The recent deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor confront us yet again with the reality that inequality and injustice remain in our society. We are deeply saddened. We are committed to help find a path of healing within our medical community and underrepresented groups impacted by current events during this critical time.
The APDS stands in unity in promoting and supporting diversity, inclusivity and equality. We strive to instill these values while developing tangible action plans to improve our educational communities. Later this week, we will release a Diversity and Inclusion Tool Kit (a culmination of years of work), which will provide information to help program directors and surgery educators intentionally and effectively recruit and retain under-represented students and implement strategies to improve our culture of inclusivity. We will be promoting speakers across the country to educate faculty about the importance of diversity and we will be providing online forums to help under-represented students navigate the match process. In very tangible ways, we will continue to strive toward substantive change.
We are hopeful that despite the frustration and dismay that we are all able to appreciate true acts of humanity, recognize opportunities when steadfast leadership is paramount and respond to words of inspiration. We will continue to implement change and hope that the lives lost owing to social injustice will serve as a bridge to enact systematic reform.