Top: photo by Holly Haywood; Pride Month social media campaign by UNE Communications Department; Bottom: Dr. Dubé, panel of speakers and MSPA members at the On Doctoring Session
Recruitment, Student and Alumni Services (RSAS) now provides pins for students to display preferred pronouns on their white coats. Curricularly, students in the Medical Student Pride Alliance lead first-year students in how to take an inclusive history and physical. Dr. Benoit Dubé, Penn’s Chief Wellness Officer, speaks to first-years about health disparities for the LGBTQI+ community as part of the On Doctoring curriculum. We held ArtCOM, an art exhibit featuring work from our UNE COM
community on the topic of “The UNE COM We Strive to Be,” where I showcased a piece entitled, “Queering UNE COM,” a collage that blends queer theory and practice and urges us to “really see one another, and occupy unexplored, queer spaces.” For me, all advocacy, not just queer advocacy, works in reciprocity. Rather than students, faculty and professional staff advocating in isolation within our own spheres… or boxes… we should be intentional, intergenerational, and intersectional, interrupting normative patterns of thought and action, redefining, reimagining and reframing what advocacy looks like at UNE COM.
This edition is a collection of work, perspectives and advocacy from our expanding UNE COM community, celebrating how far we’ve come and acknowledging how far we have to go. My hope is that this issue connects us and encourages us to continue to build a community for one another and for our patients who need it, to feel safe, to have space, to be heard.