Pharmacology Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Committee

Mission Statement

The Department of Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University is committed to ensuring that all students, faculty, staff, visitors, and persons feel supported and welcomed. Though often not discussed, systems of inequality, oppression, and injustice exist within academia and shape, whether explicitly or implicitly, our language, decision-making, and priorities.

The Department, with the support of its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee, is dedicated to supporting historically marginalized groups in addition to unlearning the systems that have contributed to this marginalization. These systems include (but are not limited to): racism and white supremacy, xenophobia, classism, sexism, ableism, and heterosexism. We also aim to create new infrastructure for which minority identities are uplifted and their voices are heard. These minority identities may include (but, again, are not limited to): racial and ethnic minority identities, sexual and gender minority identities, low-income socioeconomic backgrounds, and non-English language backgrounds.

With your help, we will improve the Department of Pharmacology’s diversity, inclusivity, and equity of all persons.

DEI Committee Members

We are excited to welcome Colleen Niswender, Erin Calipari, Christine Konradi, and Cody Siciliano to the DEI committee.

Current members include Lilllian Brady, Jamal Bryant, Sheryl Vermudez, Jordan Brown, Jose Zepeda, Jared Phillips, Nathan Winters, Vivian Truong, Shalonda Ingram, Deborah Luessen, Celeste Greer, and Suzanne Nolan.

Additionally, we are excited to announce that:

There are now student members on the faculty search committee
We have two representatives who will serve on the Vanderbilt Basic Sciences DEI Committee
Student members are encouraged to prepare a STEM video to send to minority-serving high schools
We are continuing to invite a diverse population of postdoctoral fellows to give a seminar in the pharmacology/GPCR-postdoctoral seminar series
There is now a slack channel for the Pharm DEI committee
We have created this webpage to provide updates to the community
We will be identifying a new DEI Committee Chair for Pharmacology