Alumni Learning Series Addresses Racism as a Public Health Issue
Each year, the UIC School of Public Health hosts an Alumni Learning Series event to engage alumni, donors and friends around a current topic. This year, the school hosted Dr. Camara Jones, Senior Fellow of the Satcher Health Leadership Institute and Cardiovascular Research Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine, to discuss racism as a public health issue.
“Racism unfairly disadvantages some individuals and communities. Every unfair disadvantage has its reciprocal unfair advantages,” Jones said. “Racism is unfairly advantaging some communities.”
Jones, a family physician and epidemiologist whose work focuses on the impacts of racism on the health and well-being of the nation, drew a crowd that left many attendees standing in the back of the auditorium. Nearly 250 attended in person or watched the presentation that was live-streamed.
Dr. Linda Rae Murray, Chief Medical Officer at Cook County Health and Hospital System, and Dr. David Ansell, Senior Vice President for Community Health Equity and Senior Provost for Community Affairs at Rush University, joined Jones for an inspiring panel discussion.
“We need more people with a sense of urgency to dismantle racism and create a new system where all people can develop to their full potential,” said Jones.