The November 2019 COM Mentoring Dinner in the OMM Lab
Karissa and Fides both… advocating and fighting for COM to bring some kind of diversity to the community and continuing the conversation.”
Regina is co-owner of Cross Cultural Consulting Group, an organization run by two other women of color, Deqa Dhalac, MSW, MDP, and Abeir Ibrahim. Together, CCCG met with representatives from COM to develop the CPC. “I saw the hunger of the department so students and staff could understand,” Deqa recalls. “There was a need to know more about the communities in greater Portland and Maine in general.” All three women worked closely together through Portland’s Refugee Services program until it closed in June 2016. When they continued to receive calls from the community, they opened CCCG to provide trainings on communities of color, including refugee and immigrant populations in Maine. “There are so many different cultures that we have in our own understanding,” Deqa says of the collective expertise and experience of CCCG that enables them to act as a resource between communities of color and the medical communities within Maine. “Communication is the connection between all of those folks who are in the community. I can’t speak for everybody… We have people who come from different countries to come talk about their culture.” Regina reiterates, “we can bring in other communities because we know who those folks are to come and do a piece on that particular community.” In 2019, after the success of CCCG, and the increasing need for services, they started Cross Cultural Community Services, a 501 (C) 3 organization that advocates for cultural awareness and equity. The non-profit company is another resource for refugees, immigrants, and people of color in Maine, as well as service providers.
CCCG met with Student Doctor Rajagopal, Student Doctor Elamparo, Dr. Arafat, and Maryann Lecompte, MSEd, Director of Faculty and Staff Development for COM, to address the faculty/staff development piece. Through the expertise and dedication of Marilyn Gugliucci, MA, PhD, Professor and Director of Geriatrics Education and Research, they were able to obtain a grant to help pay to bring CCCG to campus for the conference. Together they developed a CPC that would address students’ personal biases, the overarching biases in medicine, and the resulting healthcare disparities for multicultural communities. The conference also aimed to identify solutions for students, faculty and staff to address their own biases, and implement those solutions within the larger healthcare community.
The CPC was mostly student-run and driven, with members of EDAC volunteering as facilitators, and COM faculty participating as students. At the initial start of the conference, Student Doctor Rajagopal set the tone by asking students to “be comfortable with being uncomfortable.” Dr. Gugliucci started things off by presenting on the importance of all forms of communication. A staggering 93% of what we communicate is through voice/tone and body language. Everything from how you dress, how you move, and your proximity to others communicates something whether intentional or not. She reminds the audience, “It is the whole package that makes a difference.”
Afterward, CCCG presented “Culture and Health