Black History Month Health Equity Newsletter

​Champion Spotlight | Scholarly Research | News | Announcement & Events

To commemorate Black History Month, this newsletter focuses on the health equity efforts concerning the 46.8 million black people, the largest racial minority group in the United states. The health disparities among Black Americans are stark and disproportionate. For example, compared to non-Hispanic whites, African Americans are eight times as likely to be diagnosed with HIV and nine times as likely to die from it. Black women are three to four times as likely as Whites to die from pregnancy-related deaths and are about 1.5-3 times more likely to die from stroke, asthma, breast cancer, cervical cancer, and prostate cancer. Teaching students about the social determinants of these health disparities alone is inadequate. Rather, as Sharma et al. argue, educators and society at large must adopt a justice and equity lens to transform the deeper, historical origins of systematic exclusion and discrimination.  

We invite you to read about the research that is improving our understanding of the epidemiology of the health inequities among our black community and the incredible work that some groups are doing to lessen the detrimental effects of over a century of local, state, and federal policies on the health of our black population. We hope that the research and articles in this newsletter will inspire and inform the work that you continue to do to train our next generation of health equity and social mission driven health professionals. 

Social Mission Champion Spotlight

Brigit Carter, PhD, RN

Dr. Brigit Carter, current BFA Board Member, works tirelessly to create a culture of inclusivity and support in her work as Duke University School of Nursing’s first-ever Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion. Dr. Carter attributes her own nurturing communities as critical factors to her academic and professional success and seeks to create similar environments with strong mentorship programs and immersive educational experiences for minority students. Prior to her Associate Dean role, Dr. Carter served as project director for two different Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Nursing Workforce Diversity Grants at Duke School of Nursing focused on increasing underrepresented minorities in nursing and understanding social determinants among undergraduate nursing students. Beyond her efforts to facilitate communities of inclusion and support, Dr. Carter focuses on program evaluation to further improve the training experiences of students. She also is working on programming to better train faculty to respond and support their trainees who experience discrimination and harassment in the classroom. 

Social Mission Champion Spotlight: Want to Share Your Innovative Work with the BFA Community?

The Beyond Flexner Alliance wants to highlight your work! We highlight individuals and projects that embody the Beyond Flexner Alliance goal of promoting a social mission in the health professions and want to share the different ways in which you are building equity in education, research, service, policy, and practice. To submit your project please complete this form. Our upcoming Heritage Month Newsletter will focus on Women’s Health Equity Issues. Please share any relevant work in that field. 

We look forward to hearing from you! 
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Scholarly Research

• Using a structural competency framework to teach structural racism in pre-health education
• Exploring Racism and Health: An Intensive Interactive Session for Medical Students
• When Race Matters on the Wards: Talking About Racial Health Disparities and Racism in the Clinical Setting
• Learner Reactions to Activities Exploring Racism as a Social Determinant of Health
• Tackling racism as a “wicked” public health problem: Enabling allies in anti-racism praxis
• Adopting an Anti-Racism Public Health Curriculum Competency: The University of Washington Experience
• Teaching the Social Determinants of Health: A Path to Equity or a Road to Nowhere
• Mentoring Across Differences
• Racism and the Life Course: Taking Time Seriously
• Partnering with African American Churches to Create a Community Coalition for Mental Health
• Racism, African American Women, and Their Sexual and Reproductive Health: A Review of Historical and Contemporary Evidence and Implications for Health Equity
• For the Sake of All: A Report on the Health and Well-Being of African Americans in St. Louis and Why It Matters for Everyone
• The African American Health Engagement Study
• 2018 Black/African-American Health Report
• In Focus: Reducing Racial Disparities in Health Care by Confronting Racism

In the News

• Academic programs aim to close diversity gap in medicine
• Stories of African-American STEM Societies: from Psychologists to Mathematicians
• Black Men in White Coats Program Inspires Kids To Go Into The Medical Field
• Yale Med Student Creates Podcast About Health Disparities
• What a Medical School on a Rwandan hilltop can Teach the United States
• Bill Jenkins, Who Tried to Halt Tuskegee Syphilis Study, Dies at 73
• Increasing disparities in unhealthy food advertising targeted to Hispanic and Black youth
• New Narratives of Hope This Black History Month - And Beyond
• The Opioid Crisis Isn’t Whit
• ChangeMakers: Dr. LaPrincess Brewer, Building “A Culture of Health” for the Underserved
• Advancing Health Justice: Building a Health System that Works for Everyone

Announcements & Events

• Conference: Register for the Association for Community Health Improvement, March 19-21, 2019
• Employment: Apply for the position of Deputy Director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) by March 28, 2019
• Conference: Register for Impact: Advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Through Social Change - On March 29, 2019, Yale University is hosting a conference to discuss how we can personally become better advocates for social change.
• Conference: Register for the Annual Medical Education Conference (AMEC) on April 17-21, 2019 in Philadelphia, PA. The Student National Medical Association (SNMA) is hosting their 55th annual AMEC! This year’s theme is The Call for Excellence: Improving the Future of Medicine through Leadership, Service, and Activism.
• Conference: Register for the National Collaborative for Education to Address the Social Determinants of Health First Annual Conference on May 7, 2019.  
• Program: Apply for the Interprofessional Student Hotspotting Learning Collaborative by May 31, 2019 - This six-month program, co-hosted by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), Primary Care Progress, National Academies of Practice (NAP), Council on Social Work Education, and American Association of Colleges of Nursing, aims to prepare our next generation of health equity advocates!
• Research: Apply for the Health Disparities Research Institute hosted by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) on August 12-16, 2019