Stanford Medical 'diversity mini-grants' fund events like 'Black Girl Brunch'
Grant applicants must 'seek to advance justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts in Graduate Medical Education' to be considered eligible.
Stanford Medicine is seeking to fund diversity research and programs under a grant that previously bankrolled an event called “Black Girl Brunch.”
The Office of Diversity in Medical Education at Stanford University Medicine is currently asking for applications for thousands of dollars in “diversity mini-grants” for this coming year.
Applicants must “seek to advance justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts in Graduate Medical Education” to be considered eligible, according to the Office’s description page. Among the questions on the application form is, “How will your engagement advance DEI efforts in Stanford GME?”
The Office expects to award five to six recipients with up to $2,000 each.
Those who receive the awards may use them for various purposes, including research in “eliminating the nation’s health inequities,” creating events “to foster inclusion and belonging,” or attending a conference to develop professional skills. Applications close in November, and the Office will notify recipients at the end of April.
The same grant funded four proposals in 2023. The Office gave grant money to facilitators for “Black Girl Brunch,” an event intended to “foster a sense of inclusion among the Black women trainees at Stanford Medicine.” The Office’s page describes it as “created by Black women for Black women to bring Black trainees across all specialties at Stanford Medicine together.”
The Office also funded a similar occasion for men, which the award recipients intended “for the gentlemen underrepresented in medicine at Stanford.” Campus Reform emailed the grant recipients to ask whether this meant non-diverse men could not attend. Neither recipient responded.
The other two projects that received money from the grant last year were research projects about skin diseases.
One condition for accepting an award is agreeing to present outcomes, such as media or testimonials, at the Office’s Diversity and Inclusion Forum, a half-day program aimed at helping each attendee “become an effective change agent for diversity, equity, and inclusion in medical education,” according to the Forum’s page. This coming year will be the seventh time the Office has held the Forum.
Campus Reform has reported on previous instances of universities offering mini-grants for diversity and social justice. In June, Campus Reform detailed how UNC is providing faculty with up to $7,000 for DEI research under several different programs.
Campus Reform contacted the Stanford Office and the recipients named for comment. This story will be updated accordingly.
