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Michael Carrese (Host):  Welcome to Inspiring Health, a series of conversations with Roxanna Gapstur and other WellSpan leaders about WellSpan 2025. I’m Michael Carrese and Roxanna, it is good to be with you again. What are we going to be talking about today?

Roxanna Gapstur PhD, RN (Guest):  Yeah, we’re going to be talking about diversity and inclusion today.

Host:  And you have a guest with you to help with that?

Roxanna:  I do. Kim Brister is our Senior Director for Talent Acquisition, Diversity and Inclusion.

Host:  And Kim, as I understand it, somebody with your position might be thinking about the fact that today is National Pronoun Day. What’s that all about?

Kimberly Brister, MBA (Guest):  In the LGBTQ community, it’s always important to recognize individuals where they are in their journey. And so typically, a diversity leader when introducing themselves will use their pronouns and my preferred pronouns are, she and her.

Host:  That is very important. Becoming more – I think more awareness of it in the healthcare world because we’re a people business and we deal with customers every day.

Kimberly:  Being able to of course recognize people and identify them as the way they choose to be identified is critically important to one of our initiatives which is Know Me and so getting to know a patient in that capacity is critically important to their healthcare needs.

Host:  So Roxanna, let’s start with the big picture. What does WellSpan think about diversity?

Roxanna:  WellSpan thinks diversity is very important to our business. We really embrace the idea that a diverse workforce and an inclusive environment creates the best organizational outcomes, better experience for our patients and better ideas and hopefully a competitive advantage.

Host:  What do you mean by that?

Roxanna:  Well just think about all of the different people who could come to the table on any particular healthcare problem. The more diverse the perspectives; the more you get multiple solutions and ideas out on the table to solve any problem that you might have. And what I’ve seen is that the more we broaden our scope and our horizon on those ideas; the more successful we can be.

Host:  Kim is there a difference between diversity and inclusion?

Kimberly:  Yes, there is. Diversity is essentially the demographics of an organization. It refers to all the human characteristics, experiences and work behaviors that make us unique. On the other hand, inclusion is the ability to make every person feel welcomed, respected and valued and have the individual freedom to express their uniqueness in a safe and supportive environment so they can do their best work and achieve their goals.

Host:  And this is already baked into the values you are talking about in WellSpan 2025; respect for all, working as one. Is that what you’re trying to capture?

Kimberly:  We want every single person to feel as though that they have a voice and they are two key individuals that really help us in this journey. So, each of the values and principles are our foundation of creating a diverse and more importantly inclusive environment. And this journey requires participation of every employee in order for us to be able to reach our full potential.

Host:  Do you think people really feel like outsiders at WellSpan?

Kimberly:  Well I wouldn’t necessarily say they feel like outsiders, however, not everyone feels as though they have a voice, or their contributions are as valued as some of their peers. I firmly believe that we have an opportunity to change those perceptions and create a culture where each person believes their contributions are important to WellSpan’s strategic goals.

Host:  So, Roxanna already mentioned a couple of benefits of having a diverse workforce and more people at the table, more voices involved and having an inclusive environment. What are some benefits that you would add to that?

Kimberly:  Well I think the benefits are endless to be quite honest and Roxanna actually shared some of the same sentiments that I have. But it does, it helps us improve patient experiences and healthcare outcomes. Companies that exhibit gender and ethnic diversity are 15 to 35% more likely to outperform those that don’t by participating in multi-perspective problem solving and it makes sure that we are able to compete in a rapidly changing market. We want to be the desired place of choice for healthcare needs within our diverse communities and improve healthcare disparities. So, it just enables us to have a better understanding of who we are as WellSpan employees but then also enables us to better understand the communities in which we serve our patients.

Host:  Roxanna, what’s your vision for diversity and inclusion and how quickly do you think the organization needs to move in that direction?

Roxanna:  My vision for WellSpan itself is to be one of the most inclusive organizations in healthcare, hopefully in the next 12 to 24 months and that requires that we really do things differently. It’s one of the reasons that we promoted Kim to the position of Diversity and Inclusion is we wanted to have a strong organizational focus. And our board, and senior leaders and all of our leaders have made a really strong commitment to supporting the steering team that Kim is leading so that they can make recommendations to us for improving and really the embedding best practices in all areas of our organization. So, that’s really my vision for diversity and inclusion.

Host:  And if you boil it down to the average employee, what should they be thinking about? How do they help contribute to this?

Roxanna:  I think for employees it’s really important for them to think about staying curious about things they don’t know about versus thinking and judging different things and I think Kim and her team are really going to help us understand how do we stay curious. How do we have respect for all? And then how do we think about health equity in our daily work? So, do all aspects of our community, all people in our community have access to the right healthcare?

Host:  Curiosity is an interesting concept as part of this. Kim what do you think about that?

Kimberly:  In order to get to know one another, you have to kind of listen, believe and learn from your team members that may have different background or experiences than your own. I think that our employees need to get comfortable with the uncomfortable because sometimes it is this topic can be a little uncomfortable. But that’s the way that you are able to grow and expand. I think that there are opportunities for us to kind of just not be afraid to talk, to show courage and then when people don’t get it right, show some grace, assume positive intent in our interactions with one another.

Host:  So, what are some steps Kim, that WellSpan is taking right now along these lines?

Kimberly:  Well the steering committee has begun initially looking at some of our policies and procedures and how those policies help us better care for our patients. We are also looking at our internal policies with our employees. We are looking at opportunities to of course expand on this knowledge as well as make this initiative more present and visible to our employees and then working towards creating opportunities for our employees to share their voices and help us guide this work down the right path.

Host:  What are some of those opportunities?

Kimberly:  Some of the opportunities for us are to be able to first give our employees a voice. Give them an opportunity to share what their thoughts are in this particular space. I receive emails probably several emails a week in regards to heh Kim, have you thought about bringing in this speaker or have you thought about this particular topic and we just want to encourage them to continue to share their ideas. That they of course have a voice, that they are a part of this work and that their thoughts are important to everything that we do and how we care for our patients and take care of one another.

Host:  So, Roxanna of all of those things that Kim is talking about, what would you pull out as a really significant piece that’s going to get WellSpan where you want it to be?

Roxanna:  I think using those ideas from our diverse steering team is going to be really important. I do think policies and procedures are important and I think embedding certain practices in our organization is going to be critical for us as we move forward. And so how do we recruit for positions? How do we interview for those positions? How can we be aware of our own unconscious bias as individuals around race and other characteristics? So, those are really important pieces and in fact, this fall, we’re having something called team chats which I think we’ve mentioned before. And part of each team chat is going to be a discussion and an interactive dialog with out employees on diversity and inclusion. So, we’re really excited to have that interactive dialog with 19,000 team members because we know we’ll come up with even better ideas of how we can be a more inclusive culture here at WellSpan.

Host:  Talk a little bit more about unconscious bias. What can people do to figure out what biases they may have?

Roxanna:  Yeah, I think Kim is a great expert on that. So, I’m going to let her answer that question.

Kimberly:  Well one area Harvard has created an implicit association test that individuals can take, and it really helps you become aware of what biases that you may have. And recognize that we all have biases in one way shape or form but it’s recognizing them and then acknowledging them when you do realize that you have a bias and actively counteracting that bias and opening your mind to learning about other individuals. So, that’s a really great tool that individuals can take and it’s online.

Host:  And in fact, yeah, the web address for that is www.wellspan.org/blindspot. So, as we wrap up here, if you both could weight in a little bit on what you really want people to think about as they walk away from this conversation.

Roxanna:  I’d like people to think about the fact that we are on a journey here at WellSpan around diversity and inclusion and that as Kim said, we all have unconscious biases. So, number one, be aware of your own. Take the IAT online and think about how you can make a difference just in the people around you and the work that you are doing. Staying curious. Listening. Learning about your employees and remembering our value of respect for all. Because that is a value that we take very seriously and it’s one where I think it can actually be a really engaging experience for employees to learn more about the people around them and to form different kinds of relationships. So, that’s what I would hope for our employees.

Host:  And Kim, what would you say?

Kimberly:  I would hope that our employees will continue to just open up and talk to one another. As I said previously, be brave, be courageous in this work. If they see behaviors that don’t align with this work; be a bias disruptor, be somebody that speaks up and advocates for one another, but they continue to be there, support one another, recognize what challenges may be in front of us but also recognize just the great opportunity that we have to create such an inclusive environment here at WellSpan.

Roxanna:  Yeah and I would like to just add Michael that for WellSpan, this is a journey. It’s not a journey where we are going to arrive at a destination next year. And so as we are on that journey, having our employees reach out to us and let us know perhaps when we haven’t been at our best or when we have an opportunity for improvement would also be super. And Kim is actually in a position where she can take that feedback, bring it back to the steering committee and we can improve processes right in real time.

Host:  And what I’m taking away from this is three words. Curiosity, courage, grace. Those are very important concepts to think about as you go about making this transformation. I’m afraid we’re going to have to leave it there. You’ve been listening to Inspiring Health, a series of conversations with Roxanna Gapstur and other WellSpan leaders about WellSpan 2025. Today our special guest was Kim Brister who is Senior Director of Talent Acquisition, Diversity and Inclusion. Thanks very much for joining us.