Our second annual report builds on our progress and highlights our opportunities to (re)commit to diversity, equity, inclusion, anti‑racism, anti‑oppression and accessibility at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center.
This report is a snapshot of current initiatives, programming, events and reflections about the work ahead. We are encouraged by our progress and look forward to learning, growing and evolving together as we actualize our commitments and mission of Fred Hutch.
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center acknowledges the Coast Salish peoples of this land, the land which touches the shared waters of all tribes and bands within the Duwamish, Puyallup, Suquamish, Tulalip and Muckleshoot nations.
We also acknowledge exploited labor, racist, heterosexist, ableist, xenophobic, religious, sexist, trans-antagonistic and other oppressive violence, and the ongoing struggle for justice on this land. We reflect on the ancestors of our various peoples, nations, tribes and families; ancestors whose struggles, pain, power, privilege and strivings we hold in our very bodies. We recognize, with gratitude, all those whose sacrifice, struggle and labor make our daily freedoms possible, and challenge us to learn, work and live justly.
At Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) are key organizational priorities and the work of our entire enterprise. From our approaches to excellent and impactful research to the compassionate patient-centered care we deliver and the capacity we develop to co-create an organizational culture where everyone can thrive, we are acting on our commitments toward our mission. Over the past year, while pursuing and implementing the adult oncology restructure, we have deepened our strategic efforts and accountabilities in DEI to solidify our foundation for meaningful change. For us, a deeper, broader foundation is critical for supporting the height and sustainability of our DEI framework.
We offer this 2022 Annual Report on our progress and opportunities to expand our diversity, effectuate inclusion and pursue greater equity in outcomes as a reflection of our collective efforts toward anti-racist DEI goals. DEI work requires collaboration, focus and agility to actualize and sustain the change we seek.
Our progress is highlighted within six major areas:
While we are still early in our journey, you will observe that we are making important advancements in this endeavor, with keen recognition of the significant work before us. Our successes should be noted and elevated. However, we also emphasize opportunities to deepen, strengthen and systematize new and effective actions to take us further. We hope this report will inspire and challenge us as we hold ourselves responsible for ongoing progress.
In partnership,
Dr. Paul Buckley
Vice President and Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer
Our workforce reflects an increasingly diverse collective and representation of talented scientists, clinicians and professionals who are committed to the mission and values of Fred Hutch. In this strategic area of our work toward inclusive excellence, we are beginning to see the work of committed leaders and departments across the center and our engagement of best and promising DEI practices reflected in our workforce. Further, we recognize that during this time of “great resignation” and “reckoning,” talented people are searching for a place to work that is actively pursuing equity and belonging for its entire workforce. We are pleased to report the data that helps us understand who we are, and pledge to find ways to expand our data points so we can more fully celebrate the complexity and richness of our current and more expansive future diversity.
These numbers reflect the legacy Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance employees combined.
* Excludes applicants for faculty searches (see faculty data in Table 6).
‡ % is not shown to protect confidentiality.
‡ % is not shown to protect confidentiality.
As we reset the foundational employee data that will inform our goals and work at Fred Hutch, we aspire to collect and share meaningful data that will reflect the rich and complex diversity of our workforce. We will continue to work toward gathering and displaying additional data from surveys and other assessments to meet that goal.
Recognizing and appreciating our diverse talent is only the beginning. Developing our talented workforce and our leadership at all levels is critical to actuating our mission. Diversity is an active process. Equitable and inclusive outcomes are rooted in that energy.
See the gains we have made by our efforts in setting a research and clinical agenda and equity-conscious talent acquisition strategies, in cultivating support in our giving community, in bolstering support for underrepresented minority trainees, and in ensuring our entire enterprise supports advancements in supplier diversity. We are still early in our journey and we are applying the DEI lens to every aspect of our operation.
Promoting an inclusive approach to sourcing and procurement is a strategic priority at Fred Hutch. Opportunities to utilize local and diverse suppliers exist across the center. Led by Steve Farneman, Procurement has been working on building a foundation and aligning stakeholders to engage in a proactive business strategy to make an impact in the community. The goal is to add supplier diversity to existing processes and procedures.
The Procurement team is in the process of locating new suppliers and driving innovation by bringing in different perspectives to help grow our science and care. Currently, 27% of our total active supplier base are small, diverse vendors. Fred Hutch is a coalition member of the Washington Employers for Racial Equity and the team will continue to look at local and state vendors. Other divisions and offices have also moved to using diverse vendors: Basic Sciences has supported local minority-owned businesses by purchasing food for events; the DO has moved to a new minority-owned vendor, That Brown Girl Cooks, for off-site and in-person catered events; and Philanthropy has created a vendor resource list that includes Black-owned, Asian-owned, Latinx-owned, woman-owned, and LGBTQIA-owned businesses. These activities align with employee values and are outward expressions of our internal diversity, equity and inclusion activities.
The Clinical Research Division incorporated guidance on the required statement on DEI for the reappointment/promotion packet for Appointments & Promotions. The committee recommendation template for reappointment/promotion includes evaluating faculty DEI efforts. Additionally, A&P guidance for the annual meeting report-out includes noting faculty demonstrated commitment to diversity, inclusion and outreach.
The Communications team worked with the DEI Core and senior leadership to develop and implement internal and external crisis communications strategies and responses. These include ongoing engagement opportunities and resources for employees related to a blackface incident involving a senior scientist.
We maintained an overall diverse recruitment pool at 53% during a period of overall decline in the job market through expanded outreach efforts, new organizational connections and external sharing of our DEI commitments. We have increased diversity in our new hires, significantly expanded the diversity of our new Board of Directors and Board of Advisors and increased our representation of URM and women in the faculty applicant pool. We look forward to asserting new strategies to increase interest from URM candidates and to increase new hires at all levels and in all areas across the center. Additionally, we plan to strengthen our efforts to understand and support the retention of our workforce.
Our goal is to maintain and enhance the entire Fred Hutch as an excellent place to work, where employees are empowered with awareness and skills to co-create an inclusive culture of belonging. Our comprehensive educational initiative, Fearless IDEAs (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, Anti-racism and Anti-oppression), along with our monthly Forums, inclusive and connective spaces such as the BIPOC Caucus, and activities that reinforce DEI principles and values, all serve as an effective framework for developing capacity among our workforce. Across the organization, departments are empowered to engage content relevant to the highlighted topics for learning and behaviors that support our DEI aspirations.
Collaborative and integrated team development that centers DEI and anti-racism allows teams to develop strategic initiatives with goals and action items. This work aims to foster an inclusive culture within teams, departments, divisions, labs and clinical settings that is grounded in our mission, values and anti-racist framework. Below are highlights of these efforts.
Fred Hutch is taking an authentic, affirming and active approach to sharing the message that Black, Indigenous, and all people of color and other minoritized and underrepresented people matter to us: in our science, in our community and beyond. The DEI Core Public Art and Community Dialogue Program celebrates and showcases the work of diverse artists within our community across our South Lake Union campus and in programming activities. The program also provides an opportunity for the selected artists to engage in dialogue with each other and representatives from Fred Hutch to inform their final commissioned work and future community initiatives.
For the first instance of this program, an artist from the Black community, Mark Modimola, was selected to create an original piece that visually represented our commitment to and solidarity with the Black community. The artwork was revealed at an event honoring the Juneteenth holiday to inspire deep reflection and conversation with our employees, our patients and our community.
The DEI Core, in partnership with Facilities and other teams and individuals across the Hutch, is leading a Gender-Inclusive & Accessible Spaces Initiative. This initiative seeks to engage the entire center in understanding and shifting the culture of gender inclusion and accessibility by ensuring that all spaces on campus are safe, accessible and usable for all Fred Hutch community members and guests. In late 2021 the GIAS workgroup completed a full review and tour of all campus buildings. The work will continue in a phased approach over five years. The preliminary report summarizes the workgroup’s findings and initial recommendations including:
Chartered through the DEI Core, employee resource groups (ERG) play a key role in fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment for everyone. The ERGs focus on developing and encouraging a deep sense of community, connection and growth at Fred Hutch. These voluntary, employee-led groups serve to add value to the organization and strengthen retention. The DEI Core serves as each ERG’s primary partner in achieving group-specific goals and objectives.
With a firm commitment to continuous education, the center is engaged in learning how to reduce and disrupt biases through the Bias Mitigation Education module. The DEI Core, HR Learning and Development and the Office of Education and Training have contributed to the awareness and skill building that empowers employees in our journey to inclusion. We have conducted assessments to learn about employee experiences that inform our plans and activities. Through these assessments, opportunities to strengthen employees’ sense of belonging and deepen managers’ capacity for building inclusive teams have been identified. Our ERGs, affiliate groups and the BIPOC Caucus are engaged in delivering impactful programs that support learning, connection and community.
Our research agenda for cancer and other infectious diseases dovetails with our interest in disparities and equity pursuits. From our responsive and community-focused efforts in vaccine trials to our support for enriching the ecosystem of diverse future scientists, we are engaged in meaningful efforts to change the research landscape. We recognize that our outlook on the value of all human life, our community relationships and our understanding of history inform how we think about, conduct and communicate our research.
Dr. Trang VoPham, seen here, is an epidemiologist and geospatial scientist whose research focuses on understanding the role of place or location — particularly environmental exposures — in health. Her research interests include geospatial science, health disparities, liver disease and cancer.
Several scientific programs have been engaged in efforts to expand their DEI efforts:
Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division
VIDD research spans the globe, with laboratory, clinical and field sites in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe. The division has specific initiatives in Uganda and South Africa to advance the understanding of infection-related cancers and infectious diseases that affect high-risk populations in these regions
Applying the DEI lens to COVID-19 research and outreach, the VIDD faculty have built on decades of experience in HIV prevention research, adopting a distinct focus on how COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted the URM in the U.S. They have also undertaken considerable efforts to not only recruit URM to COVID-19 studies but also communicate the value of the science to these communities. Community engagement efforts for CoVPN and HVTN resulted in diversity and inclusion at all stages of the research process in the U.S. government-funded vaccine trials. Community Working Groups and scientific expert panels were composed of URM scientists, advocates and policymakers who have dedicated their careers to working with and within URM communities. To identify barriers to URM engagement and to provide guidance and direction on eliminating these barriers, these panels focused on ways to engage URMs in the review of protocols, informed consent forms and educational materials. Forty-seven percent of participants at CoVPN sites identified as BIPOC.
CoVPN and HVTN teams have held and partnered in over 75 webinar/townhall events reaching over 200,000 people via direct attendance and over 3 million people through post-event views of content. Some of the partner organizations include, but are not limited to: AARP, the National Urban League, UnidosUS, the National Medical Association, the National Hispanic Medical Association, the Latino Commission on AIDS, the National Minority Quality Forum, the Urban Indian Health Institute, the Black AIDS Institute, the Treatment Action Group and the Kaiser Family Foundation.
The network of GMaP hubs is funded by the National Cancer Institute as a supplement to the Fred Hutchinson-University of Washington-Seattle Children's Cancer Consortium Cancer Center Support Grant. The overarching goals of GMaP are to enhance workforce diversity and to promote cancer health disparities research. This is accomplished by identifying and implementing strategies that will create sustainable partnerships to enhance disparities research and career development for underrepresented populations (spanning undergraduate/postbaccalaureate, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty). The GMaP network divides the country into six different regions and we at Fred Hutch have led the efforts of Region 5 since 2009. Region 5 consists of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam and California. The program is currently led by Dr. Li and Sara Cole.
Funded by research grants held by Drs. Riki Peters and Chris Li, TRPCD addresses colorectal cancer disparities among Alaska Native, African American, Latinx and non-Hispanic Whites. It is funded by the following grants: 1. NCI P20 grant: Translational Research Program in Colorectal Cancer Disparities; 2. The V Foundation for Cancer Research: Evaluation of the biological basis for disparities in colorectal outcomes among Alaska Native people; and 3. Goldman Sachs Foundation: An Integrative Multi-Omics Approach to Improving Our Understanding of Colorectal Cancer Disparities in African American and Alaska Native People.
We are pursuing DEI goals in research, from developing a more diverse ecosystem of next-generation scientists to increasing the diversity of endowed chairs among our faculty. We are also changing the perspective and approaches of our overall research agenda through inclusive research methods and by engaging community and pursuing equity in outcomes. Throughout the next fiscal year, we will work to bring disparities research and equity solutions into greater focus and deepen our partnerships with Indigenous communities.
As a patient-centered organization, we are intentional about providing greater access to the highest quality of care and outcomes for every person from every community. We continue to find ways of understanding, improving and sustaining an excellent patient experience. We are simultaneously learning from and supporting our patients in real time, while pursuing new ways to measure and benchmark our progress.
Patient navigators are culturally sensitive staff who help guide patients through their time at SCCA. Patient navigator, Lenora Starr, a member of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs in Oregon, has connected with 75 Indigenous patients during the fiscal year. Starr’s work touches both the prevention and navigation side of cancer care. She works with Indigenous patients and communities to help them understand the important difference between ceremonial and commercial tobacco use. Additionally, Starr meets with newly diagnosed patients and families who identify as Indigenous, assisting them with whatever services or comforts they may need, whether it’s connecting them with transportation, lodging, counseling services or financial resources; or teaching visiting relatives how to use Seattle’s bus system.
Fred Hutch has been selected as a partner site for the National Comprehensive Cancer Network’s Health Equity Report Card (HERC) Pilot Project, an 18-month study to evaluate the performance of the HERC in identifying and measuring health care practices with the potential to advance equitable care within our organization. The pilot project started May 9th, 2022. Fred Hutch joins other cancer centers, including Memorial Sloan Kettering and Roswell Park, to address low-scoring areas of practice identified by HERC scores. The center will address these areas by building specific strategies to improve equitable care delivery.
We continue to support our patients by investing in their screening and navigation experiences. We are building and expanding the infrastructure for data collection and responses to inequities we perceive in emergency room visits, pain management and delays in screening. Looking ahead, we will focus on boosting our engagement of patient voices in our efforts and deepen our understanding of their experiences. Additionally, we want to ensure that staff and providers have the tools and knowledge they need to provide the highest quality of care for every life they encounter.
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center is a leader in cancer research and care, and in incorporating DEI work into our mission. We demonstrate our leadership within the contexts of our scientific research and clinical care, among organizations and peers, and as conscientious neighbors in Seattle, the Pacific Northwest, the U.S. and the world.
Desiring to learn, grow, influence, and impact, we share our expertise, plans and progress in partnership with other individuals and institutions. Our relationships and the communities in which we find membership and partnership are critical to our work.
Fred Hutch’s catchment area is now the entire state of Washington. Expanding beyond the original 13 counties in western Washington provides an opportunity to reach more communities throughout the state. As a result of the expansion, an additional Community Health Educator has been hired for Spokane and a second position will be filled. The Spokane office officially opened on July 1, 2022.
For National Minority Health Month in April 2022, the Office of Government & Community Relations partnered with Fred Hutch’s employee resource group Community of Employees for Racial Equity (CERE). The month-long programming included speakers from community groups who presented on and discussed health inequities and strategies for improving health outcomes for racial and ethnic minority groups with our audiences. In addition, for the second year the programming included op-eds focused on health equity in minority groups penned by the high school students participating in Fred Hutch’s Summer High School Internship Program or the Science Education Partnership.
African American Health Board Dream Again Campaign, Chief Seattle Club, Greater Seattle Business Association and the LGTBQIA+ community, NAACP/Seattle Urban League, Pacific Islander Community Association of WA, Pacific Science Center, Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, Seattle Indian Health Board, Urban Indian Health Institute
To increase the diversity in the next generation of scientists, the Philanthropy team employed DEI fundraising strategies and community engagement targeted to increase awareness and elevate the understanding of the funding needs to support health disparities research, community health educators and internships. These strategies included donor education in the areas of health inequities and health disparities research. Donors were introduced to Fred Hutch’s exceptional BIPOC researchers and projects that support underserved populations. This provided donors with a deeper understanding of DEI needs in program funding and research. The Philanthropy team created a DEI Case for Support and refreshed their Education Case for Support to guide their DEI fundraising efforts.
Dr. Kemi Doll’s SISTER (Social Interventions for Support During Treatment for Endometrial Cancer and Recurrence) study, Cook for Your Life, The Office of Community Outreach and Engagement – community health educators, The Black in Cancer graduate internship program, The Office of Education & Training – Summer High School Internship Program
Our partnerships continue to grow and strengthen throughout the nation, region and state. The center continues to provide support to local and state representatives and constituents and to partner with communities impacted by health disparities. As we move this work forward, we look to strengthen our strategy and cohesion of our community relations and partnership efforts. Synergizing our internal network and priorities will be key as we continue to build strong community partnerships that are aligned with our mission.
Our commitment is clear and the work before us is sobering and inspiring. We are on an active journey to ensure DEI principles and practices energize our mission to find cures for cancer and infectious diseases and deliver the highest quality of compassionate care to our patients. We are making steady progress as we continue to prioritize the opportunities that will accelerate our outcomes and impact. The work ahead of us requires consistency, collaboration and continuous learning in support of equity-conscious action. We recognize the urgency of our mission and remain steadfast in our efforts.
The work ahead of us requires consistency, collaboration and continuous learning in support of equity-conscious action.
We appreciate all our partners across the Hutch who have engaged with the DEI Core this past year. We value you, your voices and your efforts. Thank you for your continued support and the progress we will make together.
“Cures start here, and cures start with a culture that fosters innovation, an inclusive culture that responds to diverse experiences and diverse expressions of disease.
Diversity, equity and inclusion work is critical to the mission of Fred Hutch.”
– Dr. Paul Buckley, Vice President, Chief Diversity Equity & Inclusion Officer
Header Image: Valeria Maria Velez-Galiano, a Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) intern from Puerto Rico, works in the Clurman Lab with her mentor Ahmed Diam Ph.D. at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, Washington.
Written by Kaci Bray, Paul Buckley & Christopher Li. Designed by Sarah Jo White. Photography by Robert Hood/Fred Hutch News Service.
Questions? Contact diversity@fredhutch.org