In this issue of Medicine@Brown, you’ll learn about one of the signature programs of The Warren Alpert Medical School’s Office of Belonging, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion: the BASCE fellowship. Brown Advocates for Social Change and Equity fellows hail from all of our affiliated hospital systems and represent numerous specialties and demographic groups. They are faculty and medical students, residents and fellows, but they all share a common goal: to become leaders equipped to make real change in health care.

This spring, for the first time ever, BASCE hosted an event to showcase the work of fellows and celebrate their efforts. As you’ll read in the article, BASCE is a rigorous introduction to conducting research and designing an achievable project that will have real impact. The end goal is to produce a cohort of leaders each year who share their knowledge with their practice, hospital, or community. That is how we can ensure this work reaches all facets of our health system.

I also want to provide an update on a topic from last issue: the complete sequencing of human RNA and its modifications. In March, the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine released its report providing a road map to develop the capacity to sequence any RNA molecule. This roadmap includes priorities for cultivating a skilled workforce in the field. “The study of RNA,” the report says, “is an increasingly interdisciplinary endeavor, and training programs for the RNA modifications workforce need to reflect this.”

At Brown we are contributing to this workforce by increasing faculty in this area in collaboration with other disciplines such as engineering and chemistry. We’ve opened new lab space for the Brown RNA Center, and we look forward to exposing more undergraduate, graduate, and medical students to this important field. This is an exciting growth opportunity not only for Brown, but for science and medicine.