The shared mission of the Lupus Research Alliance and our clinical affiliate Lupus Therapeutics places people impacted by lupus at the center of all we do. We apply the same spirit and principles toward building our organization by also putting our staff, partners, and communities at the center of our efforts. We do this because it is part of our core values and because we believe it strengthens our research efforts and impact to benefit from a variety of lived experiences contributing to our important work. We are carrying out community-centered activities after an assessment of our organizational culture, practices, and impact. These include conducting a compensation analysis, training staff around community-driven leadership, and undergoing a benefits review which led to the addition of a fully paid parental leave benefit. In addition, we have evolved our performance management processes to help grow our most important resource—our talented staff.
While we are proud of the LRA work so far, we recognize there is still much more to be done. We will continue to pursue ways to promote community in everything we do—both internally through our engagement work and externally through our clinical trial diversity and Health Equity efforts to embrace all populations affected by lupus in searching for new treatments and advancing to a cure. Collectively, this work is a critical part of our organizational goals, ensuring we stay on track and accountable to our commitments.
