When Emmanuel Williams, a student at Oakwood University in Huntsville, Alabama, came to UCLA in the summer of 2021 to conduct research on the relationship between glaucoma and exposure to steroids, the experience was the beginning of a new direction in education for the undergraduate.

“This was my first hands-on opportunity for research—it was challenging, but it opened my eyes to issues in science I hadn’t been aware of,” says Mr. Williams, a biology major.

Mr. Williams’s studies at UCLA were made possible by funding from a program coordinated by a partnership between the University of California and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) to increase the number of African Americans in research. The grant was secured by Jie J. Zheng, PhD, professor of ophthalmology, Sophie X. Deng, MD, PhD, Joan and Jerome Snyder Chair in Cornea Diseases, and JoAnn S. Roberts, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow. In summer 2021, undergraduate students Matthew Dye and Chelsea Thomas, in addition to Emmanuel Williams, came to the Stein Eye Institute to work on original research in the laboratories of Drs. Zheng and Deng.

The UC-HBCU program is one of a broad range of initiatives that are integral to the university’s expanding programs of “EDI” (equity, diversity, and inclusion)—an initiative that is expanding Stein Eye’s already-extensive involvement in the issues of access in America.

“The UCLA Stein Eye Institute’s reputation as a premier research and teaching institute is built on recruiting, retaining, and supporting outstanding faculty, residents, and staff from diverse backgrounds,” says Bartly J. Mondino, MD, director of the Stein Eye Institute and chair of the Department of Ophthalmology. “Our goal is to build even stronger commitments to those ideals.”

A heritage of inclusion
The current drive for new EDI initiatives has evolved after more than a half-century of involvement in diversity as a foundation of health care as a human right. Building on that philosophy is a thriving university-wide program to strengthen the core values of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion as inseparable goals in health care, research, education, recruitment, and community engagement.

Although UCLA has been readdressing these issues of diversity for several years, the need to expand EDI at every level of the university was underscored more recently by the dual crises of the COVID- 19 pandemic and social protests across the nation after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in the spring of 2020.

“UCLA has always been a leader in creating a climate of diversity,” says Lynn K. Gordon, MD, PhD, professor of ophthalmology emeritus and the first senior associate dean of equity and diversity inclusion in UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. “Before the pandemic and before Mr. Floyd’s death, we had already been working with campus organizations about the need for developing more targeted efforts in EDI. The spread of the pandemic and the civic unrest were pivotal milestones that amplified the need for enriching those plans.”

“Diversity and inclusion are linked directly to our institutional goals of excellence for health care, research, education, and community engagement,” Dr. Gordon says. “Our goal is leadership in eliminating health care disparities while delivering high-quality patient care, and building an inclusive environment for our faculty, staff, and residents, as we serve the diverse communities around us.”

EyeEDI: new programs to build on previous commitments
To accomplish those objectives, units across UCLA have been creating a host of new EDI initiatives.

At the Stein Eye Institute, these projects are developed by EyeEDI, a committee of faculty, residents, and staff, directed by Dr. Deng.

“Diversity, equity, and inclusion are foundational principles that are central to the fulfillment of the Institute’s mission,” says Dr. Deng. “The EyeEDI Committee is developing strategies that complement the existing diversity initiatives within the School of Medicine to build a community in the Institute that is equally diverse and inclusive.”

Five years of new milestones
The early results of the committee’s work have produced a five-year plan of programs that will increase the Institute’s engagement in its EDI commitment. Three priorities are:
Creating a more inclusive climate and an increasingly diverse corps of residents and faculty;
Modifying existing mentorship programs to better tailor the needs of trainees, junior faculty, and underrepresented minorities; and Improving the existing process to provide everyone in the Institute with equitable opportunity for growth.

“The idea is to make inclusion and equity integral to everything we do,” says Dr. Deng. “Our plans are aggressive, and we are looking at the broadest questions of how EDI can be more integral to every level of the Institute’s work.”

An emphasis on access to care
The Institute’s efforts for EDI also extend into the role of Stein Eye services in the community.

“Our EDI agenda is expanding on issues that UCLA health care had taken on for years: working to improve medical care for the segments of the population that are underserved, less healthy, and have much higher percentages of chronic illness and conditions that are purely a function of lack of access,” says Dr. Deng.

Such plans for EDI are crucial to increasing the number of doctors who originally came from underserved communities, and who often return for their medical practices.

“The data show that doctors tend to return to and treat patients in the communities where they came from,” says Dr. Deng. “So it is vital to build even more aggressive programs to train ophthalmologists from underserved communities, which will have a significant impact on increasing access to eye care.”

A stronger sense of community
With many EDI programs unfolding and short-term projects already in place, the Institute’s goals for EDI are evolving quickly. But the process is—and will always be—an ongoing challenge.

“We are constantly reevaluating, reflecting, and reimagining how we can build a stronger sense of community based on EDI principles,” says Dr. Gordon. “We can’t just rest on our past success— we need to keep looking forward and say: what can we do now to be even better?”