UC Davis Awarded NIH Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA) Prize

University of California, Davis was one of only 10 universities in the U.S. to recently be recognized with an Institutional Excellence in DEIA in Biomedical and Behavioral Research Prize Competition from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The acknowledgement, which comes with a $100,000 prize, was awarded to a select few post-secondary institutions for “implementing strategies to enhance DEIA in research environments.”

“It is a tremendous honor to receive this award and acknowledgement from the NIH for our leadership and excellence in promoting diversity, equity and inclusion within the sciences,” said Luis Carvajal-Carmona, Ph.D., associate vice chancellor of academic diversity within the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. “It is an acknowledgement that comes after decades of hard work and is a testament to the diversity ecosystem we have at UC Davis—where not only students, staff, faculty and alumni are interested in growing our diversity efforts, but also we have very committed leaders.”

Carvajal-Carmona, who is a professor of biochemistry and molecular medicine at UC Davis and distinguished cancer researcher, worked in collaboration with Mark Henderson, associate dean of admissions in the School of Medicine, and Linda Bisson, professor emeritus of viticulture and enology, as well as other with colleagues from the School of Medicine and UC Davis Admissions to submit the application.

Funds from the award will be divided among the School of Medicine, Center for the Advancement of Multicultural Perspectives on Science (CAMPOS) and Undergraduate Admissions so each group can continue its DEI-focused programs. Specifically, Admissions has granted its funds to support the Cesar Chavez Youth Leadership Conference.

UC Davis was one of only two universities in the University of California system to receive this award, the other being UCSF. Other prestigious universities to receive the acknowledgment include Duke University, Vanderbilt University and University of Illinois Chicago, among others.

“It is a tremendous honor to receive this award and acknowledgement from the NIH for our leadership and excellence in promoting diversity, equity and inclusion within the sciences. It is an acknowledgement that comes after decades of hard work and is a testament to the diversity ecosystem we have at UC Davis. 

- Luis Carvajal-Carmona, Ph.D., associate vice chancellor of academic diversity within the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. 

A Diversity Ecosystem

In awarding the prize, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recognizes UC Davis for its “diversity ecosystem” and the university’s holistic approach to working to close gaps in diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility in biomedical and behavioral disciplines.

 For more than 15 years the university has pursued multiple interventions across both the Davis and Sacramento campuses to ensure all communities were addressed: undergraduate, graduate, postgraduate, and postdoctoral fellows, faculty, staff, and administrators.

 This approach was necessary because, “faculty diversity depends upon postdoctoral and postgraduate diversity; postdoctoral diversity depends upon graduate student diversity; and graduate student diversity depends upon undergraduate student diversity,” as summarized in the grant application.

The UC Davis campus engaged in critical reviews of undergraduate and graduate admissions policies and practices, leading to the implementation of holistic review for undergraduate students from 2007 to 2012. This also included assessing the impact of changes in the diversity of student populations. 

A Diverse Medical School

Special acknowledgement was given to the transformative changes that have occurred in the School of Medicine’s (SOM) admissions process in recent years. Since 2006, the SOM has implemented holistic admission criteria and innovative support structures, leading to a significant increase in students from underrepresented groups. Specifically, the SOM has achieved a fivefold increase in the number of medical students from under-represented groups (URG). Today, more than 50% of the university's medical students are from URGs, making it one of the most diverse schools of medicine in the nation. It is an accomplishment that has gained national headlines in such publications as the New York Times and NPR.

According to the UC Davis Provost’s Office, many medical students who were, historically, persons excluded because of their ethnicity or race (PEER) have become UC Davis undergraduate students who benefited from UC Davis’ DEI ecosystem. These PEER students have been supported and encouraged by outreach and pathways programs and retention centers, have had volunteer opportunities at UC Davis student-run clinics, and have been mentored by our growing number of PEER faculty.

Faculty Diversity

Faculty recruitment and retention programs led by the Office of Academic Diversity —an office within the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion—were also acknowledged for their growth and impact. The Center for the Advancement of Multicultural Perspectives on Science (CAMPOS), which is celebrating its 10^th anniversary during the 2024-25 academic year, has played an important role in the recruitment, retention and advancement of faculty members whose research, teaching, and service advance multicultural perspectives in the sciences.

The university’s implicit bias training program for faculty search committees — Strength Through Equity and Diversity, or STEAD — was lauded as well as. STEAD was initiated as part of the NSF-ADVANCE institutional transformation grant, which ran from 2012-2017 and then was institutionalized to be a program within the Division of Academic Affairs, where it continues to this day.

HSI/Avanza and DEI

Likewise, the efforts of those involved with UC Davis’s AVANZA program, the HSI Task Force and Undergraduate Admissions were acknowledged for helping to increase the number of Hispanic/Latinx students at the university. During the 2024-25 academic year the university achieved a long-coveted milestone of enrolling about 8100 Latinx students, which is 25.1% of undergraduate full-time-equivalent students. This metric makes UC Davis eligible to be designated as a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) according to the U.S. Department of Education’s criteria, which would make it one of the few HSI designated research-intensive universities in the country.

A Leader in DEI

UC Davis was also recognized for the efforts of its leadership. In 2018, Chancellor Gary May, who is currently a member of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities governing board, established the Vice Chancellor’s Office of DEI, fulfilling a recommendation of the Strategic Vision. In 2019, the vision culminated with the appointment of Vice Chancellor Renetta Garrison Tull who continues to be a local, national and international leader of DEI efforts. In 2022, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Mary Croughan, launched a new diversity, equity and inclusion recruitment effort called Wicked Problems to hire 100 faculty from diverse backgrounds, embracing the idea that the world’s most serious problems can be solved only by people with a wide variety of perspectives. Today, the UC Davis Division of DEI is the largest in the UC system.