



Equity and Policy
Equity is a state of being where race, sex, class, and other social identity categories can no longer predict life outcomes and where outcomes for all groups are improved. Equity and Policy projects will assess whether current equity initiatives, laws, and policies lead to changes in the social determinants of health and improvements in individual and community health and well-being.
Healing Justice
Healing Justice consists of culturally, historically, and context relevant practices, services, and resources that foster individual and collective recovery and resilience in the face of trauma and other harm caused by oppression. Healing Justice projects will address the root cause of oppression, by supporting practices that foster individual and collective healing and connecting this to structural changes in governments and institutions.
Community Research Ethics
Community Research Ethics consists of practices that center community in the design and implementation of research studies to ensure that the community will benefit from the research. Projects will create local and national frameworks that lead to community-engaged research activities, promote strong relationships with community members and local and national organizations, and facilitate data sharing with community.
Learn More
Declaring racism as a public health crisis is an important first step. Doing so acknowledges that racism exists and that government has a duty to dismantle the system of racism, instead of leaving the burden on individual victims of racism to file lawsuits. This is a critical shift in how to see racism and craft solutions to address it. Yet a declaration, without more, is not enough…
Amid a growing national conversation on equity and social justice, city and county governments are using tools to identify racial and ethnic disparities in their communities and inform the development and implementation of new laws and policies…
Wage Pass-Through Report
Direct Care Workers, COVID-19, and Pay Inequities
COVID-19 has revealed inequities for health care workers of color, especially direct care workers. Many of these direct care workersĀ are not covered under COVID-19 economic relief bills and wage pass-through laws could help provide additional pay...
WHO WE ARE

The Color of COVID:
Stopping the Trend
Discussing existing long-standing health inequities and their relationship to COVID-19 outline solutions and action steps that can be taken to stop the trend.
Black Americans are dying at higher rates compared to others diagnosed with COVID-19. This disparity points to systemic inequalities related to neighborhoods, housing, access and use of health care services, and the burden of chronic disease within black communities. Scholars, activists, and community leaders discuss the existing inequalities contributing to long standing health inequities and their relationship to COVID-19 outline solutions and action steps that can be taken to stop the trend.
Facilitated by Keon Gilbert, Dr.Ph., co-founder of Institute for Healing Justice and Equity
Panelists: Melody Goodman, NYU; Rashawn J. Ray, David M. Rubenstein Fellow at The Brookings Institute and University of Maryland; Brian Smedley, American Psychological Association; Dr. Oliver Brooks, National Medical Association.

The Color of COVID:
Healing Justice Approaches to Self and Community Care
Highlighting exacerbated systemic inequities that disproportionately impact the lives of people of color and practitioners with innovative approaches to healing justice.
Healing justice is the practice of community and self-care that takes into consideration the stresses and trauma of oppression. COVID-19 has highlighted and exacerbated systemic inequities that disproportionately impact the lives of people of color, and this panel highlights practitioners who have taken innovative approaches to healing justice before and during the pandemic.
Facilitated by Kira Banks, Ph.D., co-founder of Institute for Healing Justice and Equity
Panelists: Emanuel Brown, Strategies for Freedom; Brittini Gray, Healer and Activist; Farzana Khan, Healing Justice London; Nkem Ndefo, Lumos Transforms; Venus Evans-Winters, Illinois State University.

The Color of COVID:
COVID-19 Vaccines
With racial and ethnic disparities amid COVID-19, how can the approval and distribution of vaccines be handled to ensure that inequities are not further exacerbated?
The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare inequities in American society. Not only are there racial and ethnic disparities in COVID-19 infections and deaths, but also the pandemic has exacerbated the economic inequities suffered by the poor and middle class. As the federal and state government, Moderna, Pfizer/BioNtech, and AzstraZeneca/Oxford rush to approve and distribute COVID-19 vaccines, they must ensure that it doesnāt cause further inequities.
Facilitated by Keon Gilbert, Dr.Ph., co-founder of Institute for Healing Justice and Equity
Panelists: Ana Santos Rutschman, S.J.D, Saint Louis University School of Law; Harald Schmidt, MA, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania Perelmen School of Medicine; Ruqaiijah Yearby, J.D., M.P.H., Saint Louis University School of Law
“Once youāre aware of the impact social
injustice has on certain people,
communities and institutions, itās hard
to sit and do nothing.ā”
ā AMBER JOHNSON
Co-founder of the Institute for Healing Justice and Equity
Creator of The Justice Fleet
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