Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging (DEIB)

Integrative Health and Wellbeing Coaching Program

In the United States, many groups are systematically marginalized. Our profound health disparities and health inequities within health care and health education must be first and foremost as we educate the future generations of healthcare practitioners.  We are committed to being part of the solution in changing this paradigm in the name of justice and restitution.  

We work intentionally with appropriate on and off-campus groups to sustain this commitment and move the needle of representation, community, support, pedagogy, and curriculum.  In this past year, we have made substantive changes to our curriculum and our admissions process to support DEIB efforts across the graduate student experience.  We now require a course titled Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Health and Wellbeing, where we will focus on health equity and social determinants of health and the role that health coaches must play.  We have blinded applications to the program in support of reducing unconscious bias within our review committees and challenged our thinking on pre-requisite courses required to succeed in our program.  We also do not require the GRE.  We have added opportunities to learn non-white theories of behavior change and healing to the curriculum and the addition of trauma-informed mental health competencies.  We will continue to diversify our faculty and have developed an enhanced student advising model that goes beyond academic advising and considers the whole student and their learning journey. 

All faculty, staff, and administrators students encounter in this program are committed to:

1. Engaging in vigilant self-awareness and life-long learning of DEIB concepts and actions

2. Teach, acknowledge, and accurately represent history and equity-informed data

3. Be humble, patient, and most of all, empathetic

4. Deliver and receive difficult feedback in the name of justice

*This list was adapted from Dena Simmons - How to Be an Antiracist Educator

We expect students to be equally committed to creating a culture of belonging.  

The Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing has released a public statement on Racism, Wellbeing, and the Center’s Path Forward.  In addition, we welcome all feedback, ideas, and opportunities to collaborate to continuously improve DEIB efforts in and outside the classroom. Thank you for your commitment and support in these challenging times.