The GMAP community, along with the rest of the world, has witnessed the events involving police brutality and racist violence, including countless murders of Black people in the United States. We stand in solidarity with anti-racist activists in the Black Lives Matter movement, and recognize that each individual story is part of a long history of centuries of white supremacy and racism that are still pervasive today. As part of the University of Maryland, GMAP endorses the University and Psychology Department’s commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion of all races and identities, and is proud to be a part of the University’s racially diverse and vibrant community of learners. At GMAP, our goal is to create and maintain an inclusive and accepting community for Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) and other underrepresented people that is present in academia and throughout our community-based work locally and globally.

GMAP strongly believes that words must be followed by actions. To quote Frederick Douglass: 

“I prayed for freedom for twenty years, but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.” 

To that end, we recognize the inadequacy of any single statement that is not followed by concrete steps. GMAP’s work towards anti-racism has started by reflecting on our lab’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and areas where we can take steps towards anti-racist action. Together we are dedicated to continuing to learn and educate ourselves, while committing to transparent steps toward change.

We have developed action teams (see below) within our lab to focus on four priority areas that cut across (1) student and staff recruitment; (2) research; (3) training; (4) lab communication in order to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion among our students, faculty, lab staff, clients and research endeavors. We are eager to share the structure and work of these action teams for ongoing feedback and in collaboration with other research laboratories. 

You can learn more about our team’s research and its impact on underserved and marginalized populations here. The foundation of our lab’s work is a desire to reduce health disparities and improve the lives of underserved, underrepresented, and marginalized individuals globally. We look forward to continuing to share the actions we will be implementing at GMAP, and we welcome your input and feedback. 

Sincerely,

The GMAP community

In solidarity with aapi communities

Please visit our news section for our statement of solidarity with AAPI communities.

GMAP Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Action Teams

DEI Student and Staff Recruitment and Retention Team

This Action Team is actively working on identifying and reducing structural barriers that underrepresented people experience when pursuing opportunities in academia generally, and strategies to reduce these barriers in our department and lab.  We are creating recruitment plans that aim to break down some of these barriers for GMAP applicants. This team is also creating a plan for efforts to ensure a welcoming lab environment that engages and retains researchers from all backgrounds at all levels.

DEI Research Action Team

This Action Team is focused on ideas to appropriately highlight the effects of racism and racial health inequities in our research. Efforts include identifying evidence-based, appropriate assessment measures to include in current and future proposals, prioritizing inclusivity in our academic outputs, and following guidance in the field regarding publishing on racism and racial health inequities (see Boyd et al., 2020, Health Affairs).

DEI Training Action Team

This Action Team is focused on identifying readings, resources, and training opportunities for our lab focused on anti-racism, racial health inequity research, and the historical context of the underserved communities where we work. This team is identifying priority resources for our regular lab and study meetings. Our team also has regularly volunteered in the communities where we work, and continuing to organize these types of activities to connect us to the communities where we do research is a priority of this team.

DEI Communication Action Team

This Action Team is writing and overseeing GMAP’s Diversity and Inclusion-related communications in order to convey our solidarity with the Black community in alignment with current events. This team is also actively working on ideas on how to gather and implement feedback on GMAP’s efforts to support underrepresented people throughout our academic and community-based work locally and globally. Feedback and communications will be regularly shared at our regular lab and study meetings.