Lee Pellegrini摄
今天，在求职网站Indeed上搜索“多样性、公平性和包容性”.玉米产量超过11,波士顿地区的1000个结果, but Juan Fernando Lopera ’99 entered the field when that number was closer to zero. 那是2015年, and the Carroll School of Management graduate was working for Tufts Health Plan while devoting his spare time to projects focused on increasing opportunities for people of color. 他找到他的老板，想要一个可以让他同时做这两件事的新角色, 并因此成为了该组织的第一位多元化官员. 今年夏天, 洛佩拉被任命为另一个就职角色, 这次是作为首席多样性官, 股本, 和包容 officer at Beth Israel Lahey Health—a network of 12 hospitals and more than 80 practices that employs 36,每年为100多万名患者提供服务. 上任两个月了, 电子游戏软件 caught up with Lopera to discuss his rise in the field and how current events have shifted the conversation around healthcare 股本.
你的前八周过得怎么样?
这是一场旋风般的经历. I’ve spent the majority of my time visiting hospitals and there’s such an in-depth demand for this work, 但也有很大程度的焦虑看到进展, 哪一个, 对我来说, 是生火的燃料吗. The murder of George Floyd and COVID’s disproportionate impact on Black and Latinx communities, 真的让这一刻不那么短暂了吗, 而是一场运动, 人们对看到未来的影响很感兴趣.
你的首要任务是什么?
人、病人和社区. For people, striving for representation at all levels, mirroring the communities we serve. For patients, aiming to transform care delivery to dismantle barriers to equitable health outcomes. 促进经济融合, working to address wealth inequality by providing more opportunities for diverse vendors and suppliers in our region. 当然, 在所有这三个领域，我们都需要衡量我们的影响，以便, 五年后, 我们将知道我们是否真的有所作为.
当前的政治气候对你的工作有何影响? Have you found that some of the issues you're working on have become more politicized?
这是让我保持清醒的东西, 认识到这一主题的多样性, 股本, 包容是一段旅程，每个人都走在不同的道路上. 可能会产生分歧. 与员工沟通时, my approach is always anchoring back to whatever it is that you're in business for. 我们的工作是提供更好的医疗服务, and I think we as a system can transform care delivery by dismantling barriers to equitable health outcomes and by becoming a premier place to recruit, 保留, 培养多元化人才.
What was your reaction to the health disparities brought to light by the COVID-19 pandemic?
当我看到切尔西发生的事, 布罗克顿, and Lawrence—that cases were significantly higher by multiples of the state average—I was not surprised at all because of my own lived experience as an immigrant. 成长的过程中, we shared an apartment in Boston with eight other people and my family was part of the essential workforce, 工作两班倒，有时做三份不同的工作. Asthma was something we were predisposed to just through insufficient heat during winter and AC in the summer. Everything that transpired last year brought me back to being that 12-year-old living in those conditions.
If we want to tackle health inequality, we have to start with the social determinants of health. 我们可以 have the most advanced healthcare system and the most amazing technology, but until we go upstream and begin to address issues like housing and access to services, 我认为我们会一次又一次地面对这些结果.
解决这个问题的第一步是什么?
解决方案的一部分就是提高透明度. Sometimes it takes a pandemic to really roll up your sleeves and do stuff we've never done before. 在COVID, 不像以往任何时候, we were able to collect better data around race in the city and set up better tools to analyze the disparities. 我们可以, 在任意点上, 看看任何邮政编码或种族索引, 看看哪里受到的影响最大.
I think a similar type of infrastructure is needed for just health in股本 in aggregate. I would like for there to be a way for us 对我来说asure a health 股本 score—a composite of measures of quality broken down by race—where we can track the impact of an initiative or policy change on real lives.
你是从医疗保健的商业方面开始的. 这段经历如何影响你在多元化、公平和包容性方面的工作?
I've always approached this work as a moral imperative, but also as a business imperative. 我从医疗保险公司来的, so the business imperative there was very clear—there was a big missed opportunity when our customers were not as diverse as the demographics where we did business, 所以我们抓住了这个机会.
我把同样的思维框架应用到护理服务方面, 看看我们的整个系统, 当前患者人口统计, and projecting how the area we serve is going to continue to increase in diversity. The reality is that healthcare capabilities are just not keeping up with that growth and that demand for cultural competence, 语言访问, 以及满足不同人群需求的创新理念. 作为一个行业，我们需要围绕它进行变革和创新.
When you graduated from BC, did you ever see yourself going into this type of work?
I had no idea what I was going to do after BC so I entered consulting and quickly learned that I had a passion for the mission behind healthcare. My career has been three-quarters just immersed in the business side of healthcare but diversity, 股本, 包容一直是我的一部分, based on my own background as someone who struggled to make it and who was given such an amazing opportunity by BC.
当我毕业并开始我的职业生涯, I was always doing a lot of work outside of the four walls of whatever organization I was involved with, 作为一种回报的方式. I think BC instilled that in me—the desire to make an impact that's beyond your regular call of duty.
你觉得你工作的哪个方面最有价值?
对我来说, it's having interactions with folks that seem small but could make a difference in that person’s career. 我的整个职业生涯都从中受益. 有时只是看到有人经历过类似的挣扎, 或者有和我相似的生活经历, 和思考, ‘哇, 那个人成功了, 也许有一天我也会这样.’ I always prioritize individual exchanges because it’s remarkable the kind of impact they can have.
你会给那些对多样性感兴趣的人什么建议, 股本, 把包容作为职业道路?
I think my biggest skill for doing this work has been blending the business knowledge with the lived experience. I'm an expert in healthcare who happens to be very passionate about diversity, 股本, 和包容, 我认为这种混合非常重要. 当我参与多元化讨论时, I'm at the table with an understanding of how to run the business and then using my diversity lens to say, ‘Oh, 我们是这么想的吗?’
给一个对DEI感兴趣的年轻人, 我想说的是，抓住机会学习这个话题, 哪个领域的发展如此迅速, but always consider immersing yourself in and understanding the business you’re in. 无论是营利还是非营利, 总有一种多样性的含义, 但你必须立足于你所生产的东西，这样才能有效.
Alix Hackett |大学传播| 2021年8月