A culture of Belonging in UW Bioengineering
At the University of Washington, diversity, equity, and inclusion are integral to excellence. We value and honor diverse experiences and perspectives, strive to create welcoming and respectful learning environments, and promote access, opportunity, and justice for all.
What Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion means to the UW Bioengineering Community
Towards Justice, we believe that engineers must understand the social justice aspects of technology research and development practices, and are therefore including these topics in our curriculum. Towards Equity, we believe that admissions, hiring and retention practices must utilize best practices shown to overcome institutional and individual biases. Our Department values Diversity as individual differences (e.g., personality, prior knowledge, and life experiences) and group/social differences (e.g., race/ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, country of origin, and ability as well as cultural, political, religious, or other affiliations)1. We seek to have our educational and research programs represent the diversity of our country. Towards Inclusion, the Department focuses on intentionally creating a welcoming environment for everyone, absent of negative feelings and experiences such as fear, insecurity, social tensions, and unaddressed microaggressions, as well as fostering active, intentional, and ongoing engagement with diversity (1,2). These efforts are multi-dimensional and include collaborations with numerous UW programs, recruitment efforts, policies, curriculum, practices, faculty/staff promotions, decision making, and mentoring and continuing education for members of our community.
Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) Committee
The UW Bioengineering JEDI committee has been tasked with developing mechanisms and providing guidance to increase our department’s level of expertise on equity and inclusive teaching and mentoring, and to provide similar expertise to our trainees.
JEDI Resources
Race and Ethnicity
- Graduate Student Equity & Excellence (GSEE)
- Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity (OMA&D)
- UW Samuel E. Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center
- UW Chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers (UW NSBE)
- UW Chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (UW SHPE)
- UW SACNAS Chapter
- w??b?altx? – Intellectual House
- Undocumented student resources
Gender
LGBTQ
Individuals with disabilities
- D Center
- Disability resources for Students
- Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology
International students
- UW International Student Services (ISS) office
- Undocumented student resources
- Career Center @ Engineering
- Counseling Center
INCLUSIVE ADMISSIONS OR HIRING
INCLUSIVE TEACHING
UW INSTITUTIONAL MISSIONS, POLICIES, AND RESOURCES
- UW 2022-2026 Diversity Blueprint
- Diversity at the University of Washington
- Diversity council
- Diversity statistics & policies
- Office of Inclusive Excellence in COE
- Strategic planning in the College of Engineering
- Disability Services
Feedback & Reporting Mechanisms
It is our goal that all members of the BIOE community feel included and supported. We want to highlight the resources available to you if you would like to provide feedback to improve the program or resolve a situation, or would like support in an incident of bias. We have provided links to different methods of providing feedback or reporting, and some information to help you decide which suits your purpose.
See also
Diversity at the University of Washington
UW Equity Focus, the UW’s hub for stories highlighting diversity and equity
In the News
BioE Impact Update 2026
A team from across the Department of Bioengineering and College of Engineering developed this report under the guidance of Department Chair Princess Imoukhuede.
Turning off liver cancer’s lights
UW Bioengineering Professor Mike Averkiou and his collaborators received a grant from the Andy Hill CARE Fund to develop a new approach to detecting liver cancer – and are already moving it toward the [...]
New approach to gene therapy shows promise for muscular dystrophy treatments
Professor Hichem Tasfaout’s collaboration with a UW spinoff company publishes findings in Science Translational Medicine. Dysferlinopathy, a set of related forms of muscular dystrophy, is caused by a genetic mutation that prevents the body [...]
Wet lab improvements to enhance learning for hundreds of undergraduates
As part of the inaugural round of Engineering Program Enhancement Fee investments, the UW College of Engineering is funding upgrades to Bioengineering’s instructional wet lab. The project will benefit approximately 500 students each year [...]
AIMBE Regional Advocacy Event demonstrates impact of UW Bioengineering and federal funding
Lawmakers, educators, researchers, and members of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) took an in-depth look at UW Bioengineering research in early October, during an afternoon visit to campus. AIMBE hosted [...]
Autumn 2026 enews
Department of Bioengineering A collaboration among Professor Wendy Thomas, BioE alumnus Casey Kiohara, and Professor Taia Wang’s team at Stanford revealed that mechanical forces can shape how antibodies interact with immune cells, opening new ways [...]