By all accounts, the last two years have proved to be a time of painful moments and promising movements.

PHMC’s decades long work in some of our region’s most vulnerable communities placed us front and center to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the virus gained momentum, our country was shaken by a series of violent, racist crimes that did not go unnoticed, but instead galvanized communities to respond. The ripples of dual pandemics were felt across the world.

 PHMC’s acknowledgment of racism as a public health crisis has underscored policy and advocacy agendas in our regional and national work. We used this difficult season to recommit our efforts to encourage diversity, achieve equity and foster inclusion. We knew that our employees — many of whom are essential to the communities in which they serve — would need support, and so we began to think strategically about what we could do and how we could do it. We worked to understand what matters most to our team members, to facilitate actions that would resonate with them. What grew from that understanding was the framework for a formal, institutional and sustainable diversity, equity and inclusion plan that supports employees and creates greater opportunity for the communities we serve, now and into the future.

This plan has been meaningfully added as the foundation to PHMC’s current Strategic Plan.

We’re proud to share this report with you and hope you will see it for what it truly represents – our path forward, together, toward a true belonging for all our colleagues
and communities.

Yours in equity and public health,

Richard J. Cohen, President and CEO

Celeste Collins, Chief People and Inclusion Officer