Community Health

Our community outreach programs include serving patients at our local community health centers located in Back Bay, Chelsea, Revere and Charlestown, and satellite locations including Waltham and southern New Hampshire. For over forty years, we have hosted programs to help patients navigate the complex health care system, reduce disparities and improve access to care for at-risk populations and the medically underserved, such as low-income families and the homeless. These programs include a monthly Neurology clinic at Boston Healthcare for the Homeless, hosted by our residents and faculty, who see and assist homeless individuals in the management of a wide variety of outpatient neurologic conditions, including seizures, movement disorders, stroke and headache.

Diversity & Inclusion

Our Mission

The Massachusetts General Hospital Neurology Diversity Committee’s mission is to continue fostering gender, race, ethnicity, ability, sexual orientation, religious, and cultural diversity in our community through informed patient care, recruiting practices, and community outreach educational programs.

The Anne B. Young Diversity Visiting Scholar Award

The Mass General Neurology Diversity Committee is delighted to announce the creation of the Anne B. Young Diversity Visiting Scholar Award. This recognition will be given periodically to individuals or groups who contribute to understanding or improving gender, race and ethnicity, ability, sexual orientation, and/or religious diversity in Neurology. The public announcement of this award came during the Mass General Neurology Bicentennial Celebration on October, 13, 2011.

Awardees will be invited to share their experience with the Mass General Neurology community during a visit that will include giving Grand Rounds and spending time with trainees. The Committee is excited to name the award after Dr. Young, celebrating her great accomplishments improving diversity in Neurology at Mass General and beyond.

Dr. Young continues to inspire a growing number of women to pursue Neurology careers around the globe. She is the first female chief of service at Mass General Hospital, and has made tremendous progress recruiting, retaining, and advancing women in Neurology at our institution. Dr. Young is the only person to have been both President of the Society for Neuroscience, and the American Neurological Association. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was awarded the Joseph B. Martin Dean’s Award for Leadership in Advancement of Women at Harvard Medical School in 1999.

Neurology and Diversity

The diverse culture that we currently enjoy in Neurology makes us better in three areas.

Patient Care: We understand that being aware of our patients’ cultural perspectives can have a positive effect on their level of comfort and success in their care. 

Research: Researchers come from all over the world to do research with the Mass General Neurology research community. At the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease (just one of our research communities) researchers come from China, India, Russia, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, France, Germany, Italy, and more.

Work Environment: In our day-to-day interactions, our staff members exchange cultural experiences and perspectives that keep us curious, interested, and excited about learning, and having new experiences. This is certainly one of the characteristics that makes the Mass General Neurology Service one of the best places to work.

Outreach Activities

International Festival
The Neurology Diversity Committee holds an annual International Festival. This event is designed to promote cultural awareness for all Neurology staff through the spirit of diversity. Embracing our diversity within Neurology helps create an atmosphere of respect and appreciation in our department. The International Festival allows our department to come together, exchange stories about our heritage and learn about each other’s backgrounds all while enjoying international cuisine and music.

Educational Forums
Since 2014, the Neurology Diversity Committee’s Education Work Group has hosted a series of educational forums. This group hosts these educational events for the department with the intent of fostering our community’s diversity in gender, race, ethnicity ability, religion and sexual orientation. One of our primary goals with these Neurology Forums is to spark conversations around diversity and build empathy and inclusivity with each other through meaningful dialogue. We hope to achieve this by inviting speakers to share related personal and professional experiences while engaging the audience in conversation. Past forum topics include South Africa, Tourette’s syndrome, Latin America and LGBT.

Diversity Dialogues
Diversity Dialogues were designed by the Department of Psychiatry Center for Diversity as a way for staff members of all specialties to have opportunities to discuss the theme of diversity with each other. With these dialogues, we hope to continue and encourage an ongoing environment of dialogue about culture and diversity within our department. Participants agree to separate from other duties for three hours to allow time to focus on this exercise, giving each other full attention and respect as personal vignettes of cultural themes are shared. The November 2014 Department of Neurology Diversity Dialogue is the second Dialogue within the Department of Neurology and one of a number of Dialogues conducted by the Department of Psychiatry Center for Diversity since 2009. Other sites have included the MGH Department of Pathology, the Harvard Health Services, Tufts Medical School and the Department of Psychiatry Residency Training program and department education.

Massachusetts General Hospital Multicultural Affairs Office Summer Research Trainee Program (SRTP)
The Summer Research Trainee Program was founded in 1992 to build a pipeline of college and medical school students who are underrepresented in medicine and interested in academic biomedical research careers. Through a vigorous national competition, the Center for Diversity and Inclusion (CDI) selection committee chooses 10 to 15 students to participate in an eight-week summer research program at MGH. These students conduct original research projects and presentations with MGH faculty preceptors in basic science labs, clinical research, and health policy research settings. SRTP is sponsored by the Multicultural Affairs Office and funded by the President’s Office, the Executive Committee on Research and the Mass General Physicians Organization, the Cancer Center, and Department of Medicine, Neurology, Orthopedics, Pathology, Radiation Oncology and Surgery.

Who We Are - Diversity Board Members

The Community Health, Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Board was formed in 2014 and our first inaugural meeting was held in February 2015.The board consists of key community members and hospital leaders who help guide our mission to improve the health and well being of the diverse communities we serve. With their leadership and knowledge, we envision enhancing MGH Neurology’s community partnerships and further developing our efforts to improve access to neurologic care for vulnerable populations, address disparities, increase youth development and educate communities on neurology-related topics.

Board members include:
Shea Asfaw, Chief of Staff, Office of the President, MassGeneral Hospital
Phillip Gonzalez, Program Director,Community Catalyst, Inc.
Dr. Nicte Mejia, Director, MGH Neurology Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Health Initiatives
Dr. Marie Pasinski, Instructor of Neurology, MassGeneral Hospital
Joan Quinlan, Vice President, Community Health Center for Community Health Improvement, Mass General Hospital
Dr. Lee Schwamm, Executive Vice Chairman, Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Hospital

Diversity Resources