The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is committed to creating an antiracist learning and research environment. The Center for Anti-racism in Practice (CAP) provides Anti-racism education, training, organizational strategy development, and approaches to integrate the Roadmap to Address Racism. Using our three pillars—teaching and learning design, organizational and strategy development, and integration—CAP strives to build the capacity of the Icahn Mount Sinai’s leadership, faculty, staff, students, and postdoctoral trainees to disrupt and dismantle racism in medicine and science.
Our Story
Racism and bias in science and medicine have contributed to health care inequities for historically marginalized patients. This is no less true at Mount Sinai than at other medical schools across the country.
In an effort to expand the scope of Medical Education’s Racism and Bias Initiative to include the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, The Center for Anti-racism in Practice was created to formally integrate Anti-racism efforts across both schools.
With strong support from the Office for Diversity and Inclusion as well as the Deans of Medical Education and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, The Center for Anti-racism in Practice was founded in 2021 to serve as a shared hub to build collective capacity to address racism and bias in medicine and science. Meet our team.
Our Vision
We aim to become a key source of change in creating and maintaining Icahn Mount Sinai as an antiracist institution that actively engages in the ongoing process of dismantling interlocking systems of oppression and creating new systems of equity with a focus on racial justice.
Our Areas of Focus
Three strategic areas of focus drive our efforts to drive transformational change.
- Teaching and Learning Design: We build capacity among our educators to create inclusive and equitable learning environments grounded in antiracist pedagogy through:
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- Workshops: These sessions provide ongoing opportunities to engage in critical conversations and skill-building that foster an equitable, supportive, and inclusive environment committed to confronting racism and bias.
- Curriculum Clinics: Geared toward course and clerkship directors, these clinics re-evaluate our learning environments in terms of both content and pedagogy. Through a series of foundational workshops, faculty development opportunities, assessment tools and coaching sessions, curriculum clinics provide resources to help create inclusive learning environments and prepare students to identify and mitigate racism and bias.
- Organizational and Strategy Development: We provide learning opportunities for school leaders, faculty educators, mentors, and staff to build our collective capacity to become an antiracist institution through systems change work, strategic planning, and priority setting.
- Integration: We integrate current scientific research on race and disease in the learning and research environments and lead school-wide interventions on Anti-racism education and training as described in the Mount Sinai Health System Road Map to Address Racism.
We are also involved with a variety of initiatives, including:
The Icahn Mount Sinai Climate Survey: The Icahn Mount Sinai Climate Survey is providing us with a baseline understanding of people’s experiences related to diversity, equity, and inclusion at Icahn Mount Sinai. Designed in close partnership with key stakeholders in the education and research environment, the survey collects actionable information throughout the medical school, graduate school, and research-oriented departments to inform strategic planning and priority setting efforts.
The RBI x CAP Fellowship: The Department of Medical Education Racism and Bias Initiative (RBI) x CAP Fellowship provides a new opportunity for medical students to contribute to the existing body of Anti-racism work oriented towards systems change across the department. Fellows are compensated for their work on department-wide projects throughout the year, and receive mentorship and capacity-building training from Anti-racism thought leaders within the Department of Medical Education.
Common Language
The words we use to talk about power, privilege, racism, and oppression may hold different meanings for different people. We believe that in order to have meaningful conversations about these topics, it is helpful to establish a common language with agreed-upon definitions. To this end, we have developed a glossary of definitions to use in our discussions. View the key terms.