Jessica DiNisco, NP
This quarter, Northeast Medical Group recognizes a valued member of its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Council: Jessica DiNisco.
Jessica DiNisco, NP, Psychiatric and Mental Health, started working at Northeast Medical Group in May 2020. In January 2021, she was invited to join the DEI Council. An active supporter of community outreach, she is a key member of the team that put together the NEMG 2021 Virtual Pride Walk – an initiative celebrating PrideMonth and LGBTQ+ awareness across Yale New Haven Health.
“When we take time to recognize and be with the harm caused by oppression and marginalization, it is impossible not to act somehow,” DiNisco said.
She is inspired by the words of Christian theologian Walter Brueggemann, who wrote, “Compassion constitutes a radical form of criticism, for it announces that the hurt is to be taken seriously, that the hurt is not to be accepted as normal and natural, but it is an abnormal and unacceptable condition for humanness. Thus compassion that might be seen simply as generous goodwill is in fact criticism of the system, forces, and ideologies that produce the hurt.”
“My hope to change an entire system in this lifetime is limited,” she said. “However, taking actions such as participating in the DEI Council allows me to use my privilege as a white person to learn, understand and reform any systems of harm that exist.”
The DEI Council is instrumental in carrying out NEMG’s mission to help the communities we serve. For information or to join, contact Robert Mitchell, manager, Practice Operations and co-chair of the NEMG DEI Council, 203-384-5109. Watch for more information on council initiatives.
1 Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1978), pp 88-89.
