I consider it a privilege to serve as the Executive Diversity Officer/Senior Associate Dean for the School of Medicine at The University of New Mexico Health & Health Sciences, and to be able to build upon the work of my predecessor, Dr. John Paul Sanchez, who served as the Interim Executive Diversity Officer.
The UNM School of Medicine’s Office for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion is charged with embedding DEI principles, and developing, implementing and supporting DEI initiatives and activities throughout all of the missions of the School of Medicine.
Our ultimate mission is to foster health and well-being among New Mexican residents and contribute to a thriving community and nation, by actively nurturing an academic medical COMMUNITY that the revolutionary Dr. Martin Luther King envisioned as “BELOVED,” and a community within which activist Valerie Kaur describes us as “SEEING NO STRANGER.”
Such a STRANGERLESS BELOVED COMMUNITY can only be achieved through intentional proactive attention to the principles of justice, equity, diversity and inclusion where the political and social determinants of health and access to quality health care are equitably distributed.
I thank and invite all UNM School of Medicine community members to join me in this critical and courageous journey!
The mission of the UNM School of Medicine, Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion is to foster a just, equitable, diverse, and inclusive environment within which every member of the School of Medicine community is provided opportunities to achieve their full potential.
Our vision is to transform the UNM School of Medicine into a hub for justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion where no one is disadvantaged from achieving their professional and career potential on the basis of race, ethnicity, language preference, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, socioeconomic status, age, geography or other identity.
TRANSFORMATIVE JUSTICE
We are committed to fostering an environment of fairness and accountability where our community of learners, researchers, clinicians, and staff can thrive.
EQUITY
We are committed to nurturing an environment where every School of Medicine constituent has equitable opportunities to thrive and no one is disadvantaged from achieving their full potential.
DIVERSITY
We recognize diversity as a core value that embodies inclusiveness, mutual respect, and multiple perspectives. In this context, we are mindful of all aspects of human differences including, socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, language, nationality, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, and geography.
INCLUSION
We recognize that an inclusive climate and culture is a core element for successfully achieving diversity and that inclusion can only be achieved through intentional education, policies, and practices.
BELONGING
We are committed to creating and nurturing a community where everyone within our School of Medicine is seen and feels accepted, included, beloved, and valued.
ADVOCACY
We are committed to not simply be passive ally’s but to recognize our professional responsibility as healthcare providers, educators, and biomedical researchers to actively advocate for systematically disadvantaged and marginalized members of our community.
UNDER-REPRESENTED in Medicine & Biomedical Research
We are committed to addressing issues of under-representation in medicine and biomedical research. Under-representation most commonly refers to racial/ethnic populations that are under-represented in the medical and scientific research workforce relative to their numbers in the general population.
The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have traditionally defined these groups as: Blacks/African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, Alaska Natives/American Indians, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders.
Anita Fernander, PhDDr. Anita Fernander is the Executive Diversity Officer/Senior Associate Dean of DEI for The University of New Mexico School of Medicine, UNM Health & Health Sciences.
Prior to joining the School of Medicine, she served as the inaugural Chief Officer for Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (JEDI) at the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine and Interim Department Chair & Professor in the Department of Population Health at Florida Atlantic University.
Dr. Fernander also served on the faculty in the University of Kentucky’s College of Medicine for 19 years. While there, she held key diversity roles at University of Kentucky College of Medicine, where she was founding faculty of the Center for Health Equity Transformation and received the Inaugural Excellence in Diversity Faculty award (2021) and the Inaugural Diversity Champion Award (2018).
She has been engaged in leadership, teaching, research, and community engagement to address health inequities, enhance patient advocacy through cultural humility as a de-biasing strategy, and exploring transformational interventions to address historical and contemporary racism embedded in the political and social determinants of health.
Her primary area of research has focused on the impact of race-related stress on health inequities among African Americans.
Dr. Fernander received two bachelor’s degrees from Oakwood College (now Oakwood University) and her master’s and doctorate from the University of Miami before completing an internship at the Salt Lake City Veteran’s Administration Medical Center and a fellowship at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
Dr. Fernander is the mother of one adult son.
Kathleen Reyes, MD, MSCRKathleen (Katie) Lopez Reyes, MD, MSCR, is an associate professor in the Division of Obstetric Anesthesiology, Dept. of Anesthesiology & Critical Care Medicine and the inaugural director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at the UNM School of Medicine.
Dr. Reyes was the recipient of a LoboWings Patient Safety Guardian Award and was part of the multidisciplinary team that received the Dynamic Dyad Award for her Division and the Center of Excellence Designation for UNMH Obstetric Anesthesia.
She has served on numerous SOM and HSC committees, including the UNM Interdepartmental Women’s Health DEI Committee and the Human Research Review Committee, and co-chairs the UNM Anesthesiology Faculty Recruitment Committee.
Within her department, she started the first DEI Work Group and Committee, worked to create the DEI website, and co-created the Anesthesiology & CCM DEI Speaker Series.
She was recently invited to moderate a Special Workshop on the AMA-AAMC Guide to Advancing Health Equity: A Guide to Language, Narrative and Concepts.
Dr. Reyes has a strong and enduring interest in teaching and supporting her community and is passionate about supporting other faculty members and learners and promoting DEI initiatives.
A true lobo, she completed medical school, the Anesthesiology Residency Program, and her master’s degree in Clinical and Translational Research at UNM.
Her current research focuses on addressing healthcare inequities in pain medicine. She is the PI on a pilot study, “Pharmacogenetics to Improve Opioid Prescribing for Native Peoples,” which aims to ultimately improve the safety and efficacy of the way pain medications are prescribed.
Dr. Reyes was born and raised in Albuquerque. She received her undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College where she majored in Studio Art, received Honors in Native American Literature and Painting, and also played Division I tennis. She studied at separate universities in Curitiba, Brazil, and Salvador, Brazil. She is a single mother to four amazing children.
Verónica Plaza, MD, MPHDr. Verónica Plaza's work for UNM SOM DEI focuses on Medical Spanish education, assessment and certification for faculty, students and staff.
Dr. Plaza developed and coordinated the medical Spanish courses for the minor and second major in medical Spanish within the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the UNM College of Arts & Sciences and has facilitated courses in phase III curriculum for UME and contributed to other curriculum development and implementation while serving as faculty in the UNM School of Medicine.
Some of her accomplishments include appointment as an advisory board member for the UNM Office of Global Education, recognition with the Louie Award for student services at UNM.
Recently, Dr. Plaza helped develop the case investigation and contact tracing response for COVID-19 for the Spanish-speaking population in NM within the Epidemiology and Respond Division of NM Department of Health.
She also serves as coordinator for the UNM Friends of Fulbright Argentina program. Dr. Plaza served as Senior Fellow at the Center for Health Policy Studies at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and as a member of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center in Health Education and Human Resources Training at UNM.
Dr. Plaza is also a Senior Faculty in the post-graduate program at the School of Medicine at the National University of Rosario, Argentina.
From 2003-2007 Dr. Plaza worked at the New Mexico Department of Health, serving as a member of the State Medical Review Committee and Health Promotion Specialist.
Dr. Plaza received her medical degree from the National University of Rosario (UNR) Argentina, in 1990. As a medical student, she was a founding member and first president of the Scientific Society Medical Students and Scientific Society of Argentina Medical Students (FACES). In 1996 she completed her post-doctoral training in Patho-Biochemistry at Rush Medical College in Chicago.
After completing her post-doctoral training, she served as a Research Associate with the Midwest Latino Health Research Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Plaza is a proud Latina mother of 3 young adults.
René A. SmithRené is a proud New Mexican and ENMU alumna with a bachelor's degree in psychology and sociology. Prior to her position at the University, her professional experience began right across campus – working as a Mental-Health Technician at UNM Children's Psychiatric Center.
This, combined with her subsequent positioning in Administration for Daniels Family Funeral Services, led her down a path of service and advocacy for those experiencing crisis within the community.
Jessica Goodkind, PhDJessica Goodkind is professor and associate chair in the Department of Sociology at The University of New Mexico College of Arts & Sciences.
She works collaboratively with communities to understand and address the mental health consequences of exposure to stressful social environments and to develop and assess processes that promote healing, well-being, and social justice.
Specifically, her research focuses on partnering with refugee, immigrant, and Indigenous communities to implement and test community-based approaches to reduce social inequities and health disparities.
Dr. Goodkind is the founder of the Refugee & Immigrant Well-being Project, which has brought together thousands of university students and newcomers to learn from each other and engage in collective efforts to mobilize resources, with the goals of improving mental health and creating sustainable changes in communities’ receptiveness to newcomers and policies that affect them.
Dr. Goodkind’s research and collaborative mental health projects have been funded by the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and ConAlma Foundation.
Since 2010, Dr. Goodkind has developed and implemented curricula to educate UNM medical students, other health professional students, and faculty on providing equitable, inclusive, and accessible care that values patients' diverse backgrounds and experiences.
Anthony Fleg, MD, MPHAnthony Fleg is a family medicine physician at UNM Health and a faculty member in the UNM School of Medicine's Departments of Family & Community Medicine and Pediatrics as well as the UNM College of Population Health.
He also serves as a Partnership Director of the Native Health Initiative (NHI) and has dedicated much of his career to improving health in Indigenous communities. He is a proud father of 4 children, an avid runner, and a blogger.
SOM Office of DEI Sponsorship of DEI-Related Conferences Application
The School of Medicine Office for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion is here for you.
Call us at: 505-272-7448.
Anita Fernander, PhD (she/her)
Senior Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
afernander@salud.unm.edu
René A Smith, Program Coordinator (she/her)
Inquiries regarding general office matters
reasmith@salud.unm.edu
