ADEI Statement

Land Acknowledgement: 

The MEDA offices sit on the homelands of the Pawtucket and Massachusett peoples. We acknowledge that we are on their unceded ancestral land and offer our gratitude and respect as we affirm their inherent and treaty rights of this land.

Our commitment to reparation includes waived registrations to all professional events for the indigenous people on whose land we operate.

Why ADEI: 

We chose to write a statement about Antiracism, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (ADEI) centering antiracism at the forefront since it is so often removed from organizational development and conversations around DEI. At MEDA we strive to go beyond initiatives, such as unconscious or implicit bias training, and we intentionally weave antiracism into our daily practices.

Eating Disorders and ADEI:

Eating disorders are often seen as an illness impacting only white, cisgender, wealthy, young women. In reality, eating disorders impact individuals of all backgrounds, including all genders, sexual orientations, socioeconomic statuses, and races; eating disorders do not discriminate.

BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ communities, neurodivergent people, and people of size experience unique mental health challenges, including eating disorders, that often go untreated or undertreated and underrecognized because of stigma, provider bias, lack of specific training, decreased access to treatment, and cultural forces.

Actualizing ADEI at MEDA:

Access and equity are central to our mission.  With this in mind, MEDA strives to offer inclusive services that begin with ensuring appropriate training for our entire staff. We are committed to offering equity pricing for all of our services and events. Recognizing that this is not enough and that we need broader representation in the eating disorder field, we spearhead a BIPOC scholarship that offers up to $5000 for every year a student is in graduate school seeking education to work with individuals with eating disorders. We further offer ten BIPOC scholarships along with equity pricing to our annual conference, which typically features speakers with marginalized identities as keynotes.