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
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 [...]
Summer 2026 enews
Department of Bioengineering Orsborn develops new approach to interface design Often when people talk about game theory, we think of competition. But for UW Bioengineering's Professor Amy Orsborn and Electrical & Computer Engineering's Professor Sam [...]
An epicenter of computational biology
NIH-funded project will expand Smoldyn software to simulate the complex interactions by which cells divide, move, and engulf other materials. Computer modeling is an important tool in modern cell biology, but it typically requires [...]
Becoming the Engineer in the Room
UW Bioengineering alumnus Savannah Bifulco has really built a career for herself. Literally. She was the first therapy development scientist to be part of the electrophysiology division, helping to define a new way of [...]
Alumnus leverages PharBE degree to advance at Merck
Darienny Stover expanded her skills through the online master’s program, advancing her career at one of the largest pharmaceutical production facilities in the world. As an undergraduate in Brazil, Darienny Stover knew she “wanted [...]
2026 Hoffman Lecture – Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTONDEPARTMENT OF BIOENGINEERINGALLAN S. HOFFMAN LECTUREPRESENTS:Prof. Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, PhD“Translational Studies of Engineered Human Tissues”Thursday, October 8, 20264:00pm – 5:00pmFoege South Auditorium & Zoom Webinar (click/tap here)Reception to follow | Foege North (Bioengineering) Lobby All [...]