Impact Summit

Check in and continental breakfast

Welcome and opening remarks

Speakers: Kristen Will and earl lee

Grand Rounds keynote address — Engineering Approaches to Sickle Cell Disease: Implications for Inclusive Excellence in Health

Speaker: Gilda Barabino

Influence of Psychological Safety in Organizational Culture

Speaker: M. Margaret Calacci

Psychological safety is a crucial element of modern organizational leadership, particularly in promoting innovation, inclusive excellence and high performance. Leaders who cultivate psychologically safe environments enable individuals to speak openly, contribute ideas and take informed risks without fear of negative consequences. Such environments are associated with boosted engagement, creativity, well-being, performance and a stronger sense of belonging. Psychological safety operates at three interrelated levels: individual, team and organizational. At the individual level, safety encompasses physical, cognitive and emotional security, enabling employees to engage authentically in their roles and enhancing job satisfaction, performance, trust and competence (Kahn, 1990). At the team level, psychological safety is reflected in norms that support interpersonal risk-taking, such as voicing concerns, acknowledging errors and offering suggestions for improvement without fear of embarrassment or retribution (Edmondson, 1999). At the organizational level, safety fosters a culture of empowerment, enabling team members to engage in constructive dialogue and analyze failures or interventions before accidents occur, thereby maximizing results (Hall, 1976; Schein, 2017).

Using Inclusive Practices to Increase Communication Access for Listeners With Hearing Loss

Speakers: Aparna Rao, Kate Helms Tillery and Erica Williams

Over 1.3 million adult Arizonans have hearing loss. Hearing loss disrupts communication and is associated with negative emotional consequences including depression and isolation. It affects not only the individual, but also family and community members. When there is permanent hearing loss, treatment includes hearing aid and assistive technology fitting, communication strategies and further listening training as needed. When hearing loss is severe enough, cochlear implants may be another alternative. Unfortunately, this hearing technology doesn’t restore normal hearing. Hearing loss is invisible. Most people do not recognize when someone has hearing loss or know how to help.

Communication difficulties can exist even after an individual has been fitted with appropriate hearing technology. Modifications known as communication strategies must be made to enhance communication. Modifications typically involve four main areas: the listening environment, the content of the message, and talker and listener behaviors.

In this skills lab, we will simulate hearing loss for attendees to provide an understanding of communication difficulties that arise in the presence of hearing loss. We will also practice strategies that will help ease communication challenges.

Designing for Generational and Life-Stage Diversity in Health Education

Speaker: Caitlyn Zang

Health programs are enrolling increasingly diverse learners across age, life stage and professional experience. This interactive workshop equips faculty and staff with practical tools to design courses that support both Gen Z and adult reentry students without lowering rigor.

Participants will engage in a structured redesign activity using a real assignment or syllabus component. Through guided prompts, they will identify where flexibility, feedback timing, real-world relevance, collaboration structures and accountability mechanisms can be adjusted to support executive function development, time constraints, digital fluency differences and professional identity formation.

The workshop integrates evidence-based teaching frameworks including significant learning, active learning (ICAP), inclusive pedagogy and metacognitive scaffolding. Participants will leave with one revised assignment plan and a short implementation roadmap.

A Community of Practice Exercise: Cultivating Social Capital and Belonging Through Zine Artifacts

Speaker: Monique Guerrero

This interactive session will engage participants and provide an understanding of Community of Practice Framework and its use in creating belonging and social capital amongst students. Through the exercise of constructing zine artifacts, participants will learn how to develop thoughtful and intentional prompts allowing for student sharing and discussion. Participants will be asked to think about and share opportunities in which they could employ this practice in their workplace setting, or classroom to assist students in cultivating belonging and social capital, increasing systems of support.

From Token Input to Transformative Impact: Why Co-Creation Is the Missing Engine of Digital Health Innovation

Speaker: Maissa Khatib

Digital health tools promise to change behavior, reduce disparities and improve lives — yet most fail not because of weak technology, but because they are designed about communities rather than with them. This impact talk advances a bold idea: co-creation is not an optional engagement strategy — it is the core infrastructure for ethical, scalable and effective digital health innovation.

Drawing on over 30 Design Studios for Health conducted with refugee communities, women, firefighters and other historically marginalized populations, this talk reveals how shifting power in the design process transforms outcomes. Using compelling case examples — including AI-enabled heat-health monitoring, maternal health platforms and behavior change technologies — the talk illustrates how deeper engagement models prevent costly failures, increase adoption and build trust in data-driven systems.

By showing how lived-experience narratives are converted into concrete design choices, this talk reframes community engagement from a checkbox to core innovation infrastructure. Attendees will leave with a clear mental model for aligning engagement depth with technological risk — and a challenge to rethink how innovation is built, governed, and sustained.

Activating Inclusive Excellence Through Trauma-Informed Pedagogy

Speaker: Alison Sutton-Ryan

Inclusive excellence is at the core of student and educator success, resilience and persistence. Trauma-informed pedagogy has emerged as a vital framework in higher education for addressing the multifaceted needs of students and faculty. Health care professors, while grounded in strong ethics of care, often encounter challenges in transferring these relational skills to pedagogical practice. Often these shared concepts are understood yet there can be a disconnect on how to put this framework into action.

This Impact Talk examines evidence-based strategies that cultivate trust, flexibility, culturally responsiveness and inclusive learning into both in-person and online learning environments. Strategies on how to integrate clinical competencies within trauma-informed frameworks to enhance instructional effectiveness and foster meaningful educator–student engagement. Course design and delivery will be addressed through the Trauma Informed Pedagogy’s core principles of safety, trustworthiness, transparency, collaboration, empowerment and cultural responsiveness. Putting inclusive excellence into action through Trauma Informed Pedagogy fosters success and resilience for both learners and educators.

Headwinds and Tailwinds: How Identity Shapes Health Education and Leadership

Speaker: Caitlyn Zang

In health education, we often celebrate resilience and perseverance but rarely examine the invisible forces shaping who advances, who feels confident and who experiences belonging. This session introduces the “Headwinds and Tailwinds” framework to explore how intersecting social identities create structural advantage and resistance within academic health systems. Using a metaphor of wind either propelling or resisting forward movement, participants will examine how privilege can function as an unrecognized tailwind while marginalized identities may operate as persistent headwinds. The session connects identity awareness to inclusive leadership practices and systems-level change in classroom participation, mentoring and professional advancement. By shifting from individual resilience narratives to structural awareness, this talk reframes inclusive excellence as a leadership competency essential to preparing future health professionals. Participants will leave with a practical lens for recognizing invisible systems shaping belonging, engagement and workforce development across ASU Health.

Inclusive Research Strategies from the Autism and Brain Aging Lab

Speakers: Blair Braden, Kaitlyn N. Felix, Hector Cervantes, Skyler Strasia and Faith Johnson

Inclusive excellence in autism and aging research is not achieved through research on communities, but through research with them. This impact talk highlights how researchers and students within Dr. Blair Braden’s Autism and Brain Aging Lab engage in collaborative, community-centered work to advance inclusion, foster belonging and translate research into meaningful practice across classrooms, workspaces, and broader community settings.

The lab’s interdisciplinary work examines cognitive and brain aging in autistic adults while developing evidence-informed approaches that support quality of life across the lifespan. Grounded in reciprocal learning and sustained community engagement with autistic individuals, aging adults, clinicians and stakeholders, the lab models practices that align with Arizona State University’s inclusive excellence framework, emphasizing access, participation and shared impact. This talk explores how knowledge is intentionally shared across research teams, trainees, participants and community partners to strengthen partnerships and advance inclusive, ethical, and accessible research practices. Practical strategies — including inclusive mentorship models, participatory research design and collaborative learning environments — are highlighted, alongside efforts to challenge traditional academic hierarchies that can marginalize autistic individuals and underrepresented voices.

Attendees will leave with concrete, adaptable approaches to advancing inclusion within their own departments, classrooms, research labs or workplaces, moving beyond theory toward sustainable, relationship-driven solutions that promote inclusion, belonging and excellence across the lifespan.

Beyond the Glass Slide: Virtual Pathology Education Techniques for Learner Engagement and Clinical Value

Speaker: Kaitlin Sundling

Cytology and pathology training has traditionally focused on glass slide microscopy with apprenticeship-style supervision. In cytology, the development of new master’s level standards for cytologists (formerly known as cytotechnologists) establishes a greater diversity of skills expected for new graduate cytologists, prioritizing skills in digital cytology and cross-training in tissue examination. Methods for high quality engagement between learners and instructors can be used for learners across diverse backgrounds, ranging from undergraduates to cytology students to postgraduate pathology resident physicians. Deep exploration of microscopic findings empowers learners to dispel misconceptions about diagnostic practices and provides a window into clinical diagnostic decision-making processes. Expanding the depth of image-based feedback builds a strong foundation that complements and supports understanding of complex pathophysiologic processes. Ample opportunities for low-stakes practice with expert feedback creates an environment where mistakes can expand diagnostic thinking. In this talk, I will explore techniques for building learner skill and confidence in microscopic examination of pathology images, including both asynchronous and synchronous online methods.

Understanding Parental Refusal of Infant Screening

Speaker: Gianna D'Apolito

Newborn screening (NBS) programs are essential for saving infant lives and improving the quality of life through early disease detection. These programs save around 15,000 lives annually, but refusal rates are increasing despite their mandatory nature. This exploratory dissertation study aims to investigate this trend through interprofessional collaboration, focusing on three areas: data, policy and parental perspective.

The first aim of this study is to identify whether trends in NBS refusal rates are changing within state NBS programs and to examine the programmatic experiences with refusals. This aim will be explored using an explanatory sequential design: first, collecting refusal data from each state, then using that data and literature to inform one-on-one semi-structured qualitative interviews with state program staff. The secondary objective is to understand NBS policies by applying legal epidemiology methods and conducting a legal mapping content analysis. The third aim of this study is to identify the individual-level factors that inform parental decision-making. This includes NBS process considerations, personal beliefs, information sources and contextual factors. Overall, this multi-level study has the potential to facilitate future interventions that could increase access to and success in health education, improve culturally responsive practice, increase uptake of NBS and reduce infant mortality.

Excellence Without Exhaustion: Reimagining Trauma-Informed Clinical Education

Speaker: Melissa Zuber

Students in the health professions are being prepared for clinical environments that are increasingly complex, emotionally charged and shaped not only by patient trauma, but by their own. Many educational models have not kept up with the evolving needs within health care. The majority of health care models prioritize performance and productivity over presence and psychological safety. This session introduces a trauma-informed framework for clinical education designed to better support student success and professional identity formation. This workshop is based on real teaching experience working with students who care for underserved communities and people who have been involved in the justice system. It will give practical tools to help educators in preparing students to care for individuals with addiction, incarceration histories and limited resources. Participants will explore strategies to uphold high standards while fostering relational safety, respond constructively to student distress and model emotionally regulated clinical leadership.

By implementing trauma-informed principles into ASU Health programs it will better equip students with the necessary tools to be successful in improving community health outcomes with resilience and compassion. This session offers evidence-informed practices to evolve clinical education into a space where ASU’s high standards and psychological safety can coexist.

Mixed Methods Examination of Experiences with Intimate Partner Violence Among College-Aged South Asians in the United States

Speaker: Kavya Juwadi

South Asians in the U.S. report disproportionately higher IPV prevalence rates (40%- 47%) compared to the general U.S. population (33%-35%). This elevated risk is tied to cultural norms and structural barriers unique to the South Asian American community, which largely consists of first- or second-generation immigrants. As a result of their recent immigration history, many South Asians in the U.S. retain strong cultural values (e.g., multigenerational households, strong gender roles and family honor) that tend to differ by gender and may shape how IPV is experienced and addressed. College-aged South Asians in the U.S. are a particularly vulnerable subgroup due to their unique stressors, such as bicultural identity, changing social networks and dating secrecy. Despite this, limited research has examined IPV within this population using culturally grounded approaches.

Guided by the socio-ecological model, this exploratory mixed methods study aims to (1) examine IPV prevalence and identify multilevel correlates of IPV among college-aged South Asians in the U.S. and (2) explore how cultural values and gender shape IPV experiences and responses through qualitative interviews. Four key factors were selected to determine the risk of IPV among college-aged South Asians in the U.S.: alcohol use (individual level), relationship satisfaction (relationship level), acceptance of gender norms (community level), and acculturation (societal level).

The Equity Ethic in Medicine: Engineering Healthy Futures for All

Speakers: Gilda Barabino and earl lee

Join Dr. Gilda Barabino, our keynote speaker, and Dr. earl lee, Assistant Dean of Inclusive Excellence, for an interactive dialogue on the intersection of engineering innovation, health equity and institutional belonging. Moving beyond the "pioneer" narrative, this roundtable explores Dr. Barabino’s "equity ethic" — the intentional integration of justice into research, leadership and education. We will discuss the "visibility and invisibility" of patients and practitioners alike, examining how bridging engineering, humanities and medicine can dismantle systemic health disparities.

This is an open, collaborative space designed to learn from one another and share insights on creating a culture where "health care for everyone" is powered by "science by all." Come prepared to discuss how we can collectively transform the health sciences into a truly inclusive ecosystem that prioritizes the humanity of every individual.

Classroom Best Practices for Inclusive Excellence

Speakers: Christy Alexon, Kristin Hoffner and Melinda Johnson

In this roundtable discussion, we will engage in small groups to discuss best practices for supporting inclusive excellence in our classroom. Specifically, we will focus on what we have done (and discuss what we could do better) as faculty and staff to support ASU’s charter of measuring success not by whom we exclude, but whom we include and how they succeed.

What Shapes Student Experience in Health Programs?

Speaker: Caitlyn Zang

Many health programs articulate commitments to diversity and equity, yet experiences of belonging remain uneven for students and faculty. This facilitated roundtable invites participants into structured dialogue about the persistent gaps between institutional intention and lived experience.

Using guiding prompts grounded in inclusive leadership and belonging research, participants will explore questions such as:

• Where do invisible “headwinds” operate within our programs?
• What norms unintentionally reward assimilation?
• How do we balance rigor with relational support?

Rather than offering prescriptive answers, this session centers on collective problem-solving and cross-college insight. Participants will identify shared challenges and generate potential collaborative strategies to strengthen belonging across ASU Health.

Supporting Student Success Through Faculty and Staff Connections

Speakers: Mia Kroeger and Drew Koch

Faculty and staff partnerships are a cornerstone of student success. Frequent communication and collaboration can provide support at all stages of the student lifecycle. In this roundtable discussion, participants will reflect on the current state of faculty-staff culture related to supporting students, explore what an ideal partnership would look like, and discuss steps to make collaborations possible and sustainable.

The Power of Pause: Regulation, Belonging and Retention in Health Education

Speaker: Stacie J. Whitaker-Harris

First-generation and BIPOC students in health education programs often carry invisible stressors that affect regulation, belonging and academic persistence. While faculty and staff are committed to student success, culturally responsive tools that support both well-being and retention are critical for advancing health and academic outcomes.

This collaborative roundtable introduces “The Power of Pause,” a structured yet adaptable framework integrating reflective practice, guided dialogue and community co-creation to support student regulation and foster inclusive excellence. Grounded in research and lived experiences related to stress, belonging and persistence, this session invites participants to explore how small, intentional pauses embedded in classrooms, advising and team spaces can improve health outcomes and strengthen retention.

Attendees will experience a micro-pause, explore practical implementation strategies and identify pathways to integrate regulation-centered practice across ASU Health.

Lunch and casual networking opportunity