Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility

Dr. Cleveland Manchanda is deeply committed to embedding racial justice and advancing health equity in medical education and health care systems. All of her non-clinical professional time is devoted to these efforts, including through research to identify and address manifestations of racism and ableism in clinical care, writing that challenges dominant narratives about race and racism, the development of focused educational opportunities to develop health equity leaders, and mentorship of early career physicians with historically marginalized and minoritized identities as well as physicians seeking to build a career focused on the advancement of social justice. As the Program Co-Director for the Boston Medical Center Fellowship in Health Equity, Dr. Cleveland Manchanda developed and implemented a health equity curriculum that supports both the BMC Health Equity fellows as well as other early-career faculty at BMC and beyond as they develop structural competency and their own racial justice lens and advance this work. As an able-bodied white woman, she is acutely aware of the importance of both bringing other able-bodied white folks into antiracism and anti-ableism work, and ensuring that the voices of historically marginalized and minoritized people are centered in all our spaces.

Through Dr. Cleveland Manchanda's work at the American Medical Association, she is helping to challenge and reshape harmful dominant narratives about the role of race in determining health. At the AMA, she oversees the Center for Health Equity's education portfolio, developing education content and collaborating with other organizations to equip physicians with the tools and knowledge needed to push upstream and address all structural and social drivers of health. While much of Dr. Cleveland Manchanda's work focuses on addressing racism, she is also deeply passionate about addressing ableism in order to improve medical care for people with disabilities. As the mother of a biracial neurodivergent child with physical disabilities, her dedication to this work extends well beyond the workplace.