Be the Change

HMS honors faculty, staff for diversity efforts, responds to racial injustice

Abstract image of community diversity

As members of the Harvard Medical School community took time out during the week of June 9 to acknowledge racial injustices in America—and to reflect on how best to confront institutional racism—HMS recognized four faculty members and one staffer for their sustained commitment to advancing diversity and inclusion at the School and its affiliated hospitals at the annual HMS 2020 Diversity Awards ceremony.

HMS Dean George Q. Daley commended this year’s recipients, Hermioni Lokko Amonoo, Denise Brown, S. Jean Emans, Corey Harwell and Allison Bryant Mantha, who he said, through their leadership and initiative, have made strides in creating a more inclusive HMS community where all members can feel more valued and supported in their aspirations.

Joan Y. Reede, Dean for Diversity and Community Partnership at HMS and chair of the HMS Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion, encouraged others in the community to follow the lead of this year's honorees with a nod to Black novelist, poet and activist James Baldwin.

“The time is now for us to come together, to learn from each other, to grow with one another, to be better than we have been, to be better together, to help raise our entire community,” Reede said. “It’s what we as individuals and as a community do. … Join us. The time is now.”

The time is now for us to come together, to learn from each other, to grow with one another, to be better than we have been, to be better together, to help raise our entire community. It’s what we as individuals and as a community do … Join us. The time is now.

Joan Y. Reede, HMS Dean for Diversity and Community Partnership