Building Toward Belonging:
Scaling a System-Wide Culture of Inclusion

Working in partnership with leaders, faculty, and staff, I designed and implemented a system-wide training initiative focused on belonging and inclusion across one of the nation’s largest academic medical centers.

The program, Building Toward Belonging, was created to bridge awareness with action. Through storytelling, reflection, and practical skill building, it invited participants to examine bias and strengthen their ability to create environments where all patients and colleagues could thrive.

In its first year of implementation, the training reached more than 30,000 staff, faculty, and students across multiple campuses. This scale required an intentional blend of strategy, collaboration, and creativity. I worked closely with senior leadership to align the program’s objectives with institutional priorities, developed a message architecture to ensure consistency across facilitators, and led a “train-the-trainer” model to sustain delivery across departments and satellite sites.

Each session was designed to feel both personal and actionable. We used real stories from healthcare settings, integrated data on health disparities, and facilitated honest dialogue about how identity and bias shape patient care and workplace culture. Participants walked away with tools to recognize and interrupt bias in daily decisions, communicate across difference, and model inclusion in their roles.

What made Building Toward Belonging so meaningful was its ripple effect. Departments began embedding the concepts into their onboarding, team meetings, and leadership development programs. Evaluation data showed measurable shifts in participants’ confidence to speak up, foster inclusion, and build stronger, more connected teams.

This initiative reaffirmed my belief that large-scale change begins with small, human moments of connection.