Founded in 1999, the Diversity Advisory Committee (DAC) explores and addresses the diversity needs of the UC Davis Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Chaired from its inception by Russell Lim, M.D., the DAC is comprised of faculty members and trainees interested in cultural competence and diversity issues related to training, clinical services and research.  Meetings are held monthly to address these needs within the department. An article about the DAC was published in 2008 by Academic Psychiatry.

Three recent accomplishments of DAC are:

• Recipient of the of the Creativity in Psychiatric Education Award for 2007 by the American College of Psychiatrists
• Creation of the Luke and Grace Kim Endowed Professor in Cultural Psychiatry, the only such position in the United States, resulting in the recruitment of Francis G. Lu, M.D., who joined the Department in July 2009.
• Recipient of the 2010 American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training Model Curriculum Award for Cultural Psychiatry.  The UC Davis curriculum was one of eleven submissions, with two awardees (the other being New York University).

Click here for a complete list of the DAC's accomplishments from 1999 to 2009.

The University of California has a system-wide diversity statement approved by the Board of Regents supporting diversity as integral to the University of California’s mission and excellence.

The UC Davis School of Medicine serves as an ideal training site for cultural competency in psychiatry based upon three criteria: diversity of patient population, “critical mass” of interested faculty/residents, and support of the administration. The School has an Office of Student and Resident Diversity and the Health System has adopted nationally recognized standards for cultural competence.

Hailed by Time magazine as America’s most diverse city, Sacramento boasts one of the most culturally diverse patient populations in the country. At the same time, ethnic minority faculty members represent a third of the total faculty. These faculty serve as models and mentors for psychiatry residents interested in cultural competency and diversity, ethnic minority residents interested in academic psychiatry, as well as ethnic minority medical students interested in a career in psychiatry.