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DPH Office of Health Equity details staffing, engagement and Race Equity Action Plan progress
Summary
Interim Chief Health Equity Officer Tracy Burrows and HR representatives summarized staffing fills, community engagement, a pathway internship program for BIPOC youth and progress on a Race Equity Action Plan; HR reported a 62% employee survey response rate and said hiring efficiencies had reduced vacancy rates.
Tracy Burrows, interim chief health equity officer at the Department of Public Health, presented an update on the Office of Health Equity that emphasized a near-term hiring plan to onboard a permanent chief in the fall and work with Be The Change consulting to synthesize organizational findings by August 2024. Burrows described an organizational chart of four teams (Workforce & Culture; Data, Policy & Reporting; Operations; and a Health Disparities team funded by a CDC grant) and said most positions are close to filled.
Burrows highlighted community engagement through neighborhood sessions held in seven priority areas (Bayview/Hunters Point, Chinatown, Excelsior, Mission, Potrero Hill and Sunnydale). She said 22 community-based organizations participated in walk-in sessions and more than 100 leaders and clinicians attended to guide equity work.
Risha Dhanju and HR presenters walked commissioners through the Race Equity Action Plan and HR priorities. Dhanju said phase 1 (2021—2023) focused on workforce equity; phase 2 will center on community health equity with planning in 2024 and priority selection in 2025. HR reported a 62% employee engagement survey response rate (4,650 respondents), noted strengths (over 70% positive on pride in job and communication), and detailed areas for improvement, including 60% negative responses about adequate staffing in some units and 40% negative responses on stress and workload questions.
HR said it has implemented more than 30 hiring-efficiency steps, reduced vacancy rates across DPH (including lower RN vacancies), expanded internal career-advancement programs and launched initiatives such as Project POP (Promote Our People). Burrows added that equity leads and champions (29 equity leads across divisions) receive protected time to advance equity-related work, and DPH will embed equity assessment tools into management performance appraisals.
Commissioners praised the progress and asked for deeper analytic detail; staff said HR will return with additional metrics and a fuller year-in-review at a future meeting.
