Every day when I walk into the University of Louisville School of Dentistry, I look forward to engaging with so many wonderful students, faculty and staff. I value the opportunity to learn from others experiences and perspectives that might be different from my own. So here at ULSD, we have a lot of ethnicities, religions, and we respect all faiths and nationalities. It's very interesting to me. I always call it "the little UN". And you may see people praying together at lunch. You may see people interacting after school.
But I see that our students value and respect everyone. Everyone is very friendly here. There's not only me, it's everyone is a group and everyone as a class, everyone is a whole.
You become one big group, one big family, everyone is included. It's not-- doesn't seem to have its segments. Everyone works together as a family.
So for me, I definitely think that you are well developed diversity and inclusion. We on so many levels, try to make sure that we're listening to our students, to our faculty, to our staff, and most importantly to our patients. Sometimes that's the hardest part of the journey is listening to each other. But that's the most important part, so that if you listen and you gain that understanding, then you know that you'll have everything you need to promote the change.
If I had to say anything about diversity and inclusion, I want you all to feel wanted, important and needed in this community at ULSD, but also in the community of Louisville to make both a better place.
