ASCO Holds Diversity-Related Town Hall Series

ASCO Holds Diversity-Related Town Hall Series

The ASCO Diversity and Cultural Competency Committee (DCCC) held two online town hall events in April. The first town hall “Creating a Brave Space for AAPI Faculty” was held April 13 to discuss Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) discrimination and hate crimes, and it focused on the importance of having an honest and open dialogue about challenges faced by AAPI members of the optometric education community, with the main goal of empowering faculty to help their own school/college communities deal with these ongoing issues.

The discussion was introduced by Dr. Michael Lu, Dean of the University of California at Berkeley School of Public Health, and featured Dr. Gary Chu of The New England College of Optometry (and founder and former chair of ASCO’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Special Interest Group), and Dr. Mary Hoang of the Southern College of Optometry as discussion facilitators. More than 100 ASCO faculty and administrators participated.

“ASCO's ‘Creating a Brave Space for AAPI Faculty’ provided an environment for AAPI faculty to openly share their experiences and struggles. Through honest dialogue and a space where people felt heard, the afflicted were comforted and the comfortable was afflicted," according to Dr. Chu.

A second town hall titled, “ASCO Talk, Listen, Care, Heal” was held April 22 just after the guilty verdicts in the trial of Derek Chauvin to create a space for dialogue about the trial, verdict, reactions and ramifications for the future. The event was co-moderated by Dr. Ruth Shoge of Salus University Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO), the current chair of ASCO’s Diversity and Cultural Competency Committee, and Dr. Clyde W. Oden, Jr., a Senior Consultant with the Manna Group, LLC. Kerlin Hyppolite, a New Jersey attorney specializing in criminal defense at Afonso, Archie, and Foley, was also on hand to offer his legal insight into the trial and to answer questions regarding the verdict and future sentencing. Almost 90 attendees participated in the conversation. Dr. Shoge commented, “While Chauvin was found guilty for the murder of George Floyd, we wanted to reiterate the importance that the work we are doing to diversify our students, faculty, staff and administrators and our pursuit of equitable and inclusive treatment continues.” She added, “It is my hope that conversations like these will continue to foster understanding and humility in the way we speak, listen and care for one another.” She continued, “In the words of Sam Cook, ‘A Change is Gonna Come,’ and that change is coming – we are at the forefront of being an example of what that change looks like.”  

ASCO plans to continue the town hall conversation series in hopes of exploring additional ways for optometric educators to address systemic racism and promote awareness about societal diversity, equity and inclusion-related issues, and to play a role in the healing process and in fostering belonging among all persons of color.