The AUA New England Section (NE) initiated a deep dive into diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) within the NE urologic community in 2021. The Section is honored to have been served by several women at the highest levels of leadership—secretary, treasurer, president twice over with a third currently in line, AUA representative, and board members at large—and is fortunate to maintain incredible, engaged women mentors. But AUA Census data tell us the New England Section has a significant opportunity to expand its diversity, inclusion, and representation in regional urology beyond what has already been achieved.

As part of the Section’s evaluation, Dr Simone Thavaseelan, AUA NE member, Brown University program director, AUA DEI Committee member, inaugural recipient of the AUA DEI Award (2023), and recent vice chair of the AUA DEI Task Force, facilitated a focused session to educate Section leadership on intentional actions it could take to increase participation and representation among underrepresented colleagues within NE to reflect the diverse community our specialty serves. From this session the board of directors organized quickly and implemented the following programs over the past year.

A Section DEI Taskforce was formed in 2022, composed of all members who volunteered to participate in this initiative. This group’s first order of business was to better understand the AUA NE community and its DEI priorities through a survey. Simultaneously, our leadership worked to identify a taskforce chair, Dr Jaime Cavallo at Yale University, and appointed Dr Cavallo to serve ad hoc on the board of directors until a bylaws amendment could be ratified to establish this seat as a voting member of the leadership. This amendment is scheduled for vote in spring 2024 and is an essential step to demonstrate the importance of deliberately and consistently viewing Section actions through a DEI lens.

Results from the DEI Committee’s survey were mixed, and pointed to the need for and interest in programming directed at increasing DEI in the New England region. To this end, the Section DEI Committee is liaising with the Program Committee to organize a panel for AUA NE 2024, and suggest faculty to expand representation and promote greater inclusion of our colleagues in Section education.

Dr Vernon Pais, past secretary of AUA NE and current president-elect, wrote in AUANews last year, “As a Section, it is recognized that in order to increase diversity in the ranks of urology, we need to increase diversity in those choosing to pursue a career in urology.” With this acknowledgement and taskforce focus, NE is proud to be the first Section to facilitate a regional FUTURE (Future Urology Talent From Under-Represented Entities) program at its Annual Meeting in September 2024 to expose and engage medical students from diverse backgrounds in the field of urology. Section members will serve as mentors, and underrepresented students will be invited from regional medical schools to attend the meeting for networking. Support and structure from the AUA DEI Committee has been critical to move this program forward, as has been support from the Section board of directors. We hope this program will aid in developing a diverse pipeline of future urologists and look forward to building on the FUTURE series in years to come.

While NE has made strides over the past year in the programs it offers to support our underrepresented colleagues and to recruit to diversify our field, there is still much work to be done. The NE DEI Committee looks forward to continuing this work and coordinating with other Sections to share best practices and strive toward reflecting a truly diverse urologic community.