Otolaryngologist Discusses What Equity, Diversity Meant to Her Career

DT: Self-reflection and acknowledgment of the gap with intentional personal and institutional investment in the change, combined with the understanding of the importance of the “why” behind the need to evolve and change, are vital. While we need leaders and participants who will inspire others, without alignment of resources and incentivized support of these efforts, change will remain incremental. Personal and institutional accountability will be necessary to sustain change.

We’ve reached the stage where we need to implement changes and not just listen to people speak about change. I think we’re better at listening now than we were. And that step was important: As a group, we needed to learn how to listen. Now we need to work on implementation.

Dr. Rapoport is an attending physician in otolaryngology/head and neck surgery at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and an assistant professor at Georgetown University in the department of otolaryngology.