EDC Faculty member, Dr. Marnie Bertolet, receives Diversity in the Curriculum Awards

Nov 22, 2017 | News

Dr. Marnie Bertolet received the award for incorporation of diversity and inclusion topics in her class, EPIDEM 2181 – Design of Clinical Trials. Specifically, Dr. Bertolet incorporates diversity and inclusion in her course in multiple ways.  To hold herself accountable, she added a course objective to identify and address the impact of research on diverse populations.  To implement this,  she began with small but purposeful steps such as updating examples used in class and the homework assignments to include diverse populations.  To further engage the students, she added a requirement that students must address a diverse population into their semester long projects of writing clinical trial proposals.  Based on many of the courses she attended via the Provost’s Diversity Initiative and the Center for Teaching and Learning programs, she has become more comfortable talking about diversity in the classroom as a topic that underlies all decisions made.  Feedback from students on these changes has been positive, with one student saying “We have talked about racism and other diversity topics in many courses but the approach of it from a research perspective is very different. I think it’s a really important topic that’s not talked about enough and I’m very glad to see it included in this course.”

 

The Diversity in the Curriculum Awards celebrate and reward Pitt faculty who have participated in the Provost’s Diversity Institute for Faculty Development or in the University Center for Teaching and Learning’s faculty development programs in diversity, and who are making diversity and inclusiveness a part of their teaching practice. Sponsored by the Office of the Provost and the University Center for Teaching and Learning, the awards recognize excellence in areas such as updated curriculum, expanded cultural awareness, development of teaching methods that are especially inclusive and interactive, consciously created learning environments that are welcoming and inclusive, and other changes that positively impact aspects of diversity and inclusion in the classroom.

 

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