 One of the bills that is on our front burner and a strong priority is H 210 and Dr. Marisa Coleman is here. We understand that you are extremely busy and today was one of the few times that we could actually have you in. So I'm going to ask you to introduce yourself for the record and then let us know who you are what you do and then your thoughts on H 210. So thank you very much for being with us. Thank you for having me. My name is Dr. Marisa Coleman. I'm a lead staff psychologist at the University of Vermont Medical Center, as well as senior equity diversity and inclusion advisor. So I am here on behalf of the University of Vermont Health Network to express the organization support for H 210 and to make some suggestions on improvements of the language of the bill. Perfect. Okay, should I, I will proceed. Right ahead, go right ahead. So at the University of Vermont Medical Center. We have established an equity diversity and inclusion steering committee actually was established a few years ago. And the committee is made up of staff and leaders that were focused on launching a body of work to increase the feeling of the sense of belonging for all staff and employees but also to push forward our inclusion efforts. With the assistance of the steering committee and the organization has held 13 racial equity listening sessions, they're held monthly. They prioritize the voices and perspectives of staff members that identifies black indigenous and or people of color. We also partnered with several community organizations and joined with the city of Burlington and declaring racism as a public health emergency with documented action items that stem from that. And we're in the process of finalizing health equity data dashboard and are rolling out several educational initiatives for our staff. Last year, the UVM health network. Dr. Brum said, made a statement to our patients and communities saying that the network is committed to ongoing careful and meaningful action in an effort to create a culture that is equitable diverse and inclusive for all employees, patients and communities we serve. The affiliate within the UVM health network is engaged in work related to diversity, equity and inclusion, including the formation of steering committees, employee listening sessions, cultural humility training, quality improvement efforts, Board of Affairs, diversity, equity and inclusion committees, and many more initiatives. In short, you know, we are working at embedding the learning, training and action at all levels throughout all of the affiliates. One thing that I wanted to make sure to suggest is that as I reviewed the bill each to 10 I found two things that I wanted to share with the, with the committee on the first is defining BIPOC populations against whiteness is problematic throughout the bill. I see this as well as specifically on page 13 item six, the definition specifically for BIPOC is defined as not white. That is not accurate and centers and centers whiteness as the default human descriptor of race and it makes anyone who is not white racialized version of a human being. I'm happy to discuss why that is problematic and oppressive with language, if, if people on the call would like me to. Additionally, the other thing that I would like to be considered in terms of improving the language of this bill is to evolve the language around cultural competence to cultural humility. Cultural competence indicates that there is an endpoint to our learning and our growing. And that is simply not the case. It is a lifelong process and cultural humility demonstrates that nobody is going to be perfect at this and that there is not a hierarchy in terms of progress and engagement and learning but that really what we're striving for is that people engage in the process of being humble of recognizing what their blind spots are recognizing where there are areas to grow and feeling empowered to own mistakes receive feedback but also know where to reach out for more support. So those are two suggestions to language that I have for the bill to 10. Do you do you have those suggestions in writing along with your testimony that that we could have and we'll put it on our webpage but if you have. I mean specifically the definition of BIPOC seems is not an easy one based on the comments that you've just made. And so clearly your assistance would be extremely helpful. Yes we can make sure to provide some written testimony around that. That would be great and then on both and then cultural humility as compared with cultural competence. Yes. Okay. All right. Senator Hardy has a question. Thank you Madam Chair and thank you Dr Coleman for being here today. My question is similar to the chairs in that we are our legislative drafting attorney is not with us right now and she is often the one that takes note of language changes so if you're able to provide your suggestions I see on page 13 where you're referencing I'm looking at the bill on my other screen. So I that's obvious I'm glad you pointed it out because now that I'm looking at I'm thinking wow. You're exactly pointing that out for us and if you have suggestions on how to change that that would be great. And if there are other places in the bill it's a really long bill that does this. And then I really appreciate your comments about the cultural competence versus humility and is there are there places in the bill that specifically that language is used and should be changed and page 12 page 12. So if there's a way to point those out to for us that would be great given our time crunch just to make sure that we catch all these before we get the bill and is it Katie is the drafter on this one right. Jenny. Yep, I think so. Okay, so just to make sure that our drafting attorney. I'll be meeting with her so we'll we can take care of that but it would be extremely helpful Dr Coleman to have your testimony, and everyone then will be able to look at it and and provide comments so thank you. Okay, I'm happy to write all of that thank you. Yes, thank you and some of the things you say really at home with each of us and I so greatly appreciate your comments. And with it with the network. So I became employed at the Medical Center in August 2018. Okay. Alright, so you know Dr Gibson. Yes. She's my former students. Oh really wonderful. Yeah, she's great. Great. Well, we're going to get her in again to our committee as well but someone worth working. Just to clarify because you get some could be a problem. Dr Pam Gibson. Nope, I'm talking about Erica Gibson, the adolescent pediatrician. Yeah. Okay, sorry, I'm not familiar. I will you know it's a big place and lots of people. Yeah. Okay. All right, is there anything else that as you go through the bill if there are other details that you think would offer improvement. We would welcome your comments. I appreciate that. Thank you. The material that you've heard heavy lift to do the work that you're doing. And some of us have it I personally have experienced trying to lift an organization of over 100 and 100,000 people to increase their diversity with it and it I know the challenges before you. And it doesn't matter the size of the organization it's the culture that exists. Yeah, thank you for that acknowledgement it is and I'm really fortunate to have some some wonderful collaborators and partners to feel. Yeah, good. Thank you. Committee other questions. Senator Hardy. Thank you I do have another question. We've gotten beyond the sort of specific details, just sort of in general, will this bill help you with your work. Do you feel like it would have an impact on what you're trying to do and if so, I'm assuming the answer is yes but I'd love to hear more broadly we haven't gotten any direct testimony yet on this from sort of people out in the field, like how will it impact and help what you're trying to do. Thank you for that question. It absolutely will. For a number of reasons and probably even more that I'm not even aware of yet. But focusing first on kind of the educational piece. So within our organization we are working really hard at rolling out educational initiatives and to have the piece included around continuing education and setting standards for providers to have even just a baseline exposure to cultural humility to sensitivity would go a long way it would feel as though we're not pushing as big of a boulder up the hill by ourselves. So I think that that will be important and just as as a psychologist, you know, I think it's pretty impossible to provide, you know, patient centered care when you aren't treating the entirety of the person in front of you. So when you're picking and choosing which identities to pay attention to so I feel strongly that that should be a requirement. And then just again thinking through language, I think there's a lot of power in language and so this will set a precedent that will have impacts I think that will go even beyond the work that I do, where it normalizes how we speak about our own racial identities but also it in my opinion, especially with the change of the non white verbiage it will really take. We'll work on taking out some of the ingrained white supremacist characteristics and language that many of us have internalized take. Don't question. There's a lot of stuff there but those are some of the things that I that I feel initially really draw. Look at the please include those comments and any others that will inform us about the value of the bill. When you put together your written testimony. Okay. I don't I'm not asking you to spend hours and hours doing this it can be bullets. I know I know that you're extremely busy. And we again appreciate your being able to to be here. Yeah, I'm happy to do that. Thank you again for the opportunity to speak with all of you. That's great. Last question. Do you have a relationship with the medical school understanding that the medical school and the the network are affiliated and associated but in your work within the curriculum at the school or expanding understanding. Do you do that. So I do have connection and a role, not a large one. I recently within the Office of Medical Student Education. I'm also a well being advisor so I offer support I sit on wellness committees, and I also offer support for students that may be struggling for a number of reasons that was my position was created to not exclusively provide support to BIPOC students but to the care of BIPOC students and then I also I hold a faculty appointment in the school of medicine and then I'm a co advisor for the student group SNMA, which is, you know, to increase your where I'm sure. Yeah, those are those are my interactions and then actually on the, as I mentioned the DEI steering committee that we have at the medical center. There are partners from the Lawrence College of Medicine, as well as museum and so we're working on increasing our alignment within those three institutions. Terrific. Thank you. All right. This is your last chance committee. We have an expert with us in the field. Thank you. Yes, thank you. Thank you so much. We very much appreciate your being here. So we'll we're we're we're ending for the day we need to move on to our we're on the floor and a few minutes but thank you. So, Nellie, you can take us off.