Diversity Equity, and Inclusion
The UCI School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences established a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee in November 2019 with the goal to:
- Add guidance on DEI for those conducting admission interviews
- Add curricular content on DEI throughout our courses
- Engage student leaders in DEI discussion
Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
The mission of the UCI School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences is to be a driving force for the advancement of health and wellness of individuals and society. We believe that diversity of experiences, accomplishments, and values leads to greater innovation and creativity. We therefore strive to maximize opportunities and inclusion for all our faculty, staff, students, and affiliates, so we can use our potential to achieve academic, scientific, and clinical excellence. Our goal is to serve all communities in the region, the state, and beyond.
DEI Committee Leadership
Professor Cheryl Wisseh, Chair
Cheryl Wisseh is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pharmacy in the Department of Clinical Pharmacy Practice. She was born in Liberia, West Africa; raised in Charlotte, NC; attended undergraduate at UNC Chapel Hill; and worked 5 years within the biopharmaceutical industry before attending pharmacy school at the UNC Chapel Hill Eshelman School of Pharmacy. She completed a Post-Graduate Year-One Community Pharmacy residency with an Ambulatory Care focus at the Duquesne University Center for Pharmacy Care, and upon completion, moved to California to begin her career in academic pharmacy and complete a Master of Public Health in Urban Health Disparities. She has served as a formal and informal advisor and mentor to many underrepresented minority pre-health and health professions students. She is passionate about minority health, the pharmacist’s role in reducing racial and ethnic health disparities, and efforts that increase the number of underrepresented minority health care professionals within the U.S. health care system. She has served as a faculty advisor for the Student National Pharmaceutical Association and on the board of directors of the National Pharmaceutical Association as the Zone 5 (West) Director. She is also currently a member of the UC Health Sciences Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leadership Collaborative, where she thoroughly enjoys sharing and learning about DEI best practices at other UC health professions programs and institutions. Cheryl is excited to serve as the DEI Committee Chair for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Professor Thomas Martinez, Vice Chair
Thomas was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, CA and is a first-generation college graduate. He received his BS in Biological Engineering from MIT. He then received his PhD in Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics from Caltech as an NIH NRSA predoctoral fellow under the mentorship of Prof. Peter Dervan. His thesis work focused primarily on characterizing the effects of synthetic DNA binding pyrrole-imidazole polyamides on DNA replication in prostate cancer cells. Thomas then completed his postdoctoral research as an NIH NRSA postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Alan Saghatelian’s laboratory at the Salk Institute, where he developed an integrative platform to discover functional small open reading frame-encoded microproteins in the human genome. Currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UC Irvine, his research program is focused on identifying, characterizing, and examining the therapeutic potential of novel microproteins involved in tumor progression. As an underrepresented minority and child of immigrants himself, Thomas is passionate about and committed to outreach efforts aimed at increasing the number of students from disadvantaged backgrounds pursuing higher education and careers in STEM fields.
School Leadership
Professor Mahtab Jafari, Equity Advisor
An Equity Advisor is a senior faculty member appointed as an advisor to the Dean in their respective schools. Equity Advisors participate in faculty recruiting by approving search strategies and raising awareness of Best Practices. Additionally, they organize faculty development programs with formal and informal mentoring and address individual issues raised by women and underrepresented minority faculty.
Professor Lauren Albrecht, DECADE Mentor
DECADE Mentors are committed to fostering an inclusive environment within UCI’s graduate programs and promoting diversity campus-wide within the graduate student population. DECADE Mentors serve as a resource to graduate students and faculty alike, collaborating with Equity Advisors and UCI’s Graduate Division to accomplish their program’s DEI goals.