered during third year or to ask questions about navigating clerkships. Sessions will be held on Zoom monthly. Contact Thu Dam for more information.
Student-Led Therapy List
The student representatives of the School of Medicine's Wellness and Mental Health Committee recognize that navigating mental health resources can be an overwhelming experience for students. To better support students who are looking for long-term therapists, the Committee is building a student-driven and crowdsourced list of therapists whom students have had positive experiences with and would recommend to fellow students. If you are a student who has had a positive experience with a therapist who is accepting new clients, please fill out this brief survey. All responses are anonymous. Once collected, survey data will be aggregated and organized by the student representatives into a spreadsheet that will be available to all UCSF School of Medicine students via Box as a resource.
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Looking for earlier AO Updates Newsletters? | |
All AO Updates Newsletters are archived on the AOCI Timeline and Progress webpage. | |
We would love to hear from you! | |
We value your input and strive to enhance communication efforts surrounding anti-oppression in education. Your anonymous feedback on the AOCI Newsletter survey will help us tailor future newsletters and communication strategies to better serve our community. | | | | |
