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GW School of Medicine & Health Sciences Center for Faculty Excellence
March 2024 Staff Spotlight
Excellence in teaching & learning, scholarly endeavors, and leadership are all around us at SMHS. The Center for Faculty Excellence would like to Spotlight our faculty and staff contributions to SMHS, George Washington University, and beyond. Each month we will spotlight faculty or staff from across GW Academic Medical Enterprise. We want to thank our highlighted members for sharing with us their advice and perspectives!
- SMHS Center for Faculty Excellence
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Biography
Jalina Booker holds a B.S. in Psychology from Delaware State University and an M.S. in Behavior Management and Criminal Justice from Saint Joseph's University. Prior to GW., Ms. Booker worked with universities and colleges throughout Delaware as a Certified Prevention Specialist and Program Coordinator. She brings a background of working in student development and inclusive programming for underrepresented students, community outreach, and creating public health campaigns.
Jalina also serves as the Program Manager for the DC Health and Academic Prep Program (DC HAPP)
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Interview Q/A
How long have you been at GWSMHS? What drew you to your current position?
Jalina: I have been at GW for almost three years. Before coming to GW I worked in Delaware as a prevention specialist. In my previous role, I worked with many communities, specifically with teenagers and young adults in addiction and facing homelessness. By working in this environment, I witnessed firsthand the struggles of people in these situations to access healthcare. When I came across the opportunity to work at SMHS within the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, it felt like the right direction to go into that would allow me to be a part of an office that is reworking the system from the inside out, by supporting initiatives that help to expose our health and medical faculty and students to health disparities that exist in many communities. This position also allows me to help educate healthcare providers on the importance of thinking of patients as people and humans, and not just patients. It allows me to support diversity within the healthcare field and the need for equitable care.
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What are your major responsibilities here at GW?
Jalina: My major responsibility is overseeing the daily operations of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, which includes interacting with faculty, students, and diversity-based student organizations, ensuring that they know we are here to support them in whatever way they need. I also help to oversee and coordinate the Anti-Racism Coalition (ARC), which includes our ARC educational series, book club, and guiding coalition. One of my favorite programs that I oversee is the DC Health and Academic Prep Program (DC HAPP). This program allows DC high school juniors and seniors who are interested in pursuing careers in medicine and health sciences to spend 4-weeks in the summer exploring opportunities in the field. It is a great program and lots of fun seeing them expand their knowledge in the field of medicine.
What I love about my role and the work we do within our office is that I can work with both faculty and students, the teachers, and the learners. Our office has similar initiatives for both groups, but our job as an office is to help both faculty and students reach a commonality. For students, we help them understand that the faculty and staff here are to do what is needed to support equity in learning and training. For faculty and staff, we make sure to inform them of support opportunities and that students may need. It is a very interesting dynamic, but overall we strive to reach cohesion between both groups.
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Can you tell us more about what student organizations you work with here at GWSMHS?
Jalina: There are various student organizations our office works with to support their initiatives and the students in them. We work with the Student National Medical Association (SNMA), the Latin Medical Student Association (LMSA), Out For Health which supports our LGBTQ+ students, Muslim Student Health Professionals, Asian Pacific Islander Student Association, and provide support to the ASL for Medicine Student Organization, that teaches medical American Sign Language. There are so many more, and in our monthly ODI newsletter, we highlight a student organization every month and the events they have upcoming. These are for all students in SMHS, and are open to everyone! Many of our student organizations ask to present their organization and initiatives to faculty during our guiding coalition meetings, and this is a great way for them to also promote the work they are doing outside of the classroom.
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What is your favorite part of working at SMHS?
Jalina: My favorite part of working at SMHS is meeting my fellow staff members all over GW. Specifically, within the Office of Diversity, we have a very unique position since we are connected with all of the diversity officers across the university. It is always interesting to hear about the programs that are going on in other schools, and how we as part of the larger GW community are all interconnected to the promotion of diversity and inclusion.
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What about the future of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion excites you?
Jalina: Our office is continually looking for ways to grow and be more inclusive of everyone. We have an upcoming virtual webinar on April 2nd, 2024 12:00-1:00 pm on “Using Mathematics to Read and Write the World: Examining Social Injustice,” which is a very interesting and different topic in that it is outside of medicine. Our speaker, Dr. Robert Q. Berry III will focus on how mathematical frameworks and concepts can be used to highlight disparities and inequities in society. As you can see by this offering, we are constantly trying to think of innovative initiatives and programming that provide broader perspectives in the DEI space for SMHS. In 2022 our invited speaker for MLK Day was George M. Johnson. They spoke about their book, “All Boys Aren’t Blue” and the need to advocate for LGBTQ+ youth. We want our programming to highlight the ways you as an individual can help in dismantling systems that are not equitable. Of course, we are a place for those to come in certain crises, but we also want to be a support system for any faculty, student, or staff as a home away from home.
In addition to our initiatives in the future, we also want to make our space more inviting to everyone, and we recently installed a mural with famous faces in the realm of DEI and anti-racism. Although we are sort of tucked away on the 7th floor, we hope you will come to check out our office or stop by the chat! We are also always an email or phone call away.
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What is your favorite thing about your current role or responsibilities?
Jalina: As I mentioned before I love what I do, but I find most enjoyment in our DC HAPP program. Working with the young people in that program is a very rewarding experience. They are all very smart, sweet, and have an unwavering passion for medicine. It is truly inspiring to see these young people be a beacon for the future of medicine and addressmany health disparities within the field. They have to go through a pretty rigorous application process including personal essays. Hearing their own stories and things they have had to overcome at such young ages makes me enjoy working to help them in this program because I can be that constant person in their corner that they can go to for guidance. It truly makes me want to be a better person. A number of our students will come to GW to complete medical or health science programs, and several have received the Joel Trachtenberg scholarship.
Recently one of our students was featured on NBC4 Washington, highlighting his journey and internship at GW Hospital. He has completed hundreds of clinical hours and is in the SMHS ENT program, all while being a senior in high school. Those stories of students within DC HAPP reaching their fullest potential make everything worthwhile.
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What impact do you hope your efforts will have on colleagues and peers?
Jalina: The impact that I hope to have through this role, is for others to be more cognizant of the journeys and backgrounds of those they come in contact with daily. Whether that is your colleagues, students, or anyone else, it is important to remember that everyone has a story of how they got where they are. Keeping that in mind when you interact with others goes a long way. We are all people and the decisions we make can have a significant impact on others.
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How does this spotlight/recognition make you feel?
Jalina: I was extremely honored to be recognized in this way! It makes me very happy to see the initiatives of our office be highlighted and that we as a whole are also being recognized for the things we do.
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What is one thing that keeps you motivated during the day?
Jalina: The thing that keeps me motivated throughout the day is Beyonce’s Renaissance album. It is truly my go-to album if I am having a bad day or need an extra push, Beyonce gets me through it.
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