What does it mean to be an American? Psychiatrist and author Price Cobbs posed the question April 12 as he exhorted listeners to reflect upon a swiftly changing society at the 2010-2011 Howard, Dorsey, Still Lecture and Diversity Awards ceremony.
As the United States becomes more multicultural, what is happening to long-treasured images of America? And when do immigrants, legal and illegal, make the transformation into being Americans? asked Price Cobbs, CEO of Pacific Management Systems, member of the Institute of Medicine and author of My American Life: From Rage to Entitlement.
“While all great migrations change and enlarge the culture of the nation they enter, it is undeniable that this recent immigrant migration has greatly enlarged what we think of as American culture,” said Cobbs, a founder of the African American Leadership Institute at the Anderson School of Business at the University of California, Los Angeles. Newcomers must adapt, he said, to rules written and unstated in order to thrive; children, for example, are encouraged to be bi- or tri-lingual.
The annual Howard, Dorsey, Still Lecture was named for the first three African Americans to graduate from HMS, in 1869 and 1871, nearly 70 years after its founding. The election of Barack Obama, Cobbs noted, was for many definitive proof that America was on a new path.
Declaring the United States “a work in progress,” Cobbs outlined an unfinished agenda that will entail closing wide disparities in wealth, education, health care and legal and social justice. He exhorted listeners to promote, within the context of heightened national and cultural identity issues, self-awareness and inclusivity. “If we can identify issues, if we can make diagnoses, then we can institute treatment,” he said.
In presenting the annual Harold Amos Faculty Diversity Awards, Dean for Diversity and Community Partnership Joan Reede introduced selection committee chair Winfred Williams, Jr., assistant professor of medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital. The 2011 honorees are:
Albert Galaburda, Emily Fischer Landau Professor of Neurology, for creating a diverse environment within the Cognitive Neurology Unit at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center;
Graham McMahon, assistant professor of medicine, Division of Endocrinology, for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy and inclusion at HMS and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH);
Selwyn Rogers, Jr., associate professor of surgery and chief, Division of Trauma, Burn and Surgical Critical Care, for fostering a diverse environment within the division at BWH;
Thomas Sequist, associate professor of medicine and medical director, outreach program, BWH, for his leadership of the Four Directions Summer Research Program, which aims to address the declining representation of Native Americans in medicine;
The Department of Psychiatry at Cambridge Health Alliance, for creating an environment that supports and promotes diversity and inclusivity for faculty, trainees, students and staff; developing minority researchers who focus on health disparities; establishing programs, services and performing research that impacts the health of the local community, with particular recognition of Margarita Alegria, director of the Center for Multicultural Mental Health Research, for her mentorship and support of students, trainees and staff at all levels, and Jack Burke, chief of psychiatry, for his championing of culturally affirmative care in support of the hospital’s mission “to improve the health our communities.”
The Haiti Relief Committee received the Sharon P. Clayborne Staff Diversity Award for coordinating HMS relief efforts and for their support of employees impacted by the 2010 earthquake. Members include Maria Bollinger, staff assistant, HMS; Shannon Campbell, human resources coordinator, HMS; Patrick Casky, senior research officer, Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering; Ellen Hanson, employee coordinator, HSPH; Michael Piantignini, financial associate, HMS; Jennifer Sarbahi, former web editor, HMS; Kim Serrecchia, project manager, HMS; and Nadège Volcy, senior cost analyst, HMS.
