“Most people think a role like mine [is to have] responsibility for recruitment and training,” says CastleberrySingleton. “Our efforts are focused on employee engagement.”
Pittsburgh is a state of its own.
“California is a large state with lots of individuality,” says transplant Candi Castleberry-Singleton, chief diversity officer at UPMC. “But Pittsburgh is a big extended family, a state on its own.” CastleberrySingleton cites the city’s self-proclaimed “Steeler Nation” as one of the many ways Pittsburgh expands this autonomy. “We are our own nation.”
And it’s a nation that Castleberry-Singleton is striving to make more diverse and culturally aware through her work with the Dignity & Respect campaign, an initiative that strives to follow the golden rule: Treat others the way you would want to be treated.
“Most people think a role like mine [is to have] responsibility for recruitment and training,” says
Castleberry-Singleton. “Our efforts are focused on employee engagement.”
The Dignity & Respect initiative started in 2008, with UPMC employees committing to uphold the
golden rule, in addition to providing feedback on respectful behavior in the workplace. Through
surveys, employees were asked about the delivery of culturally competent care at all levels.
“The primary effort was moving the needle,” she explains. “My work is to enable the employees
to do a good job. It has to be the work of every employee.”
By 2009, the initiative had expanded to the Pittsburgh community, with Mayor Luke Ravenstahl
proclaiming October to be “Dignity & Respect Month.”
“The second initiative [was to] add the element of cultural awareness, moving from dignity and
respect to being culturally competent,” CastleberrySingleton says. This part of the initiative helps people to put themselves in someone else’s shoes.
“There’s not a consistent job description for people who do this work,” she says. And she doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon, with projects like Healthy Community, Healthy You on the front burner. Officially launched during Pittsburgh Pride Week in 2012, Healthy Community, Healthy You is an initiative that encourages fitness participation where members can earn gift cards for taking part in their physical wellness.
Technology is being utilized, too, with mobile apps and online health records impacting many different groups, especially older people and lower-income families.
Like the doctors at UPMC, Castleberry-Singleton is also saving lives — not just the lives of Pittsburghers, but, as the campaign spreads, the lives of people across the nation, all the way back to her home state.
“I think I have an amazing job,” she says. “To help people, to be respected — somebody pays me to do this.”
