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Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement of Focus

United Against Racism is a diversity, equity, and inclusion statement to address the impact of racism on Mass General Brigham patients, staff, and community.

Clinicians in masks, raising arms for United Against Racism

We believe that systemic racism is a public health issue which impacts our patients, workforce, and the communities we serve. Working collectively, we are taking action across the system to dismantle racism and learning as we go.

Our mission is to dismantle the barriers, systems, and actions inside and outside our walls to provide excellent medical care and equity for all.

United Against Racism: Taking Action to Reduce Inequities for Our Patients 

In this video, Mass General Brigham’s Dr. Elsie Taveras, Chief Community Health Equity Officer and Dr. Allison Bryant, Senior Medical Director for Health Equity, explain how we are supporting this effort through various initiatives, and urge health care providers around the nation to join in the work.

Our priority areas 

Leadership, employees, and culture 

United Against Racism is focused on bringing our system to a higher level of leadership and accountability in addressing and dismantling racism.

We aim to:

  • Increase diversity on system and institution boards
  • Increase the diversity among physician and research leaders and improve retention of racially/ethnically underrepresented providers
  • Improve hiring, promoting, and retaining diverse leaders 
  • Develop system-wide anti-racism education
  • Develop incident reporting processes for staff and patients
  • Evaluate all employee compensation and benefits
  • Create multilingual correspondence 

Patient care 

United Against Racism has created policies and workstreams to address the structural racism that results in racial inequity in our patient care.

We aim to:

  • Improve collection of race/ethnicity and language clinical data
  • Eliminate racialized medicine practices
  • Increase access to interpreter services and written translation 
  • Address disparities in specialty practices with the formation of racial equity projects in 18 clinical departments (made up of multiple member organizations)
  • Expand screening and response to social risk factors and integrate community health workers at 22 primary care practices across our system
  • Ensure equitable access to virtual health

Community health and policy advocacy 

United Against Racism recognizes that systemic racism impacts the communities we serve and their overall health. We aim to:

Leaders of United Against Racism 

Executive sponsors

Tom Sequist, MD 
Chief Medical Officer

Elsie M. Taveras, MD, MPH  
Chief Community Health and Health Equity Officer 

Health equity

Allison Bryant, MD, MPH  
Associate Chief Health Equity Officer

Community health

Tavinder Phull, MPH, MBA 
Vice President of Community Health 
Quality and Patient Experience

Equity and community health policy

Maria Rios, MPH 
Director of Equity and Community Health Policy 
Office of Government Affairs

Additional resources

  • Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

    Diversity, equity, and inclusion are central to every aspect of our organization. When our workforce is more equitable and inclusive, we can be more innovative, creative, and on the cutting edge of advancement. Leveraging diverse perspectives allows us to develop better overall solutions to the problems we face.

  • Accessibility

    We are committed to making our facilities and services accessible to create a welcoming environment for all.

  • Employee Resource Groups

    Our employee resource groups establish shared spaces of community and belonging, uniting people based on common interests and shared values.