Racism’s role in disease focus of minority health video conference

The interactive conference will be broadcast live online from 2 to 4 p.m. on June 25 from the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus. Registered satellite downlink sites are available in more than 20 states across the country. Participation is free, but registration is required. Registration information and a list of videoconference sites are available at www.minority.unc.edu.

Photograph of Dr. Anissa Vines

Racism and discrimination are important issues to many sectors of society, said Anissa Vines, Ph.D., research assistant professor of epidemiology and associate director of the UNC Program on Ethnicity, Culture and Health Outcomes. In recent years, public health professionals have become more aware of the role of race in health outcomes, following the publication of studies establishing racism as a factor in mental health disorders, preterm births, cardiovascular disease and other health problems.

“Public health research continues to document relationships between racism and disease,” Vines said. “Racism is one of the strongest determinants of social inequalities in society. It has structured society in a way that people of color are often predisposed to social conditions that cause chronic stress.

“We hope the conference can entice people to engage in open dialogues about how racism can affect health, and to seek opportunities to eliminate its presence in society,” Vines said.

Photograph of Dr. Victor Schoenbach

Those participating in the conference can expect an up-to-date conceptual framework for understanding the effects of racism on health plus highlights from current research, said Victor Schoenbach, Ph.D., associate professor of epidemiology in the School of Public Health and principal investigator of the Minority Health Project.

Because the audience will be broad and diverse, presentations should be understandable to members of the general public as well, Schoenbach said. Conference speakers will suggest new ways of looking at familiar problems.

Conference speakers are:

• Luisa N. Borrell, Ph.D., assistant professor, department of epidemiology, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
• Gilbert C. Gee, Ph.D., assistant professor, department of health behavior and health education, University of Michigan School of Public Health.
• Karina Walters, Ph.D., William B. and Ruth Gerberding Endowed Professor, University of Washington School of Social Work.
• David R. Williams, Ph.D., Florence Sprague Norman and Laura Smart Norman Professor of Public Health, department of society, human development and health, Harvard University School of Public Health.

For more information or to register: http://www.minority.unc.edu.

Note: Anissa Vines can be reached at (919) 843-3539.

Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs contact: Lynne Degitz, (919) 843-6085 or degitz@email.unc.edu.

School of Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, (919) 966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu.

News Services contact: Becky Oskin, (919) 962-8596 or becky_oskin@unc.edu.