Polly Gipson Allen, Ph.D., DEI Associate Chair
Syma Khan, LMSW, DEI Implementation Co-Lead
Syma Khan received her Master of Social Work from the University of Michigan School of Social Work with a focus on Interpersonal Practice in Children, Youth, and Families. Syma also holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Michigan School of Public Health.
Syma is the Lead Social Worker for Child Psychiatry Hospital Section and a Clinical Social Worker on the Pediatric Consultation and Liaison Psychiatry Service. Syma has extensive experience in hospital-based psychiatric services including consult, inpatient, and emergency services.
Syma’s area of clinical practice include working with children with complex medical, psychiatric, and neurodevelopmental concerns, mental health systems, and safety planning. She has been involved in developing hospital policy pertaining to patient and staff safety, educational trainings for non-psychiatric faculty and staff, as well as improving care for children and adolescents with developmental disabilities.
In her role as the DEI Implementation Co-Lead for the Department of Psychiatry, she works with Psychiatry Leadership and the Office for Health Equity and Inclusion to promote DEI efforts within Psychiatry and Michigan Medicine.
Jacob Sierocki, MBA, DEI Implementation Co-Lead
Jacob is a project manager in hospital services for the Department of Psychiatry. He supports all psychiatry service lines at the main hospital campus in Ann Arbor. His book of work includes process and quality improvement, scheduling, regulatory readiness, and business development. Jacob has over 10 years of experience in the healthcare industry and has worked in many areas including long-term care, inpatient rehabilitation, inpatient acute care, emergency medicine, revenue cycle, compliance, and hospital operations. He completed his MBA from the University of Michigan in 2019.
In addition to his full-time job, Jacob has always been actively involved in diversity, equity, and inclusion. He served as the President of the Pride Employee Resource Group at Henry Ford Health System where he advocated for better care for LGBTQ+ patients. His work included managing Henry Ford Health System’s adopt-a-road program, reducing barriers to accessing care by enhancing online LGBTQ+ health resources, and successfully developing and implementing the health system’s annual pride flag initiative.
Please contact our leads with any questions.
- Syma - [email protected]
- Jacob - [email protected]