Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The Center for Health Outcomes and Interdisciplinary Research (CHOIR) is dedicated to creating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive (DEI) environment. We consider diversity to include (but not limited to): race, ethnicity, nationality, geographical location, citizenship status, culture, language, appearance, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, ideology/beliefs, religious and spiritual identity, disability status, upbringing/life experiences, and socioeconomic status. We value healthcare equity in our research, clinical, and professional activities. We work to identify, discuss, and overcome structural barriers that exist to cultivate an open and accepting environment for our faculty/staff, trainees, research participants, and patients.    

The CHOIR has several strategic actions to promote diversity, equity and inclusion, including:

1.     Recruit and retain diverse clinical psychology trainees, staff, and faculty. We are committed to recruiting trainees with diverse backgrounds. We provide ongoing, hands-on mentoring and sponsorship of such trainees, and strive to dismantle larger systemic issues that impact retention and advancement of diverse trainees. At CHOIR, we use fair and unbiased recruitment and hiring practices. We consult with professional organizations on best practices to promote the careers of individuals with diverse backgrounds.

 2.    Integrate diversity-related knowledge into our research and clinical work. Our goal is to make our research and clinical care inclusive and accessible to diverse populations. We learn from all our patients and participants through interviews about their unique barriers and facilitators to participating in care and research. This work can help us to increase accessibility and problem-solve systemic and structural barriers to care. We also regularly discuss diversity related issues to develop new solutions to improve our DEI initiatives. 

3.    Research on health disparities and culturally-tailored interventions. Across our research projects, our goal is to meet the unique needs of diverse patients and reduce barriers to care. We understand that biopsychosocial and contextual factors influence the development and maintenance of emotional distress and health-related outcomes (e.g., pain, dementia, physical activity). Therefore, we work to develop culturally tailored mind-body interventions addressing health disparities among vulnerable medical populations (e.g., ethno/racial minorities, sexual minorities, immigrants/refugees). We use cultural/local needs assessments, qualitative research, technology-based intervention delivery, and community-based research and implementation to improve the disparities in health care access and delivery.  

Key points on CHOIR’s DEI vision from our Founder and Director, Dr. Ana-Maria Vranceanu:

  1. At CHOIR we strive to ensure that people from all underrepresented groups enter the scientific profession and are retained here. We believe that a diverse scientific workforce is the best way to increase our ability to develop interventions that solve pressing health problems and bring about social justice reform.

  2.  At CHOIR we believe diversity comes in many forms. We actively recruit and aim to retain people with different life experiences, identifies, and ways of thinking. Our team includes people who have different native languages, were born in other countries, and represent many racial/ethnic backgrounds, religious groups, and sexual orientations.

  3.  CHOIR team members are unique but unified by a desire to develop and implement interventions to improve all health outcomes across the spectrum of illness to wellness. We do so by applying evidence-based treatment strategies and tailoring these approaches to the specific needs of medical populations. Through this tailoring, we aim to first understand the problem in the biopsychosocial context in which it occurs. By doing so, we collaboratively create interventions informed by the diverse experience of patients, family members, treatment providers, administration, and key stakeholders.

We are also home to the health equity working group, which is comprised of CHOIR members at all career levels and disciplines who are passionate about reducing the disparities in health outcomes that are well documented for those from underserved groups.

This group is the result of our direct observation that these patients are often unable to gain access to and full benefit from evidence-based treatments due to structural and societal factors. We aim to advocate for system-level changes to prioritize the needs of underrepresented people in healthcare and research. 

We are guided by the socioecological model to examine and correct contributors to health inequity at the individual, interpersonal, community/institutional, and societal/structural levels, including addressing social determinants of health. We are committed to culturally tailoring and adapting our interventions to meet the needs of underrepresented groups.

Current projects:

  • We are currently exploring ways to partner with organizations both within the Mass General Brigham system and the greater Boston community who are working to address the policy gaps that impact our participants and patients so deeply. 

  • We are working to advocate for patients who do not have access to research due to structural barriers (e.g., inability to provide social security number)