Figure. Examples of affinity and DEI grassroots organizations in urology.

The Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Task Force recommended the creation of an annual AUA Diversity & Inclusion Award to recognize the efforts of urologists engaged in the meaningful improvement of diversity, equity, and inclusion in urology. The recommendation was approved by the AUA Board of Directors and inaugurated in 2022, and was one of the recommendations within the focus area of Just and Inclusive Environment. The latter refers to fostering an inclusive urological community through intentionally created or equitably recreated governance structures, policies, practices, norms, and opportunities. The rationale for this recommendation was for the organization to use its institutional, social and political capital to amplify, sponsor, recognize, and accelerate DEI work, which has been typically considered adjacent to basic science or clinical scholarship.

With the appointment of Dr Larissa Bresler as Chief Diversity Officer, the AUA has begun to operationalize almost all of these recommendations. The developed award is to recognize commitment and efforts to enhance diversity and inclusion within urology (eg, the recruitment and mentoring of underrepresented minorities into urology, advocacy to improve health equity and access to urological care, outstanding educational or research initiatives addressing diversity, inclusion and health equity issues, and/or leadership in addressing health care disparities and/or promoting culturally competent care). While I am honored to receive the inaugural AUA Diversity & Inclusion Award, these efforts are fundamentally collaborative, communal, and ever-evolving, as my colleagues across urology who are also engaged in DEI can attest.

I hope for this award to amplify the work of so many colleagues who are also meaningfully engaged in addressing diversification of the workforce to meet the challenges of providing more equitable care and to address disparities in outcomes on the basis of gender or race, sexual orientation, or any other marker of social identity. This includes the entire AUA D&I Task Force, chaired by Dr Tracy Downs, as well as affinity societies such as the Society of Women in Urology, the R Frank Jones Urological Society, Urology Unbound, Urologists for Equity, LatinX in Urology, the Hispanic Urological Society of North America, programs such as UReTER Urology Mentorship Program and Michigan Urology Academy, and many other organizations and individuals who have dedicated their time and effort to DEI and health equity.

I have mentored junior colleagues, residents, and students who often ask if a career in urology dedicated to DEI is possible. My answer to this question has changed over time. First, I think anyone who has a passion to work on the structures, policies, norms, and values of their organizations, institutions, or spheres of influence and make them more just and inclusive should be encouraged to do so. One of the DEI efforts of which I am most proud is a working group at Brown University Alpert School of Medicine that changed the faculty academic promotions criteria to make DEI foundational. Required criteria for all faculty for advancement were codified to address the so called “minority tax” whereby those who are underrepresented or historically excluded are tasked with fixing the structures that lead to this inequity as well as lesser known majority subsidy whereby those who are well represented are not also held accountable to affect changes in systems that might benefit them.^1,2 Second, as many institutions have pivoted to prioritize their DEI goals, there is momentum to assure the next generation that they can choose to focus or build their career on health equity and DEI, and contribute meaningful scholarship to urology. And this is what I hope the legacy of this award will be in the coming years.