Summary:
HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra speaking at the Lincoln Memorial.
A Message from the Secretary
My parents, Maria Teresa and Manuel, never got a chance to open the door to a college classroom, but they sent all their kids 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 their best, and they did it while battling discrimination.
There were literally signs in storefronts where they lived that read “No dogs or Mexicans allowed.” The signs may be gone, but the barriers remain: access, availability, affordability.
As the son of immigrants and the first Latino to hold the office of Secretary in the history of the United States, I understand what it means to see representation in leadership and across our workforce. If the core mission of HHS is to enhance the health and well-being of all Americans, then we must be able to reach and connect with Americans from every walk of life. There is a mountain of evidence to show that unequal treatment and unequal access to opportunity are unhealthy — for us as individuals and for the nation.
HHS has a long history of valuing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) across our divisions and programs. And there is more that we can do to reflect and represent the full diversity of the people we serve as we seek to promote better health for all.
To mitigate health inequities across our nation, we must mitigate disparities across our workforce and prioritize representation at all levels. To unlock the full potential of our team, everyone must feel welcomed, valued, included, seen, heard, and respected. We all deserve, and benefit from, the feeling that we belong.
President Biden on his first day in office delivered a powerful and unprecedented mandate for all federal agencies to launch a whole-of-government approach to DEIA. At HHS, we have embraced the President’s call to action and made this one of our Department’s highest strategic priorities. At its heart, our vision for DEIA integration is about creating a workplace for everyone to consistently participate fairly and fully. We created the HHS DEIA Strategic Plan and guiding Plan Principles as a roadmap to a future where no opportunity is out of 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 improving programs to incorporate evidence-based practices and raise our collective DEIA consciousness. And we are meeting people where they are through continuous coaching and conversations.
Of course, there is much more work to do. We have identified areas of opportunity across three key pillars: Leadership Accountability, Organizational Culture, and Attracting and Retaining Talent. To be successful, we rely on our leaders to articulate the barriers we must eliminate and opportunities we must commit to act upon. We look to 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 DEIA progress and priorities.
All employees across HHS share some responsibility for this work being successful as well. Each of us should understand our essential role in achieving our vision of culture transformation and a workplace of belonging. With intentionality, we must identify, attract, and hire talent that reflects the nation we serve. We must employ those talents broadly and fairly in the development of our programs and services and promote and deliver support in an equitable manner. We are all accountable for weaving DEIA deeper 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, the feeling that we belong."
Thank you for joining the team on this journey. Let’s keep working together to ensure everyone is welcomed and has an opportunity for advancement in our workforce. Let’s continue to challenge ourselves and each other, to cultivate a profound sense of belonging across our Department. Together, we will create a diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible workplace where everyone is supported to show up as their most authentic self in service to our nation.
When we succeed, we will have built a lasting culture of inclusion and shared excellence and confirmed HHS as a leader in DEIA across government and industry. We will have built, like my parents, a stronger nation prepared to accept the next generation of Americans.
Xavier Becerra
Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Continuing our DEIA journey
The DEIA journey is a continuous process of learning and improvement. Committing to DEIA is not just the right thing to do—it is the smart thing to do. It makes HHS a stronger federal agency, a more effective leader and partner in advancing the health of the nation, and an attractive home for the nation’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.
