Spring 2017 Newsletter

Welcome to Health Equity Matters, an electronic newsletter intended to promote awareness of minority health and health equity work at CDC and in the broader public health community, support the achievement of our goal to eliminate health disparities, improve women’s health, support diversity and inclusion in the public health workforce, and foster ongoing communication and collaboration with our partners and the public.

As this issue of Health Equity Matters goes to press, we are celebrating the success of the 2017 Public Health Ethics Forum co-sponsored by the National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care at Tuskegee University and CDC’s Office of Minority Health and Health Equity (OMHHE). The focus of the Forum was women’s health across the lifespan, and we examined a range of health issues that affect women and girls from the standpoints of community leaders, public health practitioners and researchers, ethicists, and scholars. We were honored to have Dr. Vivian Pinn – the inaugural director of the Office of Research on Women’s Health at the National Institutes of Health, as the opening keynote speaker. Dr. Pinn has been described as a “living legend,” and her honors and recognitions are too numerous to list here. I found her energy and passion infectious as she talked about both historical and contemporary challenges and opportunities to improve the health of women and girls. Dr. Pinn along with more than a dozen additional speakers and facilitators made this year’s Forum one that can inform the work of women’s health for years to come. More details on the 2017 Public Health Ethics Forum are provided in this issue of Health Equity Matters.

Since 2012, the Office of Minority Health and Health Equity has identified persons from across the U.S. who have distinguished records in promoting health equity at the local, state and national levels, and we periodically recognize them as Health Equity Champions. I am pleased to congratulate Dr. Hazel Dean, deputy director of CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention (NCHHSTP), for being recognized as a Health Equity Champion! Since joining OMHHE in 2011, I have observed firsthand Dr. Dean’s extraordinary leadership and commitment to advancing health equity on behalf of communities at high risk for HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis, sexually transmitted diseases, and tuberculosis. But, her quest for achieving health equity does not stop there as she shares the same goal for all preventable health disparities and inequities. Learn more about Dr. Dean’s work and achievements in this issue of Health Equity Matters.

As always, the e-newsletter highlights timely reports and useful resources for public health practitioners and others who work every day to improve population health, reduce health disparities, and advance health equity. We hope you find this issue of Health Equity Matters informative and helpful.

Leandris C. Liburd, PhD, MPH, MA
Associate Director for Minority Health and Health Equity, CDC/ATSDR
Office of Minority Health & Health Equity (OMHHE)