In the face of ongoing structural barriers that have a direct and negative impact on health, disproportionate outcomes for people of color related to COVID-19, and increased national dialogue around racial injustice, the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) is pleased to announce a second phase of its Culture of Health Program (CoHP).
“The NAM is deeply committed to recognizing, understanding, and eliminating health inequities and the factors, systems, and policies that enable them,” said NAM President Victor J. Dzau. “Our ongoing collaboration with The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) will grow the scientific evidence base and understanding necessary to guide effective action by stakeholders committed to equitable opportunities for optimal health.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has most recently illuminated the long-existing health disparities experienced by people of color, and the nation is readier than ever before to acknowledge that one of the root causes of health inequity is structural racism. The pandemic has likewise amplified unequal allocation of power and resources as another underlying cause of health inequity.
“This is a critical moment for our nation to confront racist systems and policies in order to ensure that everyone in America has a fair and just opportunity for health and well-being. This requires intentionally dismantling discriminatory barriers, including structural racism, because of their negative impacts on the health of people and communities,” said Richard Besser, president and CEO, RWJF.
Current events in the United States present an extraordinary opportunity to advance health equity. The CoHP intends to meet this moment by focusing its next phase on helping to ensure everyone in this country has the opportunity to be healthy and reach their full potential no matter who they are or where they live, during the crises faced now by our nation and beyond. The program will focus on four approaches that will build upon and reinforce each other:
- Understand: building, informing, and elevating the evidence base to better understand and eliminate health inequities
- Translate: communicating the evidence in a timely and culturally appropriate manner to bring understanding of the strongest science to those working to advance health equity
- Engage: ensuring that key stakeholders working at every level to eliminate health inequities are provided the evidence-related tools they need to ensure their effectiveness, as well as relying on the lived experience and expertise of communities to inform our work
- Learn: learning in real time from our activities to ensure effective and equitable evaluation and metrics of impact
For more information or to register to receive updates, visit nam.edu/CultureofHealth.
Established in 2015, the NAM CoHP, funded by RWJF, is a multiyear collaborative effort to identify strategies to create and sustain conditions that support equitable good health for everyone in America.
The CoHP engages a diverse group of experts who serve in an advisor capacity to provide strategic guidance to ensure the program meets its intended aims. The advisory committee for the second phase, chaired by Dr. Antonia Villarruel, include the following individuals:
NAM Culture of Health Program Advisory Committee 2021 – 2023
- Antonia M. Villarruel, PhD, RN, FAAN (committee chair), University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
- Hortensia de los Angeles Amaro, PhD, Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine and Robert Stempel School of Public Health and Social Work, Florida International University
- Robert Bullard, PhD, Texas Southern University
- Robynn Cox, PhD, USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work
- Patrick H. DeLeon, PhD, JD, MPH, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
- Angela Diaz, MD, PhD, MPH, Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
- Wendy Ellis, DrPH, MPH, Center for Community Resilience at The George Washington University
- Rebekah Gee, MD, MPH, Louisiana State University
- Nadine Gracia, MD, MSCE, Trust for America’s Health
- Jeffrey Hutchinson, MD, The Wade Alliance, LLC
- Otho E. Kerr III, JD, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
- Velma McBride-Murry, PhD, Peabody College, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
- Anna Ricklin, MHS, AICP, Fairfax County Health Department
- Lynn Ross, MRP, Spirit for Change Consulting, LLC
- Martín-J. Sepúlveda, MD, ScD, CLARALUZ, LLC
- Tipiziwin Tolman, Standing Rock Dakota & Lakota, Indigenous Language Advocate & Educator
- Sylvia Trent-Adams, PhD, RN, FAAN, University of North Texas Health Science Center
- Donald Warne, MD, MPH, University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences
- Steven Woolf, MD, MPH, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine
The program acknowledges and thanks its previous advisory committee for their dedicated service and guidance during the first phase.
NAM Culture of Health Program Advisory Committee 2017 – 2020
- Antonia M. Villarruel, PhD, RN, FAAN (committee chair), University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
- Hortensia de los Angeles Amaro, PhD, Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine and Robert Stempel School of Public Health and Social Work, Florida International University
- Stuart Butler, PhD, MA, Brookings Institution
- Patrick H. DeLeon, PhD, JD, MPH, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
- Karen DeSalvo, MD, MPH, MSc, Google
- Angela Diaz, MD, PhD, MPH, Adolescent Health Center at Mount Sinai and Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine
- John Dreyzehner, MD, MPH, FACOEM, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (through 2019)
- Shirley Franklin, MA, Former Two-Term Mayor, Atlanta
- Julian Harris, MD, MBA, Deerfield
- Jeffrey Hutchinson, MD, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
- Otho Kerr, JD, Acumen
- Raynard Kington, MD, MBA, PhD, Phillips Academy Andover (through 2018)
- Howard K. Koh, MD, MPH, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and The Harvard Kennedy School
- Gilbert Liu, MS, MD, Partner for Kids (through 2019)
- Velma McBride Murry, PhD, Peabody College and Vanderbilt University
- Dwayne Proctor, PhD, RWJF
- Karen Remley, MD, MBA, MPH, FAAP, Eastern Virginia Medical School
- Anna Ricklin, MHS, AICP, Fairfax County Health Department
- Martín-J. Sepúlveda, MD, ScD, IBM Watson Health
- Tipiziwin Tolman, Lakota Language Nest
- Gail R. Wilensky, PhD, Project HOPE
Past products and activities of the program include:
- Consensus studies
- Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity
- Vibrant and Healthy Kids: Aligning Science, Practice, and Policy to Advance Health Equity
- The Promise of Adolescence: Realizing Opportunity for All Youth
- Integrating Social Care into the Delivery of Health Care: Moving Upstream to Improve the Nation’s Health
- Art projects highlighting how health equity looks, sounds, and feels to communities across the nation
- Documentary video series spotlighting local organizations across the U.S. advancing health equity
- Direct engagement with communities, including Community-Driven Health Equity Action Plans
- Convenings
For questions, contact NAMedicine@nas.edu.
