Dear Community,
Stanford Medicine is dedicated to a safe learning and work environment, free from sexual violence, harassment, discrimination, and retribution. As an academic medical center, we take this responsibility very seriously as well as our legal obligations under Title IX and other laws addressing sexual harassment and discrimination.
Above all, we embrace continuous learning and improvement as principles of this work, recognizing its urgency and that it remains unfinished.
In response to your outreach, and because we firmly believe it is critical to continuously reassess our systems and structures, we are launching a formal and impartial review of our practices. The review will be conducted by a subgroup of the Stanford Medicine Commission on Justice and Equity, which we are re-convening, along with additional community members, to form a Council on Community Safety and Accountability (CCSA). The council is charged with three core responsibilities:
-
Engage. Actively seek out insights, sentiments, and solutions from community members to inform ways that Stanford Medicine can improve how it addresses incidents of sexual harassment, discrimination, and assault.
-
Identify and Assess: Map out and learn from current practices and protocols within Stanford Medicine and across industries and sectors to inform campus safety, incident reporting, training programs, transparent communication, survivor support, and a fair and consistent adjudication process.
-
Blueprint for Safety and Accountability: Develop recommendations on new practices, policies, and initiatives to address gaps and reinforce existing work. Recommendations should give special consideration to strengthening and aligning Stanford Medicine and Stanford University practices. Once finalized, the council will share recommendations with the Stanford Medicine community.
Our goals for this work are to ensure that we have a culture of accountability at Stanford Medicine, enhance support for survivors, ensure a fair and consistent process for handling incidents, and improve communications while adhering to privacy considerations for survivors, Title IX, and other legal requirements.
You have our commitment that this council will act swiftly, transparently, and inclusively.
Sincerely,
Lloyd Minor, MD
Dean, Stanford School of Medicine
David Entwistle
President and CEO, Stanford Health Care
Paul King
President and CEO, Stanford Medicine Children's Health
