August 10, 2022

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that Joyce Sackey, MD, FACP, has been appointed Stanford Medicine’s inaugural Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer and Associate Dean. She comes from Tufts University School of Medicine (TUSM) where she has served as Associate Provost and Chief Diversity Officer since 2018. She will begin at Stanford on September 1.

Throughout her career, Dr. Sackey has proven herself a collaborative, strategic, and data-driven leader with a passion for enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Over the past 13 years at TUSM, where she started as its inaugural Dean for Multicultural Affairs and Global Health, she has developed the infrastructure and engendered widespread buy-in that has enabled the school and university to reach its DEI goals.

As Tufts University’s Associate Provost and Chief Diversity Officer for its health sciences schools (including TUSM), Dr. Sackey has launched and led a number of transformative DEI initiatives, including the newly developed FIRST PLUS program that provides academic and social support to students who are first in their family to attend college. She also directs the Innovations in Diversity Education Awards program for intramural faculty funding, chairs the Faculty Advisory Council on Excellence, Diversity, and Inclusion, and serves on the MD admissions committee as a DEI consultant.

A native of Accra, Ghana, Dr. Sackey came to the United States to attend Dartmouth College and the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. In her distinguished career, she has demonstrated a deep commitment and unique ability for using DEI to strengthen institutions and empower individuals. Notably, she helped organize a collaboration with other New England medical schools that primarily supports career and leadership development for faculty from groups underrepresented in STEM fields. She also serves on the Advisory Council for the Boston-area Network of Women of Color in the Academy.

As Stanford Medicine’s Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer and Associate Dean, Dr. Sackey will draw from her vast experience to amplify, streamline, and align the many impactful diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives taking place across our enterprise. We are optimistic that Dr. Sackey, who will report directly to us, will have a profound influence on our culture and impact by aligning our many ongoing outstanding efforts toward common goals.

We want to express our gratitude to the many people from across our institution involved in the nationwide search for this critical leadership position – including search committee co-leads Michael Halaas and Megan Mahoney, MD, and search committee advisors Bonnie Maldonado, MD, and Priya Singh. We also want to thank our Commission on Justice and Equity, whose recommendations led to the creation of the CDIO position.

We hope you all will join us in extending Joyce a warm welcome to our community.

Sincerely,

Lloyd Minor, MD
Dean, Stanford School of Medicine

David Entwistle
President & CEO, Stanford Health Care

Paul King
President & CEO, Stanford Medicine Children's Health