Our Strategy

Priorities and Initiatives

The Bloomberg School’s Strategic Plan prioritizes the cultivation of a diverse, inclusive, and nurturing environment for all students, faculty, and staff. This means striving to be an institution where all people, especially those who are historically marginalized, disenfranchised, or excluded, can thrive.

VIEW OUR IDARE ACTION PLAN

Our IDARE Action Plan reflects the School's eight strategic IDARE priorities:

1. To develop and implement impactful IDARE training for all faculty, students, and staff
   The training will include topics such as unconscious bias, microaggressions, allyship, and anti-racism. Coupled with this training, we will offer regular opportunities for small group discussions that facilitate open dialogue and the sharing of lived experiences. All incoming students, faculty, and, staff will be required to engage in this training as part of their onboarding process.
2. To increase over the next five years the share of professorial- and non professorial-track faculty who come from historically underrepresented minority (URM) communities
   We will strive to exceed this goal but will, at a minimum, align the percentages of URM faculty to the national percentages of people from URM backgrounds in each URM ethnic group. Further, we strive to ensure school leadership and committees reflect greater diversity. Strategies for retention of URM faculty will also be prioritized.
3. To ensure the curriculum across all departments and programs is representative and inclusive of diverse populations, especially those who have been traditionally excluded or marginalized
   This will start with a curricular review to be launched this summer. Based on this review, we will develop new and expanded learning opportunities as well as establish a core competency addressing IDARE in public health that will be required for all degree-seeking Bloomberg School students.
4. To guarantee salary equity and opportunity for staff
   This effort will create and resource more high-value employment and professional development pathways for staff. In collaboration with Human Resources, we will conduct a staff salary equity review and adjustment annually.
5. To review and revise all policies, practices, and procedures to ensure IDARE in all we do
   This review will be at the School and departmental levels and will include research, practice, policy, teaching, and the recruitment and cultivation of excellence in our students, faculty, and staff. This assessment process will begin in September 2020, with a goal of making all necessary changes by the end of the 2020-2021 academic year.
6. To expand the School’s research that focuses on the impact of racism on public health and public safety
   This effort will include generating new knowledge and translating research into policies and practices that can make a difference locally, nationally, and globally. Our goal is to expand and deepen our body of research to help address racism as a public health crisis.
7. To continue to prioritize our commitment to Baltimore
   We will improve mechanisms for encouraging and recognizing the participation of our students, faculty, staff, and community partners in our collaborations. We strive to serve, collaborate, and stand with our community.
8. To establish a culture of accountability
   We will begin this effort by owning our history. We will speak and publish openly about our School’s history as it relates to racism. Benchmarks for assessing progress in achieving IDARE goals will be established and made available on a public-facing website. Over the next six months, each of the School’s academic departments and offices will identify and support a faculty or staff member to provide leadership and accountability for practices in support of IDARE.