Cultural Competency Lecture Series

The staff in the Center for Diversity & Inclusion believe that developing and enhancing cultural competency is an life-long process that helps us to better understand ourselves and others, communicate effectively, and work across cultures. As we are all cultural beings who possess multiple identities, including but not limited to race and ethnicity, sex and gender, sexual orientation, ability/disability, religious affiliation, and socioeconomic status, understanding how our own identities and others' intersect is critical to developing cultural competency. The Cultural Competency Lecture Series provides opportunities to learn about various aspects of diversity and develop tools for working in a complex and multicultural health care system.

Cultural competence is a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or among professionals that enables effective work in cross-cultural situations. Cultural competence in health care is being sensitive to issues related to culture, race, gender, sexual orientation, social class and economic situation.