DPH unveils three-year racial equity action plan focused on workforce changes

Dr. Ayanna Bennett, senior leader for equity work at the San Francisco Department of Public Health, presented the department's three-year Racial Equity Action Plan required by the ordinance that created the city's Office of Racial Equity. She said the plan centers on workforce equity across seven categories: hiring and recruitment, retention and promotion, discipline and separation, equitable leadership, mobility and professional development, organizational culture, and boards and commissions.

Bennett described department demographics and the plan's rationale: "Nearly 75% of our staff are either white or Asian," she said, and added that Black and Latinx staff are disproportionately concentrated in lower-paid roles. The plan's activities include expanding recruitment pipelines to increase diverse applicant pools, monitoring hiring and promotion for bias with a racial-impact tool, manager training on interrupting bias, and establishing employee resource groups to support staff from marginalized communities.

On discipline and separation, Bennett said the department will document disparities, standardize progressive-discipline practices and create an employee complaint mechanism to address power imbalances. She described measures to hold leaders accountable, including equity metrics in the health director's performance evaluation and quarterly reporting to the Health Commission.

Commissioners praised the plan and sought clarifications on implementation and scope. Commissioner Chao asked whether internships referenced the UCSF resident pipeline; Bennett said the citywide internship expectations are intended for community entry pathways and are not limited to clinical residency programs. Commissioners also urged attention to subgroups within the city's Asian population (for example, differing needs by nativity and ethnicity) and to maintaining programs that address diseases with high prevalence in particular communities (such as TB and hepatitis B).

Bennett said the document is a living plan and that DPH will provide quarterly updates to the commission on progress and challenges. Dante King, introduced during the meeting as the new workforce equity director, offered experience from affinity-group work at other city agencies, which Bennett said the department will use as models.

The Health Commission did not vote on the plan at the meeting; commissioners expressed support and requested ongoing quarterly briefings.