The Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at NYU Langone Health is fully committed to a culture of diversity and inclusion for our faculty, staff, trainees, and the patients we treat. We recognize there are systems that perpetuate injustice and the role of individual responsibility in upholding anti-racist values, not only in our professors and communities, but in life. The reflection of this mission among current and future staff, faculty, trainees, and those whom we serve, signifies a shared priority to ensure ongoing development around this important work.

In the summer of 2020, we established an Anti-Racism Task Force with the goals of mobilizing to dismantle systemic racism in our department, at our institution, within the disciplines of child and adolescent psychiatry, and in the communities we serve; advocating for social justice; empowering and supporting racially minoritized colleagues and patients; encouraging and supporting white members of our department to explore white privilege and the impacts of systemic racism; and developing and fostering pathways to allyship.

To achieve these goals, the Anti-Racism Task Force, led by Dr. Aaron O. Reliford, Vice Chair of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and Junior Javier Burgos, MPA, established five pillars comprising department employees and coordinated by a task force steering committee. Our department's leadership has established this framework as a mere starting point and acknowledges that progression toward an anti-racist workplace requires the continuity of dedicated and unified efforts.

Since the time of initiation, the Anti-Racism Task Force has developed, implemented, and facilitated anti-racist learning activities across the department and within working groups through a series of facilitated dialogues. The purpose of these activities is to identify and dismantle practices that perpetuate racism. Although there is strength in the organized and conscious action behind these initiatives, equally important is structuring a system of collective accountability to guide this work.

Contact Us

For more information about the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Anti-Racism Task Force, please contact dcapartf@nyulangone.org.