Messages From Leadership
Columbia’s Department of Medicine has a vast, historic commitment to clinical care that dates to its founding over a quarter-millennium ago. This commitment over generations manifested itself though our creation of and service in the public hospitals of New York. Over the last century it is evidenced through our extraordinary commitment to the diverse community of Washington Heights in partnership with Presbyterian Hospital, now NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.
The commitment to our community is manifested in our clinical practices, our clinical education and our healthcare research. This commitment grounds our ethical concerns for health equity in the broadest terms. An element of this concern for health equity drives our particular interest in fair representation of diverse groups on our faculty, a virtue unto itself — the virtue of justice --- as we seek for our patients and for our clinical trainees the decisive benefits of diverse faculty models and exemplars.
The Department of Medicine prizes research as the basis for our national and international reputation and influence, and education as our pipeline for the future, but most profoundly prizes clinical medicine as our reason for being. All three missions are essential to our shared aspiration to serve and to lead by example. These missions are united by a single, fundamental standard: excellence. Under the leadership of Dr. Christopher Irobunda, Vice Chair for Diversity and Faculty Development, and anchored by his personal commitment to excellence, the Department of Medicine and its Divisions are committed to support our faculty and staff, and invest our resources and energy to advance our metric-driven agenda for diversity, equity and inclusion.
Donald W. Landry, MD, PhD
Hamilton Southworth Professor of Medicine
Chair, Department of Medicine
Physician-in-Chief, NYP/Columbia
Welcome to the Department of Medicine, Office of Faculty Development. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion website.
The Department of Medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center is widely acclaimed and widely honored. The department and its various subspecialties/divisions and their contributions to medical education, patient care, and biomedical/clinical research is second to none in the world.
The mission of the office is to promote a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion across the entire department of medicine and to help the department in identifying, attracting, and maintaining underrepresented trainees, faculty, and individuals that embody the department’s core values of excellence in the aforementioned areas including community outreach and service.
We strive to make sure that our underrepresented minority trainees, faculty, and staff feel a sense of belonging, support, appreciation, and respect for who they are. We achieve this through concrete initiatives that originate from each division’s diversity, equity, and inclusion committees (which are reviewed by the DOM DEI Executive Committee. These initiatives include mentoring, advocacy, pipeline programs, community service, lecture series, support groups, and accountability measures.
Christopher Irobunda, MD, PhD
Jim Ovia Associate Professor of Cardiology
Vice Chair, Faculty Development, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Department of Medicine