We make the road by walking it: Advancing a health equity movement

The goal of this event is to bring together innovative thinkers and leaders working in community and academic spaces to re-imagine how a university like the University of Michigan could be better partners in transforming communities so that all residents can thrive. The attendees would be an invite-only group of about 50 people, evenly split between people representing the university and those representing the community. The facilitated conversation will focus on reimagining the relationship between community and the University of Michigan. There will be a live illustrator that will take notes during the session. At the end of the session, there will be an illustrated product that can be used for advocacy with leadership at UM and beyond. 

This session will include three-panel speakers discussing topics related to anti-racism in public health and medicine. The primary target audience for this event will be clinicians but will broadly appeal to all who are interested in antiracism or public health and medicine.

Two international thought leaders in anti-racism and health, Dr Camara Phyllis Jones and Dr. Chandra Ford, will be in public conversation for the first time here at the University of Michigan. In an historic event, these two luminaries will help us navigate the question of “how is racism operating here?” through a rich discussion about risk, fear, cultivating an ethic, and the insufficiency of naming the problem alone. 

Dr. Camara Phyillis Jones is a family physician and epidemiologist whose work focuses on naming, measuring, and addressing the impacts of racism on the health and well-being of the nation. She is a past president of the American Public Health Association, a senior fellow at the Morehouse School of Medicine, and an adjunct professor at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. The National Academy of Medicine (NAM) recently elected her to its 2022 class. 

Dr. Chandra Ford, Associate Professor at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University and the Department of African American Studies is the Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Racism, Social Justice & Health and Lead Editor of the widely cited Racism: Science & Tools for the Public Health Professional (APHA Press, 2019), which was named an Outstanding Academic Title for 2020 by the American Library Association’s Choice magazine. Her work offers conceptual and methodological tools for studying racism as a public health problem. She originated (with Collins Airhihenbuwa) the Public Health Critical Race Praxis, which is a framework for applying Critical Race Theory empirically.

This session will focus on a facilitated discussion with researchers at UM about conducting anti-racist research. It will draw upon principles from Dr. Chandra Ford’s Public Health Critical Race Praxis and use creative brainstorming techniques to facilitate a discussion on how UM researchers can better contribute to antiracist goals within their research.