Increased Resident Diversity Precedes Increased Faculty Diversity: Data From a University Radiation Oncology...

Increasing the percentage of academic faculty who are female and/or an under-represented minority (URM) is a goal in radiation oncology. When studying diversity changes in our University Radiation Oncology Department, we found that increases in resident diversity preceded changes in faculty diversity in every major category. To illustrate these findings, we plotted resident versus faculty diversity each year over the 52-year history of our program.

Plots were generated of the percent of residents versus faculty in our program each year between 1967 and 2020 in the following categories: female, URM, and people of color.

By 1995, substantial levels of diversity were present among both residents and faculty with approximate median annual values between 1995 and 2020 of 30% female for both residents and faculty, 15% URM for both residents and faculty, and 30% persons of color for residents and 15% for faculty. In all analyses, increase in resident diversity preceded an increase in faculty diversity and, in the great majority of years, resident diversity was greater than faculty diversity.

Our experience suggests that it may be easier to increase resident than faculty diversity and that increases in resident diversity may facilitate increasing faculty diversity.