Chapter 10: The Minority Faculty and Administrators’ Committee
Files
Description
Ms. Villejo talks about the Minority Faculty and Administrators Committee (member 1990-96, chair 1992-93). She recalls that the Committee was formed to address “vestiges of racism” and increase recruiting of minorities. She explains how the committee was founded, talks about the contributions of Lovell Jones, MD [Oral History Interview]. She tells an anecdote about blatant racism, also noting that she had no person experience of being held back because of race. She tells an anecdote about producing bilingual educational material.
Ms. Villejo talks about the mentoring program she organized via the Committee. She then talks about the Diversity Committee and the Women and Minority Faculty Committee. She also describes her work with community schools and young professionals.
Identifier
VillejoL_02_20150521_C10
Publication Date
5-21-2015
City
Houston, Texas
Interview Session
Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES, Oral History Interview, May 21, 2015
Topics Covered
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center - Diversity Issues; Critical Perspectives on MD Anderson; Building/Transforming the Institution; Portraits; MD Anderson Culture; Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Religion; Leadership; Mentoring; MD Anderson History; Diversity at MD Anderson
Transcript
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Yeah. Interesting. Well, I’m really glad you brought up those issues. I mean it provides a really interesting portrait. And I wanted to ask you. We’ve talked about these stories. Where would you like to go next? I mean would you like to talk about experience as a woman and as a minority here at MD Anderson? Would you like to continue with the story of patient ed? What are you primed to do right now in terms of talking?
Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:
Well, since we were talking about the different organizations I can talk a little bit about that as far as when we first started having what was the Minority Faculty and Administrative Committee and—
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
When did that start, the Minority—
Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:
Faculty and Administrative Committee. Oh gosh. I would not be able to put dates to it but I might be able to go back and look through some files.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
I mean we’re talking ’80s?
Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:
Yeah, late ’80s, early ’90s. And so that was a really interesting great group. And I think that there wasn’t enough as far as recruiting minorities. I mean really when I think back on it it’s just so different now. I mean I a lot of times was the only person of color in committee meetings. And now it’s very diverse, which is wonderful. I mean MD Anderson is incredibly diverse.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Who was it that got together to start that Minority Faculty Committee?
Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:
I couldn’t remember all the names. But I can tell you some of the people that came to it. It was Dr. Swafford was in cardiology. Dr. Gibbs, who’s over diversity now. Lovell Jones. And actually Lovell Jones and many others developed this Intercultural Cancer Council. And I helped him when he first started organizing that conference that they have.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
The biennial?
Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:
Mm-hmm. So I can’t even remember the first one. But I remember one of the things. I mean Lovell Jones, some people are that spark that have the ideas and no organizational skills. And so I think that although he had a lot of really good ideas and continued them and grew them to what it is now, it might have been a little bit frustrating for people. Because the organizational skills were—like applying for continuing education credits a week before the conference just doesn’t work. That kind of thing. But obviously definitely grew that into what it is now.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Now were you in on the ground floor of organizing this minority faculty organization?
Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:
One of the first few years at least. I don’t remember exactly how it started. But yes.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
And what was in the air at the time? What were people talking about that made them think now is the time we really need to do something about this?
Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:
Well, I think that even though it was minority faculty and administration, the issues mainly that we addressed were faculty issues. And so obviously the few faculty at that time were very interested in recruiting more faculty, supporting the faculty that were here, and that kind of thing.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
What support did they—where did they feel the support was not being offered? How was that expressing itself?
Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:
Probably in promotions and growth. And there was still say some of the old guard that were here at Anderson with vestiges of racism. I mean I heard stories about certain faculty that were very blatant in faculty meetings about that. And I remember they used to have the Faculty Dining Room up in the—is it the Clark Clinic Building? Yeah. When that first opened. And I took my—for Administrative Professionals Day, I took my support staff up there for lunch. And one of the doctors that I had heard of the way he was before. And so we were in line and he was standing behind me. And he goes, “Oh, what is it, bring a darky to lunch day?”
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Wow.
Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:
Yeah. Was like OK, here we are.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Gosh.
Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:
Yeah, there were—I didn’t experience as much really bad like that as other people did. And I remember women faculty would have experiences that they really couldn’t bring forward. And so then of course they started having these sexual harassment courses and that kind of thing and educating people. And I remember one that I went to, because you had to go of course. And this one doctor was just sitting back with his legs up, you know how they take the space up. Legs crossed, just hemming and hawing throughout the whole thing like this is ridiculous, why do we have to go through this kind of thing. So obviously things have changed a lot. Even when I was in college working, because I always worked, I had some experiences that it was like geez, I mean I went and told the boss.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Now at the time at MD Anderson was part of the problem that there was no one to tell about these experiences, there was no recourse?
Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:
Yeah. I think there was no recourse. There was no one to tell. And nobody was going to do anything about it. It was kept under the rug.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Did you experience any situations in your early professional track here where you felt being a woman or being a minority became an obstacle for you, you were prevented from moving forward or getting opportunities?
Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:
No, I really can’t say that I was, because what we do is really support the patient and the education of the patient. And as I’ve worked on different committees, we all see a different part of the elephant. And who can’t like education? Who can’t be for that? Now I would get pushback once in a while from faculty when I would go to start a patient education program. In one area I went—and what we would usually do was we would go—if somebody expressed an interest we would go into the area and we would bring the whole interdisciplinary team in. And the medical director. And then the way that I would start it, I’d go around the table and talk about what do you do around patient education, and what materials do you use. And we’d just go around the table. And the medical director said, “Now are you coming in here to tell us what to do, tell us how we’re going to teach?” I said, “No, I’m going to support what you do and help you organize that and develop resources.” So he was very concerned that I was going to come and tell them what to do, which of course I have no idea. I can tell them educationally what would be the best approach. So it was very minimal. And really back then we got some tremendous amount of support like in Leukemia and Head and Neck. I mean Dr. Goepfert was the head of Surgery at that time. And Dr. Byers. And they would come to every patient education committee meeting and really be supportive and talk about the issues and make sure everybody was doing their part to pull the programs together. As a matter of fact Dr. Goepfert was from South America and we had a need for materials in Spanish. And so we had developed a Bilingual Information and Education Advisory Committee. And so that was people from throughout the institution, medical, nursing, social workers, pharmacists, dietitians, and we would get together and identify what resources were needed for our Spanish-speaking population. And then I mean this was incredibly work-intensive, but we didn’t have any other resources. We would pull together like NCI materials that needed to be translated. And we would either translate them or we would review them. And as you can imagine, that’s incredibly work-intensive. These people already have jobs. And so we did a lot of work in that area. And now we have tremendous resource in Language Assistance. So when we need something translated we just send it to them. So that’s an incredible resource. Because the other thing that we had to do, if we couldn’t do it that way, then we would have to get money to pay for materials. Like when we do videotapes now we just budget in doing it in English and Spanish. So we’ll have that resource available. So it’s become part of the process.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Was MD Anderson—so what were about the years when you were doing these bilingual materials? I mean I’m just wondering. Was that kind of service for patients part of what cancer centers were doing at the time?
Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:
We probably did a lot more than most. But I know that because of the group that we have, the Cancer Patient Education Network, it was something that we came together on and like in the ’90s we tried to combine resources. And I think it was Ohio State worked with a group to develop a Web site that had a lot of materials that had been translated in all kind of languages. My colleague at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, they really needed Russian. We didn’t need Russian. Of course they needed Spanish too. So we did try to collaborate in a way nationally. When I first came to the institution the signs were in English and Spanish. And then it was decided by whoever, the powers that be, facilities, that people could figure it out. But yeah.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Interesting.
Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:
Yeah, that was a long time ago.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Yeah. I didn’t want to lose the thread of the story of the minority faculty organization too. And I recall talking to Lovell Jones. He said one of the first things that that committee did was review salaries for example. So I was wondering what you recall from that or if you don’t recall that particular study what were some of the other initiatives that that committee took on to help make things better.
Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:
Yes. I do remember that. And I do remember that it was again focused on faculty. So I think fortunately or unfortunately the administrators did a lot of the work and focused on faculty issues. But one of the things that we did too that I was trying to organize—and it was really just way too much for one person to do—was we started a mentorship program. And so we started trying to link people with mentors. So we would get people from Minority Faculty and Administrative Organization and then we would reach out to leadership around the institution and try to connect them with people.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
And your aim being? What was the issue that was being addressed there?
Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:
Well, to mentor them so that if they wanted to move up in their career they could be talking to another administrator, another faculty member. And that they would get lessons learned or how to do the next step, or what kind of experience do you need to get. Talk to them about their life stories. And really forge connections so that people know each other and feel comfortable talking to the head of this service or that service and feel like they’re more of a colleague than like someone in this huge leadership position that you would never get to know otherwise. So that was—
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Who were some people? Do you recall some of the names of people that went through that mentorship program?
Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:
I know I had spreadsheets. (laughter)
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
I’m just curious if any names stuck. It was a long time ago obviously.
Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:
Yeah, it was definitely.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
What was the reaction to that committee at the time? Was it controversial?
Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:
From my perspective I did not hear anything. Lovell probably has a different story, but Lovell was a different person too. He definitely pushed the envelope. Which the envelope always needs to be pushed.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Absolutely, absolutely, yeah. What was your involvement? Or maybe I should make sure we’ve closed out the story of that particular committee. Is it still in existence?
Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:
I think it’s the Diversity Committee now. So that committee. Then there was also the Women Faculty and Administrative Committee. And so I went to those meetings too. And then they developed a committee that was the Minority and Women Faculty and Administrative Committee. And I also was involved with that committee and got to know Liz Travis very well, who obviously has taken that to a wonderful level here in the institution. And then as I mentioned Dr. Gibbs is head of diversity here. So I think it has become part of the fabric of MD Anderson. All those early efforts really bore fruit.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
What have you heard? What are you hearing from young faculty coming up? Young women, young diversity faculty and administrators who are coming up. What are their perspectives on diversity here at MD Anderson? You obviously see the changes. But they may not.
Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:
That’s a good question. I think that from my perspective, and I haven’t been involved in those committees for a while, but because we have become part of the fabric, it’s just like in the women’s movement. The young women these days don’t know what the difference is. So they just take it for granted that they can do whatever they want to do. I really haven’t heard anything that really has struck me about any new administrators. I mean I guess in my involvement I’ve turned to working with schools and working with young professionals to provide support in that way.
Recommended Citation
Villejo, Louise and Rosolowski, Tacey A. PhD, "Chapter 10: The Minority Faculty and Administrators’ Committee" (2015). Interview Chapters. 1525.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/1525
Conditions Governing Access
Open
