Photo Gallery: Odeh Center’s Signature Community Event focuses on Native healthcare

Leigh Hellman, Office of Diversity, Equity & Engagement | Posted on December 15, 2024

The UIC Odehmenan (Odeh) Health Equity Center’s fall 2024 Community Signature Event, “Compassion in Action: Delivering Medical Care in Navajo Nation”, was a milestone success for the newly-opened center. Held on November 13, the all-day program featured healthcare practitioners and community health advocates from Gallup, New Mexico, who work exclusively with Native populations. As speakers, they discussed various topics impacting their patient communities, including COVID-19, gender-affirming care and substance use disorders.

This event aimed to bring local and national community members together to listen and engage in dialogue about what individuals can do to better educate themselves on Native health and become more effective healthcare advocates.

“Together, they [the speakers] were able to share the importance of being soft on people and hard on structures, recognizing the importance of history, culture, tradition, customs, humility and trust when delivering healthcare, and to always leave patients and people with hope–even in the toughest times,” shared Adriana Black, MPH, MAT, director of health affairs diversity, equity and inclusion at UIC and founding director of the Odeh Center.

To learn more about this event, please read the event coverage from the UIC Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research (OVCR) that recaps some of the stories, quotes and wisdom that were shared.

If you missed the event or want to relive parts of it, you can also view the video recording with transcript.

  1. The photo features a panel of four people sitting on chairs in front of a large TV screen with a purple presentation slide. The second speaker from the left is talking into a hand-held microphone. To the left of the four seated people is one person standing at a podium, facilitating the panel. The walls of the room are blue, and in the foreground are people sitting at tables with their backs to the camera, listening to the presentation.
    Photographer: Doriyon Ward (UIC Creative & Digital Services)
    Panel photo (left to right): Jennie Wei (speaker; at the podium), Sheryl Livingston (speaker), Mattee Jim (speaker), Marisha Leonard-Bitahy (speaker) and Mia Lozada (speaker)
  2. The photo features a row of seven people standing and smiling for the camera. Behind them is a large painted mural that fills the entire wall beyond the edges of the frame, featuring designs of hands, bees, blooming flower stalks, and grain in shades of blue, black and white. In the center of the mural is a large anatomical heart with red and blue chambers and arteries branching out into and connecting with the rest of the mural.
    Photographer: Doriyon Ward (UIC Creative & Digital Services)
    Full group photo in front of the mural (left to right): Mattee Jim (speaker), Jennie Wei (speaker), Mia Lozada (speaker), Sheryl Livingston (speaker), Marisha Leonard-Bitahy (speaker), Saminaben Vahora (Odeh Center student staff member) and Adriana Black (director of health affairs diversity, equity and inclusion at UIC and founding director of the Odehmenan Health Equity Center)