Center for Deployment Psychology Hosts Workshop to Promote Inclusivity

The Center for Deployment Psychology (CDP) at the Uniformed Services University hosted its first employee inclusivity workshop

The Center for Deployment Psychology (CDP) trains military and civilian behavioral health professionals

to provide high-quality, culturally-sensitive, evidence-based behavioral health services to military personnel,

veterans and their families. (USU photo)

June 16, 2023 by Ian Neligh

Discussions about diversity, culture, and racial trauma were all topics discussed during the Uniformed Services University’s (USU) Center for Deployment Psychology (CDP) first two-day employee inclusivity workshop.

The CDP trains military and civilian behavioral health professionals to care for military personnel, veterans, and families. The organization works to provide high-quality education and research-based treatment for military behavioral health.

Contractor Hakimah Campbell was among those who organized and led the training effort and helped to bring in psychologist Dr. Brittany Hall-Clark, an expert in diversity training, to lead the workshop.

“We hired Hall-Clark and she went through the definition of what diversity, equity, inclusion — and what that looks like,” Campbell said. “It was very engaging.”

Campbell said initially their guest speaker didn’t think there would be enough material to fill the two different training days, but found she couldn’t get through all the material because of the level of positive interaction.

“There was so much discussion, people told their stories,” Campbell said. “We made it very clear to them that this was a safe place, so please feel free to speak — and that’s what people did.”

About 40 people attended the workshop, including clinicians, faculty and staff.

Campbell said the initial idea to host the workshop came about in the wake of George Floyd’s death in 2020 when he was killed by a Minneapolis police officer. 

She said the goal was to promote diversity and inclusion within the center of deployment while creating a platform people can use to learn and identify solutions.

“And so we created a mission statement, we created our goals and objectives, of what we wanted to do — our mission is to promote diversity and inclusion, and engage the culture in the workplace and even beyond,” Campbell said.

Topics during CDP's inclusivity workshop included learning about age, disability, religion, ethnicity, race and

socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, and gender inequality. (Photo credit: Jeff Dimon, USU)

Additionally, the promotion of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) initiatives is at the forefront of USU President Dr. Jonathan Woodson's goals for the University.

"Diversity, equity and inclusivity initiatives are a key part of my vision for the future of the University and a strategic priority of the Secretary of Defense," says Woodson. "The CDP inclusivity workshop is an excellent way to create conditions for members of our community to reach their potential and find success at USU and to help address one of DoD's key initiatives."

CDP made the decision to include the training in its annual all staff meeting held at the end of April.

“We decided is that for two days, we were going to talk about diversity and inclusion, because one of our goals is to identify and attract diversity: diverse faculty and staff, implement policies and procedures, and foster a climate of diversity,” Campbell said, adding the training also included education about cultural responsiveness, and racial stress and trauma.

According to Campbell, it encouraged her to see how well the event was received and added they did their best to make sure it was a safe place for people to share their thoughts.

“When you talk about diversity, equity, inclusion, it can be challenging, it can be uncomfortable,” Campbell said. “So one of the things we made sure that everyone was that comfortable, and this was a safe place.”

Topics also included age, disability, religion, ethnicity, race and socioeconomic status, sexual orientation and gender inequality.

“We intentionally made it so that people felt welcome to speak from the heart and to be open and learning,” Campbell said.

Event co-organizer and faculty member Dr. Kelly Chrestman said the workshops were the result of two years of planning and collaboration with leadership, staff, and outside experts. 

“At CDP, we not only have a responsibility to each other as co-workers, to create and maintain a workplace where everyone can thrive and contribute, we are responsible as an organization for teaching other people - behavioral health providers, who then go on to provide services to vulnerable populations,” Chrestman said. “There are so many layers to the work that we do. The workshop was important because it allowed us to develop a shared understanding of cultural responsiveness as well as racial stress and trauma, relevant to the many layers of our work and the impact we can have in all those places.”

According to Campbell, the workshop’s success has them looking forward to planning other similar events in the near future.