UCLA

Many departments seek to improve their equity, diversity, and inclusion using data-informed methods; however, not much is known about how closely department leadership aligns their review practices with appropriate theory. This dissertation seeks to explore four areas: 1) how are equity, diversity, and inclusion are being conceptualized (implied theory of change), 2) how are equity, diversity, and inclusion being operationalized (implied theory of action), 3) what process is each department going through to evaluate equity, diversity, and inclusion (implied theory of evaluation), and 4) how are data interpreted and used, or not used (implied philosophy of change). This study investigates how theory undergirds department action by using two exploratory case studies—two departmental EDI teams within the School of Medicine—with a cross case analysis.