COVID-19 Webinar: A Pandemic in Our Communities—Health Disparities, Health Inequities and Possible Solutions

Event Program

Wednesday, June 24, 2020 | 1 to 3 p.m.  CDT (2 to 4 p.m. EDT)

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PURPOSE

The COVID-19 pandemic has cast a sharply focused spotlight on the long-standing issues of health disparities and health inequities that African American, Latinx and Native American communities, as well as those of lower socioeconomic status, have contended with for generations. Many of the known social determinants of health, such as close- quarters living of multi-generational families, have served to magnify and concentrate lethal outcomes of the COVID -19 virus in marginalized communities throughout this country.

In many emergent crises, including COVID-19, marginalized people are either consciously or unconsciously not included in or, in the worst cases, deliberately excluded from the discussions, diagnostic testing, and treatments offered to members of the majority group.

As thought leaders of our SEC institutions on matters of equity, diversity and inclusion, we can offer, in one webinar, a unique perspective on our cities and regions concerning matters of health disparities, health inequities and possible treatments (that are public health driven, and connected to what individuals can do), as well as what SEC institutions are doing and should do.

FORMAT

In this two-hour COVID-19 webinar, we will have four panels composed of medical and public health experts joined by community leaders to discuss the unique challenges of health disparities and health inequities in their communities and to offer examples of plans and solutions.

An SEC chief diversity officer will introduce each panel and the panel moderator. The moderator will offer some remarks (5 minutes or less) and data to outline the challenge for their city and region followed by engaging the rest of the panel. Each panel will have 25 minutes. Each panel’s composition will include participants, in some cases, from a number of SEC cities. This will allow the broad geographic reach of the COVID-19 pandemic to be addressed.

During the panel discussion, questions from the “chat room” will be brought into the discussion, and, for those questions not answered, we will provide, later, a set of answers.

PANEL COMPOSITION AND ORDER OF PRESENTATION

Vanderbilt and the Metro Public Health Department of Nashville and Davidson County | 1–1:25 p.m.

Introduction

• 

  André L. Churchwell, M.D., Levi Watkins Jr. M.D. Chair, vice chancellor for equity, diversity and inclusion and chief diversity officer at Vanderbilt University, chief diversity officer at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and senior associate dean for diversity affairs in the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine

Opening remarks and moderator

• 

  Consuelo H. Wilkins, M.D., MSCI, vice president for health equity at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, professor of medicine and associate dean for health equity in the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, executive director of the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance

Panelists

• 

  Alex Jahangir, M.D., MMHC, professor in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, director of the Division of Orthopaedic Trauma, executive medical director in the Vanderbilt Center for Trauma, Burn and Emergency Surgery, chairman of Metro Nashville’s Board of Health

• 

  Amy Richardson, MPH, chief community health officer at Siloam Health

University of Florida System and University of Arkansas | 1:25 – 1:50 p.m.

Introduction

• 

  Antonio Farias, M.A., chief diversity officer at the University of Florida

Opening remarks and moderator

• 

  Leon Haley, M.D., vice president for health affairs at the University of Florida, dean of the University of Florida College of Medicine-Jacksonville, CEO of UF Health Jacksonville

Panelists

• 

  Adrian Tyndall, M.D., MPH, FACEP, FAAEM, interim dean of the University of Florida College of Medicine

• 

  Yvette Murphy-Erby, Ph.D., vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion, professor of social work at the University of Arkansas

University of Alabama and Louisiana State University | 1:50–2:15 p.m.

Introduction

• 

  G. Christine Taylor, Ph.D., vice president and associate provost for diversity, equity and inclusion at the University of Alabama

Opening remarks and moderator

• 

  Pamela Payne-Foster, M.D., professor of community medicine and rural medicine at the University of Alabama, deputy director of the Institute for Rural Health Research at the University of Alabama

Panelists

• 

  Corey Hebert, M.D., clinical assistant professor of pediatrics, Ambulatory Division, Louisiana State University

• Felicia Lucky, MBA, executive director of the Black Belt Community Foundation, Selma, Alabama

  

University of Kentucky and Auburn University | 2:15– 2:40 p.m.

Introduction

• 

  Sonja Feist-Price, Ph.D., vice president for institutional diversity at the University of Kentucky

Opening remarks and moderator

• 

  Anita Fernander, Ph.D., founder and chair of the Lexington-Fayette County Health Disparities Coalition, associate professor of behavioral science in the College of Medicine at the University of Kentucky

Panelists

• 

  Michael D. Brown, Ph.D., FAHA, FACSM, FNAK, professor in the School of Kinesiology at Auburn University

• 

  Senator Reginald Thomas, Lexington, Kentucky

Closing Remarks, Additional Questions and Possible Next Steps | 2:40–3 p.m.

• Andre L. Churchwell, M.D.
• G. Christine Taylor, Ph.D.

Download a copy of the Run of Show Event Program (word document).>>