Updates from Sara Folta, Associate Dean of Diversity and Inclusion > Updates > ADDI Update – March 2022

ADDI Update – March 2022

Dear Friedman School Community,

I hope everyone has had a great Women’s History Month! In case you missed it, the talk that alum Franciel Ikeji gave for Black History Month is just perfect for Women’s History Month as well. Learn about the role of Black women in spurring change through food and nutrition! 

Here are updates from the past month on progress toward the Friedman School’s Anti-Racism Action Plan:  

Culture & Environment

  • NEW Friedman School Award for Inclusive Excellence: This award honors those who, in their day-to-day work, actively foster an inclusive environment in the Friedman School community. Faculty and students are eligible for this award (for staff, inclusive excellence is also incorporated in the Friedman School Staff Recognition Award).  Faculty, staff, and students are welcome to participate in the award nomination review committee – if interested, please complete the Qualtrics form by Friday, 8 April. Many thanks to Courtney King, Maafs-Rodríguez, and Sarrah Chouiakh for all the work and thought that went into creating this award! 

Education

  • HUGE congratulations to the planning committee for the 2022 Research and Data Symposium for Food and Nutrition that took place at the beginning of the month! The theme this year was Diverse Perspectives: Emerging Topics in Nutrition Science Research.  With ~1100 participants from ~70 countries, ~45 US states, ~200 academic institutions, and ~300 professional organizations, the symposium was a central forum for interdisciplinary, intergenerational, multicultural discussions on the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in nutrition and public health.
  • The Friedman School Speaker Series featured some excellent, equity-focused talks this month:
    • On 2 March Darcy Freedman, PhD, MPH, Director of the Mary Ann Swetland Center for Environmental Health at Case Western Reserve University, School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio spoke on “Mechanisms Structuring Nutrition Equity in Neighborhood-based Food Systems” 
    • On 9 March Mariana Chilton, PhD, MPH, Professor of Health Management and Policy, Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University gave a thought-provoking talk, “From Food Insecurity Research to Courageous Action” 

Compositional Diversity

  • In February, we received some exciting news — Friedman School alum and Tufts Trustee Liz Cochary Gross has endowed a new professorship! The Friedman School Professorship for Nutrition Equity will go to a new faculty member who will focus on topics such as nutrition equity, nutrition and food security, food justice, and health disparities.

Public Impact

  • Food Is Medicine Congressional Roundtable: On Friday 4 March, Dean Mozaffarian, several Friedman students (Sylara Marie Cruz, Mengxi Du, Julia Hesse-Fong, Kurt Hager, Meghan O’Hearn, Lu Wang, and Hannah Weisman), along with several Boston-area leaders in the food is medicine space, met Representatives Jim McGovern (D-MA), Ed Perlmutter (D-CO), and Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA) to discuss action items related to this initiative. Food is medicine is an important initiative to improve health, advance health equity, and lower healthcare costs.
  • The efforts of the Friedman School and others are paying off! From the Federal Nutrition Policy Advisory Group website:  On Tuesday, March 15, President Biden signed the omnibus spending package into law, which included report language that directs the Health and Human Services Department “to convene a White House Conference on Food, Nutrition, Hunger, and Health in 2022, for the purpose of developing a roadmap to end hunger and improve nutrition by 2030.” The package acknowledges: “that levels of hunger, nutrition insecurity, and chronic disease in the United States are rising, and disproportionately afflict racial and ethnic minorities as well as low-income and rural populations.”

University-Level Activities

  • Funding is available for initiatives to help facilitate implementation of the recommendations that arose from the five workstreams of the University’s Antiracism Initiative. Friedman School community members may apply for funds for School-specific initiatives. To ensure alignment with both University and Friedman School action items and with Friedman School strategic priorities, proposals must be developed in collaboration with the Dean and ADDI. 
  • This is the LAST DAY to complete the Campus Climate Survey. I realize the survey itself could be improved, and I’ve passed along feedback on it for future surveys. It’s still important to make your voice heard on this survey! Please let me know if you haven’t received a link. 

EVENTS

TOMORROW 1st April: 2022 Tisch Community Research Forum.  Join online from 10am – 12:30pm. The forum highlights a selection of the diverse range of student-community collaborative research from across the university. With a keynote on community-engaged research with local and Tufts partners, the forum will host concurrent sessions with students and community partners to discuss their collaborative work and highlight research experiences across different academic fields at Tufts. RSVP:  https://bit.ly/35AiSlb

4 April: FoodSec25 Conference, 25 Years of Food Security Measurement. 10:30am to 5:30pm ET Registration & Agenda here! This event will include presentations by participants in a USDA small research grants program seeking to advance food security measurement. Presentation topics include: Developing a Disaster Food Security Scale, Structural Violence and Food Security, Personal Food Security, Measuring Food Insecurity in Latino Families, Abbreviated Child and Adult Food Security Scale, Use of USDA Food Security Survey Module with American Indian and Alaska Native Adults, Setting the Stage, and Overview of USDA Food Security Research. Supported by USDA/ERS in cooperation with Parke Wilde of Tufts University and Irma Arteaga of the University of Missouri.

4-24 April: Food Solutions New England will host its 8th version of the 21-Day Racial Equity Habit-Building Challenge. You commit to deepening your understanding of, and willingness to confront, racism for twenty-one consecutive days in April of 2021. The Challenge will raise your awareness, change your understanding and shift the way you behave. Use this link for more information and to register. For faculty and staff, the Block Career Center has organized a Friedman School team: in response to “Organization/School/Business affiliation (if applicable)”, please write “Tufts University”.  In response to “If you are based at a college or university, please indicate your department or program”, please write “Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy”.  Friedman School faculty and staff will meet virtually from 12pm to 1pm EST every Monday in April (excluding the week of 4/18, during which we will meet on Thursday 4/21) to discuss our learning as a group.  We will talk and process our learnings from the past week together in small groups.  This will be relatively free-form and unstructured.  We will break into smaller groups if the group gets too big. NOTE: SJID is hoping to also organize a team for students. Stay tuned! 

8 April: 5th Annual Black Maternal Health Conference. Free virtual conference. The topic is “The Role of Policy in Addressing Black Maternal Health Disparities.”

8 April: Last day to register for Unpacking Whiteness: A Consciousness Raising Dialogue Series for Graduate Students. All graduate students at Tufts are invited to sign up for the 6-week Unpacking Whiteness Dialogue Series. Unpacking Whiteness creates a space for participants to find community and support in learning and understanding how to practice anti-racism in their daily lives. Anti-racism is an active and ongoing process of identifying and eliminating racism by changing systems, organizational structures, policies, practices, and attitudes in a way that redistributes power, policy, and structures to be more equitable, while drawing attention to the lived experiences of Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color.  All sessions are led by a Tufts graduate student facilitator. Our facilitators seek to create a space where people can speak with candor about their personal experiences with race, racism, and Whiteness. Each session is 90-minutes long and groups will meet for six consecutive weeks. In addition to attending six 90-minute dialogues sessions, participants are provided with 3-5 readings/videos/podcasts, and accompanying reflection questions ahead of each week’s session. This is a virtual series and group sessions will take place on Zoom. Have questions? Reach out to Maddie Key for more information at madeline.key@tufts.edu.  Register for this series by Friday, April 8th.  

Mondays, 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM, Apr. 11, 18, 25 & May 2, 9, &16 (Facilitator: Daniela-Filipa Soltan) 

Mondays, 4:30 PM – 6:00 PM, Apr. 11, 18, 25 & May 2, 9, &16 (Facilitator: Ivy Clark-Dominguez) 

Tuesdays, 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM, Apr. 12, 19, 26 & May 3, 10, & 17 (Facilitators: Dana Tohme & Zainab Mohamed)  

Wednesdays, 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM, Apr. 13, 20, 27 & May 4, 11, & 18 (Facilitator: Julie Weber) 

Thursdays, 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM, Apr. 14, 21, 28 & May 5, 12, & 19 (Facilitator: Heather Miller) 

Fridays, 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM, Apr. 15, 22, 29 & May 6, 13, & 20 (Facilitator: Henry Chambers) 

29 April, 9 AM – 5 PM: Chief Diversity Officers are once again sponsoring the Women of Color in the Academyconference, being held virtually this year. You can learn more about the conference here: https://woc.northeastern.edu/#_ga=2.12266418.788117464.1621000339-1892725034.1620399785. As a result of Tufts sponsorship, we have 15 complimentary tickets available to distribute to members of the Tufts community. Please email lisa.bloom@tufts.edu with your interest. Preference will be given to those who have not previously received a complimentary ticket to the conference, and tickets will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. Please rest assured that if you are not able to secure one of the complimentary spots, you are still welcome to register for the conference on your own. 

18 May: Lavender Graduation 2022! 4-6pm | Register by April 13th! The LGBT Center is excited to announce Lavender Graduation 2022! Lavender Graduation (often affectionately called Lav Grad) is a celebration of LGBTQ+ students graduating from universities across the country. At Tufts, the LGBT Center aims to bring graduating students from our community together over food, laughter, and joy. All participants will receive a lavender cord to wear at commencement, a Lavender Graduation certificate of recognition, an exclusive LGBT Center shirt/sweatshirt (TBD), and other goodies! If you have a talent for design and creativity, we would love to see your ideas! Please keep in mind that the design should be relatively simple and the number of colors should be kept to a minimum for the purposes of printing on clothing. If you have any questions, please email Joel and/or Hope.

RESOURCES

Books:

Grants:

  • 2022 TCRC Student Minigrant Program: Students engaged in community research are invited to submit proposals for microgrant funding (rolling proposal deadline through June 6, 2022) for 2022 summer/fall projects with community partners. For more info: Student research RFP
  • 2022 TCRC Seed Grant Program: The Tisch College Community Research Center at Tufts (TCRC) has a round of seed funding available for faculty-community research. This is open to Tufts faculty and their community partners in any discipline, with awards up to $12,000. Application deadline: Monday, April 25, 2021, 5:00 PM EST.  For more information about the grant opportunity and to apply: Seed grant application To see a sample of previously funded projects: https://tischcollege.tufts.edu/research/tcrc. Please contact Elaine Donnelly at elaine.donnelly@tufts.edu with any questions

Sara C. Folta, PhD

Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion

Associate Professor