Office of Diversity partners with UIC College of Medicine for health equity round table
The UIC Office of Diversity, Equity and Engagement (ODEE), through the support of and in collaboration with the UIC College of Medicine (COM), hosted a heath equity round table discussion on November 18. This event featured guest speaker Marcella Nunez-Smith, MD, MHS and was facilitated by Charu Thakral, PhD, interim vice chancellor for equity and diversity and Rebecca Gordon, interim associate executive vice chancellor of equity and engagement.
Nunez-Smith is associate dean for health equity research, C.N.H Long professor of medicine and epidemiology and director of the Equity Research and Innovation Center at Yale School of Medicine. Her research focuses on health and healthcare equity for marginalized populations with an emphasis on the social and structural drivers of health, the influence of healthcare systems on health disparities and the advancement of community-academic partnered scholarship.
She also served as senior advisor to the White House COVID-19 Response, chair of the Presidential COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force, co-chair of the Biden-Harris Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board and chair of the governor’s ReOpen CT (Connecticut) Advisory Group Community Committee. During the round table, attendees were able to learn from her experiences in these varied professional capacities.
“[Nunez-Smith] allowed a space for our UIC faculty and staff to engage and share their rich experiences focused on promoting health and healthcare equity for structurally marginalized populations with an emphasis on centering community engagement and supporting healthcare workforce diversity and development,” stated Thakral.
This event was an opportunity to engage in a frank and open dialogue about some of the most pressing matters of the current day and age and the ways in which cross-campus and multi-disciplinary cooperation can impact this work going forward.
Thakral specifically thanked the UIC College of Medicine for providing “collaborative opportunities to expand equity and inclusion priorities in innovative ways to our staff and faculty across campus, within a range of centers and departments across disciplines, who have natural intersections and alignment with this work.”