Sylk Sotto, EdD, MPS, MBA

Sylk Sotto is a bioethicist.

June 1, 2025Jun 1, 2025

Sexism in the workplace is often associated with overt hostility, harassment, insults, discrimination, or intimidation. But what about the subtler, seemingly well-intentioned behaviors that can still hinder women's advancement? Our study explores benevolent sexism (BvS) in academic medicine and how…

Sexism in the workplace is often associated with overt hostility, harassment, insults, discrimination, or intimidation. But what about the subtler, seemingly well-intentioned behaviors that can still hinder women’s advancement? Our study explores benevolent sexism (BvS) in academic medicine and how it may quietly limit women’s careers, even in environments committed to gender equity.

What is benevolent sexism?

Coined by Glick and Fiske in 1996, benevolent sexism refers to attitudes that appear …

Conditions

Does silence as a faculty retention strategy in academic medicine and health sciences work?

Sylk Sotto, EdD, MPS, MBA

May 17, 2025May 17, 2025

Faculty retention remains an ongoing concern for colleges and universities, especially at a time when there is a clear misalignment between the socio-political environment, the mission of higher education, and the values held by most faculty. If you've been paying…

However, some institutions respond to crises not with dialogue, but with silence. They avoid confronting faculty concerns

…

Education

The misrepresentation of the EDUCATE Act and the future of our health care system

Sylk Sotto, EdD, MPS, MBA

June 27, 2024Jun 27, 2024

In the past year alone, legislative assaults on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in higher education have surged across the United States. This disturbing trend threatens the foundational values of our academic institutions and endangers the very essence of health…

The recent introduction of the Embracing Anti-Discrimination, Unbiased Curriculum, and Advancing Truth in Education (EDUCATE) Act by Rep. Greg Murphy, MD, and its 35 …

Policy

42 ways to advance racial equity in academic medicine

Francisco A. Moreno, MD & Inginia Genao, MD & Jada Bussey-Jones, MD & Kimberly D. Manning, MD & Maria Maldonado, MD & Sylk Sotto, EdD, MPS, MBA

September 19, 2020Sep 19, 2020

Academic medicine generally encompasses a tripartite mission of research discovery, clinical innovation, and the next generation of physicians and scientists' education. It is the ethics and social justice principles, practices, policies, and innovation that advance research and education in the…

Academic medicine generally encompasses a tripartite mission of research discovery, clinical innovation, and the next generation of physicians and scientists’ education.

It is the ethics and social justice principles, practices, policies, and innovation that advance research and education in the health sciences, ultimately improving the health and well-being of all.

This is its socially responsible mission. Yet, it seems chief diversity officers, equity practitioners, and scholars everywhere have …

Education

What is anti-racist medical education?

Sylk Sotto, EdD, MPS, MBA

September 12, 2020Sep 12, 2020

The current socio-political environment in the U.S. and worldwide has brought much-needed attention and heightened awareness to the plights of minoritized groups, especially Black and African-American communities. Police brutality, structural violence, overt racism, and discrimination are only a few examples…

Police brutality, structural violence, overt racism, and discrimination are only a few examples prompting new activism. Along with the COVID-19 pandemic, they have amplified health inequities and disparities that have pervasively been threatening communities of color.

As a response, academic medicine leaders, equity scholars, and …

Read more…

What is anti-racist medical education?

Physicians

The guilt of not being on the frontlines of the pandemic

Christen Dilly, MD & Cynthia Brown, MD & Diane M. Donegan, MD & Erin M. Crowley, MD & Heather O'Leary, PhD & Sacha Sharp, PhD & Sylk Sotto, EdD, MPS, MBA & Theresa Rohr-Kirchgraber, MD

April 28, 2020Apr 28, 2020

Do all physicians and scientists not on the frontlines of this pandemic feel this, or is it unique to women? Women in medicine and science have long struggled with the sense of never having “done enough” and have pushed themselves even harder to get the same recognition accorded our male colleagues. Does that make us more vulnerable to guilt, or are we holding ourselves to unreasonable expectations? We arranged to …