Students Organize Minority Health Conference That Resonates Change

When Paul Brandt-Rauf took his two children, adopted from Russia, to an American playground for the first time, the dean of the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health discovered that nearly every family there spoke a different language.

“I learned very quickly that Chicago is a city of diversity,” he said to an audience of over 150 at the UIC SPH first Minority Health in the Midwest Conference. “That’s the kind of environment I want my kids to grow up in. If we truly want to make an impact in Chicago and all over the world, we have to think about this every day.”

Brandt-Rauf’s remarks set the tone of change and global community on Friday, Feb. 27. The conference, Minority Health in a Global Community: Midwestern Perspectives on Health, Poverty and the Environment, was organized by the Minority Students for the Advancement of Public Health, the Illinois Public Health Research Fellows and the Great Lakes Center for Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety.

Wade Ivy, UIC SPH doctorate student and president of MSAPH, began planning the conference after attending a similar gathering at the University of Michigan. Some session and panel discussion topics included health issues for immigrant families, healthy lifestyles in communities of color, innovations in training and practice and disparities in public health.

Barbara C. Wallace, professor of health education at Columbia University and keynote speaker, made an appeal for a movement toward change. “I am calling for a global civil rights and social justice movement to bring about equity and health for all.”

Her address was offered via a webcast by the University of North Carolina and was broadcast at conferences being held simultaneously at other schools, including Boston University, Tulane University, University of California, Los Angeles and University of California, Berkeley.

Wallace articulated there must always be a strong sense of responsibility to effect global change. “The reality is that we are one world, we are one community, and we need to move into a new consciousness that what affects one, affects all of us.” Attendee Rayna Brown said the conference was a pleasant surprise. “I noticed there was a lot of discussion about both theory and practice. Things came together nicely in that way.”

Brandt-Rauf said the presentations were thought-provoking. “I look forward to insuring that this becomes an annual event at the school.”

-- Danielle Desjardins