Webcast to examine relationship of political power and health equity

May 9, 2016

The University of North Carolina’s Gillings School of Global Public Health and UNC Diversity and Multicultural Affairs will present the 22nd annual National Health Equity Research Webcast on June 7, from 1:30 to 4 p.m. in the UNC School of Social Work’s Tate-Turner-Kuralt auditorium.

“This year, our speakers will focus on a set of topics on many people’s minds — ‘Political Power, Policy and Health Equity,'” said Victor Schoenbach, PhD, associate professor of epidemiology at the Gillings School and longtime convener of the webcast.

“The Flint [Mich.] disaster is one of so many examples that illlustrate how lack of political power produces policies that reduce health equity,” added Diane Rowley, MD, MPH, Professor of the Practice of maternal and child health at the Gillings School and co-leader of this year’s webcast planning committee. “Health advantages experienced by many groups can be traced readily to their constrained political influence,” she said. “We are fortunate to be able to bring together a panel that can make the connections, present the evidence and suggest what we can do to create more equitable civic and health outcomes.”

As in the past, numerous institutional partners have arranged to present the webcast before a studio audience that includes young scholars from several health careers programs, along with the national audience of researchers, teachers, students and practitioners.

The live-streamed, interactive symposium will include panel presentations by nationally recognized experts and a question-and-answer session moderated by Thomas W. Ross, JD, president emeritus of the University of North Carolina.

The panelists are:

Mildred Thompson

Mildred Thompson is senior director of PolicyLink, a national research and action institute advancing economic and social equity by connecting the work of people on the ground to the creation of sustainable communities and opportunity.

She is also director of PolicyLink’s Center for Health Equity and Place, leading the organization’s health team in focusing upon access to healthful foods, improving the built environment and the systemic integration of health equity.

A significant component of her work involves exploring community factors that impact health and identifying effective solutions.

Thompson is a member of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s health disparities subcommittee, part of the CDC director’s advisory committee.

Dr. Malia Villegas

Malia Villegas, EdD, directs the National Congress of American Indians Policy Research Center (NCAI), a think tank focused upon issues facing tribal communities. NCAI’s strategic areas include data development; research regulation and stewardship; synthesis of existing research and policy, dissemination and translation; and leadership and network development.

Villegas is principal investigator for a National Institutes of Health-funded Native American Research Center for Health, examining the use and impact of community-based participatory research in indigenous and minority communities.

A Sugpiaq/Alutiiq (Alaska Native), with family from Kodiak and Afognak Islands in Alaska and O’ahu and Lana’i in Hawai’i, she is an enrolled member of the native village of Afognak in Alaska.

Lydia Camarillo

Lydia Camarillo is vice president of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project (SVREP), the largest and oldest national nonprofit, nonpartisan organization of its kind.

Camarillo plays a key role in developing and executing strategies for SVREP’s nonpartisan mobilization efforts. She chairs the Texas Latino Redistricting Task Force, the Texas Senate Latino Caucus and the Mexican American Legislative Caucus Civic Engagement Taskforce.

She also has served on numerous boards and commissions, including the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the Los Angeles-based City Project, Latino Issues Forum, Monterey County United Way Allocations Committee, Immigrant Rights Coalition for the Central Coast, Santa Cruz County Affirmative Action Commission and Salinas Affirmative Action Committee.

Tom Ross

The panel will be moderated by Tom Ross, UNC president emeritus, professor of public law and government at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Government and Terry Sanford Distinguished Fellow at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy.

Ross joined the UNC-Chapel Hill faculty in 1975 as assistant professor of public law and government. He became a partner in a Greensboro (N.C.) law firm, chief of staff to a member of Congress, superior court judge, director of the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts, executive director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, president of Davidson College and the fifth president of the 17-campus UNC system.

Ross’ recent work has focused upon ways to facilitate impartial redistricting.

Speakers will discuss the importance of policy for advancing health equity, how political power influences policy development and implementation, and factors that influence distribution of political power, including media and lobbying, partisan voter redistricting and voter suppression.

“The topics for this year’s National Health Equity Research Webcast could not be more timely,” said Barbara K. Rimer, DrPH, dean and Alumni Distinguished Professor at the Gillings School. “The focus on impact — on what we know and what we can do to move the needle on health equity through policy and the political process — makes this year’s webcast a vital resource to students, researchers, practitioners and citizens. We’re very pleased to partner in this annual event.”

Both the in-studio audience participation and live video-streaming are free, but registration is required to participate.

Learn more on the event website. The webcast will be archived for those unable to attend or stream the live event.

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Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: David Pesci, director of communications, (919) 962-2600 or dpesci@unc.edu