The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee members have drafted a positioning statement on behalf of the Society with the hope of demonstrating a commitment to fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion all throughout SVIN. The goal of this statement is to communicate the Society’s stance on the importance of inclusion and celebration of its underrepresented members. In addition, our hope is that this statement sparks the fire that will ignite a movement of inclusivity throughout the field of neurology. The committee’s goal is for SVIN to be the catalyst of change that will bring DEI initiatives to the forefront of its leadership, educational training projects, meetings, and clinical practices.

The Society of Vascular and Interventional Neurology (SVIN) stands with those advocating for a faster transition to a just and equitable society for the oppressed, marginalized, and/or disadvantaged. This requires conscious and intentional assessment of attitudes, biases, and prejudice in our administration of care to marginalized members of the community. We will seek to nurture a diversity of viewpoints among organization members and strive to offer a safe, equitable, and inclusive environment for all colleagues to explore and express their ideas on ways to end inequities in health and healthcare, research, advocacy, and outreach. We seek to be the catalyst of change by actively working to correct inequities as they manifest in health care through structural inclusion of the underrepresented in SVIN leadership roles; advocacy within peer societies and with the public at large; and by promoting our field among underrepresented students from high school through residency. We commit to building a representative workforce within our field and to making the lifesaving treatments our specialties offer equally available to all members of society. In doing so we seek to reduce health inequity, health disparities, and to increase access to underrepresented vascular and interventional neurology physicians.