Faculty Equity Advisors

Faculty Equity Advisors are senior faculty members who provide information and advice about practices for advancing excellence, equity and diversity in faculty recruitment at UCSF.

In particular, we focus our efforts in these ways:

Facilitating Effective Processes for Faculty Recruitment

Educating about best practices to ensure a diverse search committee and advising on proactive search procedures to enhance the diversity of the search pool and counter applicant selection bias.

For more information and helpful resources, please visit the Faculty Recruitment Best Practices and Resources page.

Monitoring Search Processes and Outcomes

Reviewing and approving the search plan, applicant pool, and short list.

 


To learn more about the work of Faculty Equity Advisors, click through the below areas of work:

Prioritizing Diversity & Inclusion in Hiring New Faculty Members

Chancellor Hawgood includes "Equity and Inclusion" as one of the 4 priorities of his administration (2015 State of the University address).

The 2013 UCSF Diversity Strategic Plan: Roadmap to Inclusive Excellence calls for the integration of diversity into the full range of academic planning, execution, and program review.

  • Enhancing faculty diversity is of paramount importance to the UCSF mission and requires a concerted, focused effort to make steady and necessary gains.
  • Diversity is defined broadly.
  • New faculty will shape the future of UCSF.
  • A diverse faculty is linked to excellence.
  • Faculty should share UCSF's values of equity, inclusion, diversity and educating diverse students and trainees.

The campus should provide information, coordination, and assistance in the area of equity and diversity to all departments and schools. The Equity Advisor will operate in collaboration with the following:

  • Vice Provost of Academic Affairs
  • Vice and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs
  • Academic Senate EQOP Committee
  • Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity
Facilitating Effective Processes for Faculty Recruitment

The role of a Faculty Equity Advisor is to ensure that excellence, equity and diversity are considered in all aspects of faculty recruitment and hiring.

  • Meet with the search committee (or communicate with search committee chair) at least once to discuss proactive search procedures and applicable affirmative action and labor laws.
  • Provide information to search committee on Best Practices for searches, including the impact of selection bias and how to counter biases (Unconscious Bias) in the academic search process.
  • Provide advice as needed to ensure that proactive search practices are used for recruiting and selecting new faculty, including posting the search ad in multiple venues to attract diverse applicants and conducting extensive personal outreach.
  • Provide advice as needed to the search committee to ensure that contributions to diversity are a component of the selection criteria. (See the Contributions to Diversity Statement page for more detailed information and resources.)
  • Recommend and encourage search committees to use evaluation tools that facilitate objective evaluation of candidates.
  • Support the committee with difficult situations. (E.g. unsolicited information about a candidate, conflicts of interest, de-selection of candidate that seems unfair.)
  • Serve on a select number of search committees (if additional assistance is needed).
Monitoring Search Processes and Outcomes

The Faculty Equity Advisor will review and approve the search plan, applicant pool, and short list.

  • Monitor the processes and outcomes of the search at all stages – Search plan, applicant pool, and short list.
  • Prior to approving the Search Plan, verify that each committee is diverse (committee comprised of at least 50% women (or men in School of Nursing) or URM members).
  • Review the diversity of the applicant pool relative to the availability pool. Suggest proactive measures to enhance the diversity of the applicant pool if it does not reasonably reflect the diversity of the availability pool.
  • Review the short list of candidates selected for interviews. Encourage further proactive outreach efforts if few candidates and/or short lists do not reflect the demographics of the applicant pool.

Meet the Faculty Equity Advisors

Vice Chancellor, Diversity and Outreach

J. Renée Chapman Navarro, PharmD, MD Professor, Anesthesia and Perioperative Care Bio | Email | UCSF Profile
J. Renée Chapman Navarro, PharmD, MD, was appointed as the University of California, San Francisco's first Vice Chancellor of Diversity and Outreach, December 2010. Dr. Navarro serves as a campus expert on diversity initiatives and best practices, and leads the effort with the development and execution of a strategic plan for increased diversity, equity and inclusion at UCSF. After the completion of Pharm D education and training at the University of the Pacific, she attended medical school and residency at UCSF. Dr. Navarro joined the Anesthesia Faculty in 1990 and is currently a professor. As a faculty leader her career at UCSF has progressed rapidly. She has held several clinical leadership positions at San Francisco General Hospital, including Acting Chief of Anesthesia, Chair of the Risk Management Committee, Medical Director of Perioperative Services, and Chief of the Medical Staff. At the School of Medicine she served as the Associate Dean for faculty, an Advisory College Mentor and Anesthesia Career Advisor. She is a committed teacher and mentor. In 2007 she became the first Director of Academic Diversity at UCSF, charged with coordinating the University's Strategic Goal of enhancing the diversity of faculty, students and trainees through coordinated outreach, campus policy changes and ongoing education. In the community, she has served on the San Mateo Commissions on the Status of Women, the San Mateo Commission on Disabilities and was the founding Chair of the Group on Women in Medicine and Science for the Association of American Medical Colleges. Dr. Navarro has been honored by receipt of the Chancellor's Celebration of Women Faculty Award, The Chancellor's Martin Luther King Award and Mayor Willie Brown's Proclamation of J. Renee Navarro Day in San Francisco.

Director of Faculty Equity Advisory Program

Elizabeth Ozer, PhD Professor of Pediatrics, Associate Vice Provost of Faculty Equity, Director of Faculty Equity Advisors, Office of Diversity and Outreach Bio | Email | UCSF Profile
Elizabeth Ozer is Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California, SF (UCSF), Director of Research & the Faculty Equity Advisor Program for the Office of Diversity and Outreach, and Director of Research Training in Adolescent & Young Adult Medicine at UCSF. Dr. Ozer is a psychologist whose research has focused primarily on the health of adolescents and young adults, women and families. She is an investigator on two NIH grants to enhance the training of women and underrepresented minorities within the health sciences workforce, and has served as either Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator of multiple U.S. federally funded grants focused on decreasing adolescent risky behaviour through improving the care provided by the health care system and the primary care provider. Recently she has been awarded three federal research grants focused on ways that technology can be incorporated into successful models of preventive care. Dr. Ozer is currently PI of a Maternal & Child Health (MCHB) funded Adolescent/Young Adult Health Network with a focus on developing a national transdisciplinary research agenda for adolescent and young adult health and to translate research into practice. She recently served on the Board of Directors for the Society of Adolescent Health & Medicine (SAHM), and was an organizing participant and author for The Lancet Series on Global Adolescent Health. Dr. Ozer was a member of the UC Systemwide Climate Survey Committee, Faculty Chair of the UCSF Committee on the Status of Women until 2015, and serves on the UCSF Council on Faculty Life. Dr. Ozer received the 2013 Chancellors Award for Advancing Women at UCSF; she has served as the UCSF faculty representative on the University of California Systemwide Committee on the Status of Women (SACSW) since 2008; and is currently the Chair of the UC Systemwide Committee on the Status of Women.

School of Dentistry

George Taylor, DMD, MPH, DrPH Professor, Department of Preventive & Restorative Dental Sciences,
Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion in the School of Dentistry
Bio | Email | UCSF Profile
Dr. Taylor is Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion and is a Professor in the Department of Preventive and Restorative Dental Sciences in the Division of Oral Epidemiology and Dental Public Health at the University of California San Francisco School of Dentistry. He is a board-certified specialist in Dental Public Health. He served as a dentist in the U.S. Air Force for 4 years and has had a career in academic dentistry for over 30 years, teaching, conducting research, and providing patient care. He has taught and practiced general dentistry and dental public health. In his role as Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion he works to strengthen the School of Dentistry as a diverse and inclusive climate that empowers students, faculty and staff to maximize their capacity in learning, working, serving and growing together.

School of Medicine

Lee Atkinson-McEvoy, MD Professor, Pediatrics,
Chief, Division of General Pediatrics,
Vice Chair, Pediatric Primary Care and Population Health, Department of Pediatrics,
Executive Medical Director Children's Primary Care and Population Health
Bio | Email | UCSF Profile
Lee Atkinson-McEvoy is UCSF Professor of Pediatrics, Chief of the Division of General Pediatrics, Vice Chair for Pediatric Primary Care and Population Health and UCSF Regional Executive Medical Director. Lee has had a number of leadership roles and activities at UCSF, including educational leadership and operational leadership in UCSF Health. She was the inaugural faculty chair of the Department of Pediatrics Diversity Committee, now known as RISE (Resident-Led Physicians for Inclusion, Social Justice, and Equity) Coalition. She recently founded the Miller Davis Jenkins Society, a UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals society of Black/African American-identifying UCSF faculty.
Elizabeth Harleman, MD Professor of Medicine, Associate Chair for Strategic Planning for the Department of Medicine,
Associate Program Director for the UCSF Internal Medicine Residency Program
Bio | Email | UCSF Profile
Beth Harleman is UCSF Professor of Medicine, Associate Chair for Faculty Experience for the Department of Medicine, and Associate Program Director for the UCSF Internal Medicine Residency Program. A clinician-educator, Beth has extensive experience developing and delivering curricula to a wide range of learners. Her focus in medical education is on the development of the physician identity, particularly at transition points in training. Beth co-created and ran the highly rated UCSF School of Medicine capstone course, Coda, for nine years. As Associate Program Director for the Internal Medicine Residency Program, Beth oversees all formal curricula and is responsible for program evaluation and improvement. She has mentored hundreds of residents and students and previously held a formal role as an Advisory College Mentor for the UCSF School of Medicine. In her role as Associate Chair for the UCSF Department of Medicine, Beth has championed leadership development, meeting optimization and workplace engagement initiatives. She is particularly interested in diversifying the UCSF DOM physician workforce and in achieving greater effectiveness in leadership through integrating one's unique personal strengths into daily work.
Meshell Johnson, MD Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary/Critical Care/Sleep Medicine Bio | Email | UCSF Profile
Meshell Johnson is a Professor of Medicine at UCSF in the Division of Pulmonary/Critical Care/Sleep Medicine, and is based at the San Francisco VA Medical Center. Clinically, she primarily works as an attending physician in the Intensive Care Unit, and her basic science research lab studies lung injury in the context of ion and fluid transport across the alveolar epithelium. She enjoys teaching and is an active member of the Simulation Faculty at the San Francisco VA. She is dedicated to improving diversity, equity and inclusion at UCSF (and beyond) and is a Dean's Diversity Leader for the Differences Matter Initiative, as well as the Director of Faculty Diversity for the Department of Medicine.
Starr Knight, MD Associate Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine,
Co-Director, Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital
Bio | Email | UCSF Profile
Dr. Knight, a Los Angeles Native, is an Associate Professor in Emergency Medicine at the University of California San Francisco and the Director of Diversity & Inclusion within the Department of Emergency Medicine. She also serves as the Emergency Medicine Ultrasound Director at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFG) and the UCSF/ZSFG Ultrasound Fellowship Director. Dr. Knight completed her Emergency Medicine Residency Training at Alameda County Medical Center/Highland Hospital; her Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship was completed at UCSF. A national and international speaker on the use of diagnostic and procedural Point-of-Care Ultrasound, Dr. Knight also focuses on work to support residents from underrepresented backgrounds in medicine (UIMs). She is involved in several mentorship programs with local inner-city high school students and currently integrates an ultrasound education program into a high school curriculum.
Sanziana Roman, MD, FACS Professor, Surgery, Division of Surgical Oncology, Section of Endocrine Surgery,
Director of Learning and Teaching in the Procedural Specialties,
Dean's Diversity Leader for Leadership Equity and Inclusion
Bio | Email | UCSF Profile
Dr. Sanziana Roman brings two decades of experience in her surgical treatment of tumors of the adrenal, thyroid, and parathyroid glands. She has a particular interest in minimally invasive approaches to surgery and is one of few surgeons around the world with a high-volume practice in posterior retroperitoneoscopic adrenalectomy (PRA). In addition, she has vast experience in treating pediatric thyroid nodules and tumors, including children and adolescents with congenital hypothyroidism and goiter, Graves' disease, thyroid cancer, as well as inherited syndromes, such as Multiple Endocrine Neoplasias. Dr. Roman earned her medical degree at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY, and completed her surgical residency training at Yale University, New Haven, CT. Prior to coming to UCSF, she was the Chief of Endocrine Surgery at Yale University for 13 years, subsequently becoming a tenured professor of surgery and the Associate Chief of the Advanced Oncologic Surgery Division at Duke University, Durham, NC, where she remained on faculty for more than five years. There, she established the Center for Adrenal Disease and the Duke Pediatric Thyroid Center. Dr. Roman has been listed in the publication America's Top Doctors. She is board certified in surgery. Prior to becoming a surgeon, Dr. Roman was an opera singer. She combines her love for singing and surgery by focusing her skills on saving the patient's voice during neck operations.

School of Nursing

Valerie Yerger, ND Professor, Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences, School of Nursing Bio | Email | UCSF Profile
Valerie B. Yerger is trained as a naturopathic doctor and is a nationally acclaimed health policy researcher with unique training and expertise in community-based research and engagement, and mixed qualitative and quantitative research methods to examine the contribution of tobacco industry marketing and use of menthol cigarettes to the disproportionate smoking rates among African Americans. Dr. Yerger's research activities have included searching tobacco industry document archives, conducting exploratory focus group studies, and collaborating with community partners in community-based participatory research projects.

Her established research program focuses on framing the disproportionate burden of tobacco among marginalized communities as a social justice issue. Her research of previously secret tobacco documents uncovered 1) the tobacco industry's relationships with African American leadership groups, 2) the accumulation of nicotine in tissues containing melanin, 3) the disproportionate marketing of menthol cigarettes in inner-city communities, and 4) tobacco companies' in-house research on the use of menthol as a flavor additive in cigarettes. The goal of her research program is to expose the tobacco industry targeting of marginalized communities and inform public health policies that effectively reach these communities. To accomplish this goal, she combines her experience collecting and analyzing qualitative data, while building community partnerships.

Since 2010, Dr. Yerger has participated in a number of initiatives related to menthol cigarettes and other flavored tobacco products. As the focus on regulating these products has shifted from the federal level (US Food and Drug Administration) to local and state efforts, Dr. Yerger has been sought to help educate the constituents and key stakeholders in many, if not most, of these jurisdictions.

In 2014, Dr. Yerger assumed the leadership and responsibility of the California Tobacco Control Program's (CTCP) "Capacity Building Network" and rebranded it as "The LOOP." Located at UCSF, The LOOP is a centralized one-stop delivery system that delivers several services for CTCP-funded projects, including trainings, "tailored assistance," and e-blast newsletters designed to increase the competencies, confidence, and abilities of CTCP grantees and their community partners to expand their reach and service to California's priority populations.

School of Pharmacy

Jason Sello, PhD Professor, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, School of Pharmacy Bio | Email | UCSF Profile
Dr. Sello develops chemical tools for the study of complex biological phenomena, with the goal of creating new therapeutics for the treatment of infectious diseases, cancers, and neurological disorders. In addition, he is a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator and serves as associate director of diversity in basic science faculty for the UCSF campus. Dr. Sello earned a B.S. in biology from Morehouse College in 1997 and a Ph.D. in biophysics in 2002 from Harvard University. His doctoral research in diversity-oriented organic synthesis was carried out in the laboratory of Prof. Stuart L. Schreiber in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. He performed post-doctoral research in enzymology at Harvard Medical School and in Streptomyces genetics at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, England.