Carilion Clinic has long valued diversity, equity and inclusion, but it wasn’t until this month that it actually established an office to champion those three things.
On February 4, 2021, it was announced that the healthcare provider had established an Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and named Nathaniel L. Bishop to serve as its head.
Internally, the new office will work with Carilion’s Human Resources Department to promote diversity, equity and inclusion. “We have always had an emphasis at looking at how the organization takes into account issues of diversity and inclusion in hiring practices and promotions, but this is designed to bring all of that together,” he explains of the mission of his new office.
Externally, it will work to address economic and social factors that affect health by partnering with community leaders. “In our communities, we will be looking at social determinants of health and disparities that exist so that we can create strategies to implement programs that will help rid us of inequity,” he says.
An immediate goal of the office will be to work with community leaders and the local health department to ensure that there is equity in the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. “We’ve been actively working at identifying some of the underserved areas in our community to make sure we’re getting vaccines into shoulders,” he says.
Bishop notes that his new role is a natural fit for him considering that he has always tried to be conscious of diversity, equity and inclusion in every leadership role he has held at Carilion. Notably, he has been serving as the co-chair of Carilion’s Inclusion Council.
“This is a furtherance of the work of looking at issues of diversity and inclusion that we’ve already been doing,” he explains.
Bishop knows firsthand the importance of establishing and maintaining an inclusive work environment from his time in law enforcement. At the beginning of his career, he became the first African American member of the Christiansburg Police Department. That experience, he says, was largely positive.
“The incidents of racial challenges were few. I felt I was accepted by the members of the department and always had very good supervisors,” he remembers. He was eventually promoted to the role of detective.
It was during this time in his life that he started to understand the importance of organizations embracing the ideas of diversity and inclusion.
“I had to figure out how to navigate the challenges of being the first and only minority on the police force. Having to learn how to successfully navigate that became interesting to me and something I began to study as I continued to move into roles that placed me in similar situations,” he explains.
Bishop reflects that his time in law enforcement reinforced the values that he was taught growing up. “Everybody deserves to be treated with dignity and respect,” he stresses.
Additionally, he says it is incumbent upon leaders to demonstrate that they value each and every member of their team. “Everybody appreciates being appreciated,” he notes. “Organizations only run well when people are working well with each other.”
Bishop has a long history with the provider, having joined Carilion in 1997 as executive director of Burrell Nursing Center. Five years later, he was promoted to vice president and administrator of Carilion Roanoke Community Hospital.
From 2010 until its merger with Radford University in 2019, he served as president of Carilion’s Jefferson College of Health Sciences. He was later made senior vice president of administration at Carilion and senior associate dean of diversity, inclusion and student vitality at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine.
“In so many ways, he has been doing this work for decades. He’ll bring the same courage, commitment and compassion to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that he has brought time and time again over the years. I’m excited to see the impact he will make in this next chapter of his career,” Nancy Howell Agee, president and CEO of Carilion, says.
Looking back over the more than 20 years that he has spent at Carilion, Bishop says he’s pleased with the work that has been done to close health equity gaps in the system and community.
“We’ve taken positive steps towards diversity and inclusion, but there’s still much work that needs to be done,” he explains. “The bold step that the organization has taken by establishing this office really highlights the importance that is being placed on diversity, equity and inclusion. It fits well with our mission to improve the health of the communities we serve.”
Throughout his entire career, Bishop has been motivated by the ability to be of service to others. He hopes his new role as chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer will allow him to continue to serve the community he loves.
About the Author:
Aila Boyd is an educator and journalist who resides in Roanoke. She holds an MFA in Writing from Lindenwood University.
