Survey now open – please share your input

Dear School of Medicine community,

The next phase for the Task Force on Climate and Culture is an anonymous School of Medicine survey.

The Task Force on Climate and Culture requests ALL faculty, students, trainees and staff to complete this survey so that we hear everyone’s perspectives on working at WashU School of Medicine. This survey is a critical part of the Task Force’s efforts to identify what aspects of the WashU Medicine culture are strong and where we need to focus our efforts for improvement. Our aim is to improve and then sustain a culture of safety and inclusion here. Your input in this survey will help move us closer to where we all need and want to be.

Here are some details about the survey:

  • The schoolwide survey will only take about 15 minutes to complete, and responses will be anonymous and confidential. The survey opens today and will close Thursday, June 22.
  • Our external consultant, Catalyst — a global, nonprofit organization focused on improving workplace inclusion — created the survey, will receive the responses directly, and will analyze the responses. No one at WashU will ever have access to individual responses or identifiable results, nor will anyone at WashU track who responds to the survey invitation. The IP address used to respond to the survey is not collected. As an additional layer of protection, if any subgroup has fewer than 15 responses, the Task Force will not receive data pertaining to that subgroup; those individuals’ data will be aggregated into data from larger groups.
  • Called the Catalyst Inclusion Accelerator survey, this is a proprietary survey that has been administered to hundreds of large organizations around the world and is focused on inclusion in the workplace.
  • Late this summer, Catalyst will provide results of the survey to the Task Force, along with its analyses of data gathered through focus groups and one-on-one leader interviews. The Task Force then will work with Catalyst to interpret the results, generate recommendations and, finally, draft a report. We anticipate the report will be available by the end of 2023.

We encourage and deeply appreciate your participation in this very important process. If you have any questions or comments regarding the survey or any other feedback for the Task Force, please email us at medculture@wustl.edu or contact us anonymously through the website.

Most sincerely,

Benjamin Garcia, PhD, co-chair
Raymond H. Wittcoff Distinguished Professor and Head of the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics

Dineo Khabele, MD, co-chair
Mitchell & Elaine Yanow Professor and Head of the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology

Renée Shellhaas, MD, MS, administrative director
David T. Blasingame Professor of Neurology and Associate Dean for Faculty Promotions & Career Development