HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra speaking at the Lincoln Memorial.
A message from the Secretary
My parents, Maria Teresa and Manuel, never had the opportunity to open the door of a college classroom, but they sent all of their children to college and the military. What they had, they earned. Their hard work opened doors for my three sisters and me. Like so many generations of Americans with a similar story, my parents built this nation and strengthened our democracy. They did the best they could and they did it while fighting discrimination.
Literally, in the tents where they lived there were signs that said “No dogs or Mexicans allowed.” The signs may have disappeared, but the barriers are still there: access, availability and affordability.
As the son of immigrants and the first Latino to serve as Secretary in U.S. history, I understand what it means to see representation in leadership and across our workforce. If HHS’s core mission is to improve the health and well-being of all Americans, then we must be able to reach out and connect with Americans from all walks of life. There is a mountain of evidence showing that unequal treatment and unequal access to opportunity are detrimental to us as individuals and to the nation.
HHS has a long history of valuing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) across all of our divisions and programs. And there is more we can do to reflect and represent the full diversity of the people we serve as we seek to advance better health for all.
To mitigate health inequities in our country, we must mitigate disparities in our workforce and prioritize representation at all levels. To unleash the full potential of our team, everyone must feel welcomed, valued, included, seen, heard, and respected. We all deserve and benefit from a sense of belonging.
On his first day in office, President Biden issued a powerful and unprecedented mandate for all federal agencies to implement a whole-of-government approach to DEIA. At HHS, we have embraced the President’s call to action and made it a top strategic priority for our department. At its core, our vision for DEIA integration is about creating a workplace where everyone consistently, fairly, and fully participates. We created the HHS DEIA Strategic Plan and the Plan’s Guiding Principles as a roadmap to a future where no opportunity is beyond reach and no one is left behind.
We are making good progress. We are engaging with stakeholders and learning about new perspectives. We are welcoming the historically marginalized to be part of our decision-making. We are incorporating all experiences and contributions into our DEIA learnings and applications. We are employing data-driven approaches to analyze the state of the Department and implement solutions to barriers. We are enhancing programs to incorporate evidence-based practices and increase our collective awareness of DEIA. And we are reaching people where they are through ongoing coaching and conversations.
Of course, there is much more work to be done. We have identified areas of opportunity across three key pillars: Leadership Accountability, Organizational Culture, and Talent Attraction and Retention. To be successful, we rely on our leaders to articulate the barriers we must remove and the opportunities we must commit to seizing. We expect HHS leaders to model the behaviors we want to see embodied across our workforce. And we will continue to hold our leaders accountable for our progress and priorities on the DEIA.
All HHS employees also share some responsibility for the success of this work. Each of us must understand our essential role in achieving our vision of cultural transformation and a workplace of belonging. With intentionality, we must identify, attract, and hire talent that reflects the nation we serve. We must employ that talent broadly and fairly in the development of our programs and services, and promote and support it equitably. We are all responsible for embedding DEIA more deeply into the fabric of HHS for our workforce today and in the future.
“To unlock the full potential of our team, everyone must feel welcomed, valued, included, seen, heard and respected. We all deserve and benefit from a sense of belonging.”
Thank you for joining the team on this journey. Let us continue to work together to ensure that everyone is welcome and has the opportunity to thrive in our workforce. Let us continue to challenge ourselves and each other to cultivate a deep sense of belonging across our Department. Together, we will create a diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible workplace where everyone is supported to be their most authentic self in service to our nation.
When we succeed, we will have created a lasting culture of inclusion and shared excellence and confirmed HHS as a leader in DEIA across government and industry. We will have created, like my parents, a stronger nation ready to embrace the next generation of Americans.
Xavier Becerra
Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services
Continuing our DEIA journey
The path to DEIA is a continuous process of learning and improvement. Engaging in DEIA is not just doing the right thing, it’s also doing the smart thing. It makes HHS a stronger federal agency, a more effective leader and partner in promoting the nation’s health, and an attractive home for the country’s best and brightest talent.
Leadership change stories will evolve as we collaborate across HHS and make shared progress. We will move forward with a focus on continuous improvement and addressing existing and emerging leadership needs.
For questions, resources, or additional information, please email DEIAStrategicPlan@hhs.gov.
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