Welcome to the Alliance for Visible Diversity in Science!

We focus on one central mission- to increase visible diversity within the Graduate Studies programs at Oregon Health and Science University by recruiting, retaining, and most importantly, supporting graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, staff, and faculty members from underrepresented backgrounds. 


​A snapshot of why active racial inclusion is important:

February Newsletter


Refer to Calendar for details

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AVDS members with Michelle Jones-London (left) and Gary Westbrook (right).
We hope you enjoyed Dr. Michelle Jones-London's Vollum Special seminar and learned about the dearth of minorities in neuroscience and the many opportunities the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) now offers for underrepresented minorities. If you did not attend the seminar you can view a recording of the seminar here (OHSU login required).
BERG: Black History Month Events
The OHSU Black Employee Resource Group (BERG) has organized several events for Black History Month including:

Feb 1st : Book Drive collection for The Children’s Book Bank starts

Feb 22nd: Fireside Chat with Justice Adrienne Nelson, the first African-American to serve on the Oregon Supreme Court, and Dr. Danny Jacobs, OHSU President

Full list of BERG Black History Month events and times
OHSU Happenings
Neuroscience Post-Baccalaureate Initiative
The 2019 Neuroscience Post-Baccalaureate Initiative application is now open. Click here to learn about the current post-bacs and and application requirements for the upcoming cycle.

Respect at the University
A revised Respect at the University booster training is now available on Compass. The training takes thirty minutes and if you have feedback about the module please contact AAEO at aaeo@ohsu.edu.
Respect at the University Booster

Relational Leadership Institute
Are you interested in developing you leadership skills? Take a look at this opportunity from the Relational Leadership Institute at OHSU (flyer).

Hello: The next session of the Relational Leadership Institute (RLI) launching in March 2019, here in Portland. The RLI launched in 2017 because increasing numbers of our colleagues from a variety of health professionals were sharing that:
  • they were experiencing burnout and a sense of dissatisfaction with important aspects of their day-to-day professional work;
  • they felt isolated, and sought a community of supportive peers who were also learning how to be more effective leaders and create a more relational culture in their workplace;
  • there was a “gap” in leadership practices for building teams, dealing with conflict, and developing innovation work in an authentically relational and collaborative manner.
RLI is a 3-month leadership learning collaborative bringing together a diverse, interprofessional, cross-generational group of health professionals to develop critical Relational Leadership practices. Relational Leadership helps participants accelerate their clinical, advocacy, and innovation efforts through complementing technical skills (“what” and “how”) with the relational practices (“who” and “why”) needed to create impactful change.
The RLI was created by Primary Care Progress (PCP) and is being sponsored by OHSU’s Department of Family Medicine, School of Medicine, and School of Nursing. We’ve completed program evaluations for the first 2 cohorts with powerful results, including 100% of participants reporting that they learned practical skills that will help them in their work, and intend to use these skills in the future.

We invite health professionals/students of all backgrounds to apply. Attached is some basic information about RLI.
We have a donation page on our website now!
If you want to support our cause, please consider donating! Any amount helps!
a4vdis.weebly.com/donate.html
The Alliance for Visible Diversity in Science
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About AVDS







What I have learned from these experiences about surviving as an underrepresented minority in the sciences is that many such students do not take proactive steps to reach out, seek help, and get answers to concerns they have. They wait for someone to come to them. But they must learn how to reach out in order to survive. For institutions, creating a culture of inclusion and a space for these students to air their thoughts is a great help."

​​– Erich Jarvis, Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center