As vice chair, Noria will work to cultivate inclusion and diversity, as well as ensure the department is free from racial disparities and individual exclusion. Some of her responsibilities will include:
- Collaborating with the Diversity Council and the Health Equity Council on diversity initiatives at the medical center and College of Medicine
- Developing recruitment and retention strategies for attracting and/or identifying and developing and retaining qualified diverse applicants for jobs at all levels within the Department of Surgery
- Incorporating the department’s diversity, equity and inclusion philosophy into all internal staff education and training programs to increase understanding and commitment to managing diversity
- Training and educating all staff in the department on unconscious bias
- Ensuring a diverse and inclusive clinical learning environment for our trainees
- Expanding activities for community-building
- Facilitating research focused on health care and health care delivery disparities
In addition to her new role as vice chair of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Noria is also an associate professor and a bariatric surgeon in the Division of General and Gastrointestinal Surgery. With the medical center since 2013, she specializes in minimally invasive surgery, with a focus on metabolic and bariatric surgery, and advanced therapeutic endoscopy.
Noria founded and has been a leader for the Women in Surgery Symposium over the past four years, an event which highlights the importance of advancing women toward careers in surgery by providing a practical and meaningful avenue for surgical professionals and students to interact. She also serves on a task force that is developing a microaggression curriculum as part of the Wexner Medical Center’s Anti-Racism Action Plan.