Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
A Diverse Community
Augusta University Health is a diverse community made up of a team of specialized caregivers, including medical and research professionals, offering advanced health care services in a 478-bed adult hospital, the 154-bed Children’s Hospital of Georgia, the Georgia Cancer Center, and more than 80 outpatient clinics across Georgia and South Carolina. We offer the most comprehensive and complex cancer care and telestroke network. We are the region’s only Level I Trauma Center and only Level IV Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for critically ill infants with an air transport team. Our services are as diverse as our staff and the community we serve. Even with the success we are experiencing as a health system, we are determined to do better.
Steps We're Taking
To that end in the summer 2020 AU Health created a DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) Committee to begin addressing the unique needs of our health system and the community we serve. In February 2021, Brennan Francois was asked to serve as the Executive Advisor for DEI. Under Brennan’s leadership, together with the DEI Committee, we are developing a strategic plan that prioritizes and communicates the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion in the overall mission and operation of AU Health. The Executive Advisor:
- serves as a resource to incorporate diversity, equity and inclusion into the practices, programs, policies and procedures of AU Health
- collaborates with all levels of management and executive leadership to develop DEI competencies.
- seeks to establish strong relational ties with the community AU Health serves, allowing AU Health to partner with the community, and working together to eliminate health disparities that hinder the giving of care to underserved populations.
Our Commitment
Whether developing ways to diversify our leadership and our workforce, or deepening our connection with the community, we are committed to strengthening, reinforcing and sustaining a more inclusive and representative workplace based on equity and inclusion. We are committed to being a top-tier health care system offering opportunity, advancement, and access for all. We are excited about the future of AU Health and even more excited about partnerships with our neighbors in the community we serve.
Learning = Growth
With the ability to learn about and from each other, we will be better prepared to communicate, to acknowledge, and to celebrate our valuable differences. Our diversity allows us to learn, adjust, grow and thrive. This is the spirit of AU Health.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
A Diverse Community
Augusta University Health is a diverse community made up of a team of specialized caregivers, including medical and research professionals, offering advanced health care services in a 478-bed adult hospital, the 154-bed Children’s Hospital of Georgia, the Georgia Cancer Center, and more than 80 outpatient clinics across Georgia and South Carolina. We offer the most comprehensive and complex cancer care and telestroke network. We are the region’s only Level I Trauma Center and only Level IV Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for critically ill infants with an air transport team. Our services are as diverse as our staff and the community we serve. Even with the success we are experiencing as a health system, we are determined to do better.
Steps We're Taking
To that end in the summer 2020 AU Health created a DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) Committee to begin addressing the unique needs of our health system and the community we serve. In February 2021, Brennan Francois was asked to serve as the Executive Advisor for DEI. Under Brennan’s leadership, together with the DEI Committee, we are developing a strategic plan that prioritizes and communicates the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion in the overall mission and operation of AU Health. The Executive Advisor:
- serves as a resource to incorporate diversity, equity and inclusion into the practices, programs, policies and procedures of AU Health
- collaborates with all levels of management and executive leadership to develop DEI competencies.
- seeks to establish strong relational ties with the community AU Health serves, allowing AU Health to partner with the community, and working together to eliminate health disparities that hinder the giving of care to underserved populations.
Our Commitment
Whether developing ways to diversify our leadership and our workforce, or deepening our connection with the community, we are committed to strengthening, reinforcing and sustaining a more inclusive and representative workplace based on equity and inclusion. We are committed to being a top-tier health care system offering opportunity, advancement, and access for all. We are excited about the future of AU Health and even more excited about partnerships with our neighbors in the community we serve.
Learning = Growth
With the ability to learn about and from each other, we will be better prepared to communicate, to acknowledge, and to celebrate our valuable differences. Our diversity allows us to learn, adjust, grow and thrive. This is the spirit of AU Health.
What is Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion?
Diversity is about a rich mix of differences.
It encompasses all the dimensions that make each person one of a kind, including ethnicity, race, age, sexual orientation, gender, spirituality, religious beliefs, experiences, and more. A diverse group, community, or organization is one in which a variety of social and cultural characteristics exist.
Equity levels the playing field.
The guarantee of fair treatment, access, opportunity, and advancement for all, while striving to identify and eliminate barriers that have prevented full participation of some groups. Tackling equity issues requires an understanding of the root causes of outcome disparities within our society. Equity is the process of ensuring that processes and programs are impartial, fair and provide equal possible outcomes for every individual.
Inclusion is about each person feeling valued and connected.
Everyone thrives in an environment where our inherent worth is recognized, we can be safe to express our authentic selves and we know we belong to something bigger.
Statement of Unity
Augusta University Health, and all of the entities connected to us, are a beautiful array of people, from varied places, disciplines, professions, experiences, cultures, ethnic backgrounds, genders, ages and so much more. While we collectively and professionally carry out our assignments, while we display the symbols and wear the colors of AU with honor, and while we boldly proclaim with pride in the words of our president, "Go Jags!", the heart and value of who we are, that which truly unites us, that which makes us AU strong, resides in our ability to connect, while growing to understand the unique and exceptional qualities each and every individual, whether leaders, staff, patients, families, or those from the larger community, bring to this AU family.
Brennan Francois
Chief Diversity Officer - Augusta University Health
It was the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King who said while speaking to a crowd gathered in St. Louis in 1964, "We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools." For over 25 years, I have been honored to share conversations and experiences with many people in our AU family. These conversations and experiences bring Dr. King’s quote into our present day. As a result, when encountering me, you might hear me reference you as brother or sister. The hope in doing this is to bring us closer together while acknowledging that all who are part of AU are family.
When it comes to conversations related to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability or other areas of diversity, we tend to hesitate, or simply keep quiet. We reason these are not topics for mixed or polite company. That is, until there is a national event that pulls at the heart of the masses. Events like the 1995 O.J. Simpson murder verdict; or the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks; of the 2016 shooting inside Pulse, a gay night club in Orlando, Florida; the very public death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020; or most recently, the many of acts of violence toward our Asian-American brothers and sisters, or the anxiety many people in our community felt during the trial and after the verdict in the Derek Chauvin case. At AU Health, we will not be silent. We embrace the challenges and the benefits of diversity together. We move forward communicating intentionally, with a collective heart of compassion and empathy.
As a health system we stand prepared to listen and to learn. We are here to show solidarity and support. Through courageous conversations within our AU family, combined with meaningful action, we seek to illustrate our ability to consistently come together, to compassionately walk and talk together. We are here to remind each other that when one laughs, we all laugh and when one cries, we all cry. We are here to say to our collective AU family, and to the patients and communities we serve, we see you, we hear you, we believe you and we will work together with you to promote healing, to create harmony, to build unity and to produce a penetrating excitement that is felt at AU by everyone, reminding all of us, every day, in every place, regardless of, where we come from, what we look like, how we dress or eat or style our hair, or how we worship, celebrate or how we grieve, we are, all of us AU family. As a family, we exist and function as a fair, equitable and inclusive organization that aligns with and supports our patients, their families, our workforce and the communities around us.