In March 2019, increasing diversity within HEN and integrating diversity into HEN events was named a priority and a task force was assembled. In August 2019 a Diversity Equity & Inclusion committee was established and by May 2020 a charter was approved.
HEN Diversity Statement: The Health Enterprises Network (HEN) believes it is extremely important to support and protect diversity, equity, and inclusion. HEN recognizes that diversity, equity, and inclusion is a reality created by individuals and groups from a broad spectrum of demographic and philosophical differences. HEN and its membership began by recognizing inequities and commit to directly addressing them in the actions taken. Read DEI Charter.
The purpose of the DEI committee is to:
- Make recommendations to the Board regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion matters.
- Monitor HEN activities to ensure that diversity, equity, and inclusion goals are always considered.
- Develop, maintain, and update a list of individuals and organizations that represent diversity (gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc.) within Greater Louisville, a region which is made up of 15 counties surrounding the Greater Louisville and Southern Indiana areas.
- Provide the Board and Board Committees with diversity demographics within the Greater Louisville region.
- Make the Board and Board Committees aware of healthcare-related diversity, equity, and inclusion events and activities and promote stories, individuals, events and activities related to heritage months.
The Committee functions in an advisory role to the Executive Committee and the Board and will focus their efforts in regards to the following identified areas: Access, Awareness, Education, Communication and Track. The Committee helped other HEN committees create diversity goals in order to increase opportunities for underrepresented populations to attend and succeed at HEN. The Committee also created a Community Resource Guide which will is available to HEN members. See Community Resource Guide.
The Committee will also ensure the Board receives one training on diversity, equity, and inclusion by December 31, 2021. This training, “Implicit Bias Awareness: Reduce the Influence of Implicit Bias in the workplace,” will be facilitated by Vahid Mockon, MSBC, Manager, Workforce Connectivity, Greater Louisville Inc. The learning objectives include: 1) Distinguish concepts and terminology; 2) Understand the prevalence of unconscious/implicit bias; 3) Recognize the impact of unconscious/implicit bias; and 4) Identify steps to challenge our unconscious/implicit bias.
At least annually, the Committee will review and reassess the adequacy of the Charter and recommend any proposed changes to the Board for approval. At least annually, the Committee will evaluate its performance and the performance of the Committees.
Healthcare Fellows Goals:
- HEN will intentionally recruit a diverse class for its Fellows Program each year reflecting the diversity of our community.
- Target: minimum of 30% from under-represented groups/minorities.
- Recruitment materials, methods and reach (distribution).
- Application Materials (include optional self-reported questions re: background, race, gender identity, religion, etc.) .
- HEN Fellows Program presenters will represent a diversity of backgrounds, organizations, and missions having direct impact and influence on our diverse and dynamic healthcare ecosystem.
- Each HEN Fellows Curriculum and projects will incorporate multi-cultural content and diverse perspectives that recognize and celebrate values of inclusion, ethical and social responsibility, compassion, and authentic community engagement within our healthcare ecosystem.
Nominating Committee Goals:
- Increase the number of women on the Board to 35% over next 2 years.
- Increase the number of people of color on the Board to 20% over next 3 years.
Branding & Messaging Goals:
- Increase outreach to minority owned business or leaders.
- All future HEN panel discussions should have diverse representation.
- Highlight DEI efforts in the community with at least one feature a month.
Health Policy Forum Goals:
- Include diverse representation in all panel discussions.
- Engage DEI committee for appropriate questions to ask panelists during forums.
- Monitor legislation related to healthcare diversity, equity and inclusion.
Investor Development Goals:
- Actively recruit 5 new companies that include minority business leaders or serve the DEI community.
- Work with new member companies to engage at least 1 DEI member of their team in HEN activities.
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