Roy Hamilton encourages tough conversations with grace and compassion

Roy H. Hamilton begins his third decade on the faculty at Penn's Perelman School of Medicine, by working to making academia a safe, supportive space for students and colleagues as Penn Medicine's new vice dean for Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity.

Given his own diverse background and personal life, Hamilton wants everyone-trainees, faculty, patients-to feel valued and included. "I touch enough spaces in my personal life that when groups are being clearly systematically disadvantaged, it often feels like it's touching on some piece of my own identity," he said, in discussing his background and hope for his new leadership position. "I bring a lot of myself to this role."

Hamilton serves as a professor of neurology, with secondary appointments in psychiatry and physical medicine and rehabilitation. Hamilton is also director of both the Laboratory for Cognition and Neural Stimulation; and the Penn Brain Science, Translation and Modulation (BrainSTIM) Center. Previously, he was the Perelman School of Medicine's assistant dean for Cultural Affairs and Diversity for almost a decade, and launched similar efforts in his field, serving as Penn Neurology's vice chair for Diversity and Inclusion from 2017 until his recent elevation to the role for Penn Medicine as a whole.

"I'm multiracial in an interfaith and interracial relationship. I'm from an uncommon faith background. I'm a secular humanist now, but I'm raising a Jewish family. One of my kids is LGBT and I'm an ally. My life spans so many spaces that it is impossible for me to feel comfortable unless an environment is inclusive," Hamilton says. "I would like to make Penn a place where everyone feels like they can belong because that kind of inclusive environment is the only kind in which I'm going to feel like I belong."

Hamilton outlines his aims as Penn Medicine's DEI vice dean. "In an inclusive environment, it is possible even in fraught times to have mutual respect and dialogue, because we have the capacity to understand and feel where others are coming from even if we do not agree with them. This kind of cognitive and emotional perspective-taking is essential in medicine because we are committed to the care of every patient. We need to exercise the same desire to see the humanity in each of our colleagues, coworkers, and trainees. That's what I think it means to be truly inclusive."

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