The Vice Provost for Faculty Diversity and Development John Wallace, PhD commits to serving as the keynote speaker for the closed Social Justice Fellowship commencement, set for December 6, 2022 at the William Pitt Union. The graduation will feature the Vice Provost, whose experience in campus-community relationship building mirrors the Health Sciences Social Justice Fellowship objective to pair health sciences faculty with community partners to create plans to address inequities relative to the health and well-being of the community-at-large. The HSDEI welcomes Wallace's immense insight as we collectively celebrate the near-year-long activities of the fellowship participants seeking to disrupt health inequitites. The commencement will also include remarks by Associate Vice Chancellor, Health Sciences Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Paula K. Davis, and will additionally feature culminating presenations by the Fellowship teams.
In an effort to educate and raise awareness of health inequities that exist in the community, the Social Justice Faculty Fellowship Program, headed by Noble A-W Maseru, Ph.D., MPH, Director, Social Justice, Racial Equity and Faculty in the Health Sciences, and managed by Bee Schindler, EdD, MSW, was developed as a direct response to University of Pittsburgh students' calls for change in Spring 2020 presented to Chancellor Gallagher condemning systemic racism and demanding the university develop solutions to achieve social justice and bring about transformative change. The establishment of the fellowship reflects Senior Vice Chancellor Anantha Shekhar’s vision of health sciences activism that conjoins a “culture of health” and “empowerment activism” through a cooperating collaborative integrative academic health sciences framework.
The 10-month fellowship engages one faculty member in each of University of Pittsburgh’s health science schools (Dental, Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy and Public Health). Each fellow is paired with a community organization in a longitudinal relationship designed to engage health sciences faculty in learning that addresses structural inequity and racism while also engaging in experiential learning opportunities centered on health-related social justice-racial equity issues. Social justice presupposes that everyone deserves equal rights and opportunity – including good health. A focus on social justice allows an expansion of the cadre of individuals teaching, researching and providing care with a lens on equity and the social determinants of health.
In 2022, Faculty Fellows represent five of the six Schools of the Health Sciences. Fellows and community partners, and their project areas are listed below:
Jennifer J. Adibi, School of Public Health: Adibi, The Pittsburgh Study and Healthy Start are codesigning a project that will lead to an actionable vision of what health equity in pregnancy can look like.
Sharon E. Connor, School of Pharmacy: Connor is continuing to work with the Birmingham Free Clinic to help students recognize the social determinants of health and to translate them into practice in the hope that this will aid them in becoming advocates for and leaders in the elimination of health disparities.
Jennifer S. White, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences: White and the Black Equity Coalition is developing an innovative digital toolkit for federally qualified health centers to use as a platform to display their organization’s profile and details of their advocacy. The focus is on resources and advocacy that address safe and affordable housing, transportation, education, jobs, income equity, healthy foods and physical activity opportunities.
Daniel Wilkenfeld, School of Nursing: The Wilkenfeld, Autism Connection of Pennsylvania and Achieva Early Intervention partnership is focusing on early screening and detection of autism in Black children. The project seeks to enable providers in community settings to work with parents and children in facilitating proper diagnosis and treatment and better understand how to navigate the paperwork necessary to receive early therapeutic treatment.
Katherine Williams, School of Medicine: Williams and UPMC Horizon-Shenango Valley are working to empower rural community residents to advocate for COVID-19 vaccine administration.
Stay tuned for final reports and updates on this exciting culmination of work.