Over twenty faculty, staff and trainees attended the inaugural meeting of our newly formed Department EDI Council held this month where reviewed the overall and department-specific results of the UW Medicine Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Survey administered by the Office of Healthcare Equity (OHCE). Based on the findings of the EDI Survey, the OHCE developed four overarching recommendations: 

1. Earn trust by demonstrating leadership accountability and follow through on reported incidents of bias.
2. Address disparities of belonging and psychological safety, so that our workforce is able to raise concerns of bias without fear of retaliation.
3. Develop and support multiple systemwide efforts to reduce the frequency of bias and discrimination.
4. Increase leadership diversity through formal recruitment, hiring, retention, promotion and development opportunities for our workforce. 

The Council formed an EDI Action Plan subcommittee that will work on creating actionable goals to address these four recommendations with an initial emphasis on earning trust through leadership accountability and follow through on reported incidents of bias. The Council is co-chaired by Mark Snowden, MD, MPH, and Ty Lostutter, PhD.