Innovative approaches to youth health is theme of 2014 Minority Health Conference

March 3, 2014

Never underestimate your role as young people in changing our future.

So proclaimed Gail Christopher, PhD, vice president of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and keynote lecturer at the 35th annual UNC Minority Health Conference, presented by the Minority Student Caucus at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.

Dr. Gail Christopher, keynote speaker at UNC’s 2014 Minority Health Conference (center), poses with conference co-chairs Charla Hodges (left) and Maryka Lier.

In front of a full auditorium of enthusiastic conference attendees, many of whom were students, Christopher noted that the role of young people always had been central to social change.

“It was young people – even children – who marched [during the civil rights movement of the ‘60s] at the risk of their own lives,” she said. “It was the fire hoses channeled on the children that got the attention of the nation.”

Christopher’s warm and eloquent talk about how to engage youth in creating healthy communities was met with frequent applause.

The 9:30 a.m. lecture was recorded and available by webcast to more than 900 viewers around the country, including registrants at eight partner conferences and 42 group viewing sites.  After the webcast, Christopher answered questions submitted by email or Twitter.

The conference, initiated by the UNC Minority Student Caucus in 1977, is the nation’s oldest and largest student-run minority health event. The program was developed to highlight health issues of concern to people of color and to attract students interested in minority concerns to public health.

More information about the Minority Student Caucus, the Minority Health Conference and its history, and conference events and opportunities is available online.

The webcast of Christopher’s talk is available here.