What the Science Tells Us: Racial Health and Economic Inequities During the Pandemic

Please join us for “What the Science Tells Us: Racial Health and Economic Inequities During the Pandemic,” a symposium presented by the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University and proudly supported by the Vertex Foundation. This symposium explores the intersection of racial health and economic inequities that were exposed and exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Keynotes by interdisciplinary panels of scientists, policymakers, health care experts, and community leaders will present historic and contemporary underpinnings of racial inequities and engage the audience in conversation on research-driven solutions and innovative approaches to promote health and economic equity.

1:30 | Welcome from President Robert Brown and Opening Remarks from Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, Director and Founder of the BU Center for Antiracist Research and New York Times best-selling author

1:45 | Fireside #1: Racial Health Equity and Economic Equity During and Beyond COVID

This fireside keynote discusses the far-reaching impact of the social determinants of health and how racial health equity and economic equity are inextricably related. Perspectives from leaders in health care and medicine present local, regional, and national initiatives that target the social determinants of health and why such initiatives promote health and economic equity.

Moderated by: Dr. Ibram X. Kendi

Featuring panelists:

Dr. Thea James, Vice President of Mission and Associate Chief Medical Officer at Boston Medical Center

Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, Senior Advisor to the White House COVID-19 Response Team; and Chair of the Presidential COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force*

Dr. Peter Slavin, Former President, Massachusetts General Hospital

2:25 | Fireside #2: The Impact of Redlining: Past, Present, and Future of Racial Health Inequities

This keynote panel explores the historic roots of redlining and its intergenerational effects on wealth, health, and education among communities of color in the U.S. From its inception in the 1930s in the housing sector to present day forms such as digital redlining and unequal health care access, this panel will unpack how a racist policy formed nearly 100 years ago continues to yield devastating racial health inequities that were amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as provide insights for moving forward.

Moderated by: Dr. Monica L. Wang, Associate Director of Narrative, BU Center for Antiracist Research; Associate Professor of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health; Adjunct Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Featuring panelists:

Dr. James Feigenbaum, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Boston University; Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research; Junior Faculty Fellow at the Hariri Institute for Computing

Dr. Lance Laird, Assistant Professor of Family Medicine, BU School of Medicine

Dr. Jayakanth Srinivasan, Research Associate Professor, Information Systems, Boston University Questrom School of Business, Institute for Health System Innovation and Policy

3:00 | Interlude

3:15 | Fireside #3: COVID Policy and Economic Equity

This fireside keynote discusses current and future COVID-related policy approaches to promote racial economic equity and why such policies are needed to advance economic recovery and racial equity for communities in the Greater Boston region and beyond.

Moderated by: Ms. Deborah Douglas, Co-Editor-in-Chief for The Emancipator

Featuring panelists:

Ms. Kim Janey, Mayor of Boston

Dr. M. Lee Pelton, Chief Executive Officer and President, The Boston Foundation

3:50 | Fireside #4: Climate Change, Child Health, and COVID

This keynote panel discusses the intricate intersections of environmental health, COVID, and racial inequities in child health, the mechanisms underpinning the disproportionate burden of respiratory and chronic illnesses associated with COVID among communities of color, and the types of cross-sector collaborations needed to combat the inequities observed during COVID and beyond.

Moderated by: Dr. Joe Betancourt, Senior Vice President, Equity and Community Health, Massachusetts General Hospital; Founder, Senior Advisor and Faculty, The Disparities Solutions Center; Faculty, The Mongan Institute; Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

Featuring panelists:

Dr. Cutler J. Cleveland, Professor of Earth and Environment; Interim Director of the Institute for Sustainable Energy; Faculty Affiliate, BU Center for Antiracist Research

Dr. Julia Raifman, Assistant Professor, Health Law, Policy & Managment, Boston University School of Public Health

Dr. Megan Sandel, Associate Professor, Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health, in Pediatrics and Environmental Health

4:35 | Interlude

4:45 | Fireside #5: Racism as a Public Health Emergency: The Call for Urgent Action

Concluding this symposium is a fireside keynote dedicated to racism as a public health crisis and the corresponding action needed to address this root cause of racial health inequities. From vaccine research and distribution to community approaches to economic policy, panelists will discuss various strategies needed to ensure that the conditions in which people live are health-promoting for all.

Moderated by: Dr. Reshma Kewalramani

Featuring panelist:

Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, Massachusetts’ 7th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives

Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, 19th Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; ninth Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

With a special appearance by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi

*Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith attendance status is pending. Please check back for updates.

Featured speaker bios:

Dr. Joseph R. Betancourt, MD, MPH, is the Senior Vice President, Equity and Community Health of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), the founder, senior advisor and faculty of the Disparities Solutions Center (DSC) at MGH, Faculty at the Mongan Institute, an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a practicing Internal Medicine physician. He has also served on the leadership team of the MGH Center for Diversity and Inclusion. Dr. Betancourt is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in health policy, health care disparities, diversity, and cross-cultural medicine, and has served on several Institute of Medicine Committees, including those that produced the landmark reports, Unequal Treatment and Increasing Diversity in the Healthcare Workforce. Dr. Betancourt has secured grants and contracts that have led to over 60 peer-reviewed publications, and advises private industry, government, and not-for-profit health systems on approaches to eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in health care. He sits at on the Board of Trinity Health, a large national health system; and sat on the Boston Board of Health and the Board of Neighborhood Health Plan in Boston. He is a 2015 Aspen Institute Health Innovator Fellow.

Dr. Betancourt received his Bachelor of Science from the University of Maryland, his medical degree from Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School, and completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. Following residency, he completed The Commonwealth Fund-Harvard University Fellowship in Minority Health Policy, and received his Master’s in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Cutler J. Cleveland is Professor of Earth and Environment, Interim Director of the Institute for Sustainable Energy, and a Faculty Affiliate at the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University. Dr. Cleveland’s studies the connections among energy, climate change, and human well-being. He was principal investigator for Carbon Free Boston, a technical assessment of strategies to help the City of Boston reach carbon neutrality by 2050, and Climate of Crisis, an assessment of how cities can sustain climate action during the COVID-19 pandemic in ways that advance social equity and economic recovery. Dr. Cleveland is author and editor of reference works on energy that include the Encyclopedia of Energy, winner of an American Library Association award, the Dictionary of Energy and the Handbook of Energy. Dr. Cleveland is the recipient of the Adelman-Frankel Award from the United States Association of Energy Economics for “unique and innovative contributions to the field of energy economics.” He currently serves on the Advisory Board for Project Drawdown. He is co-author of Environmental Science, the Web’s first electronic textbook on the subject. Dr. Cleveland's research on the valuation of ecosystem services, funded by the National Science Foundation, is highlighted in NSF's Top Discoveries series. He has been a consultant to numerous private and public organizations, including the Asian Development Bank, the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, the Energy Information Administration, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Dr. Cleveland holds a BS in Biology from Cornell University, a MS in Marine Science from Louisiana State University, and a PhD in Geography from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Deborah D. Douglas is co-editor-in-chief of The Emancipator. She has served as the Eugene S. Pulliam Distinguished Visiting Professor of Journalism at DePauw University and senior leader at The OpEd Project. At Northwestern University’s Medill School, Douglas spearheaded a Civil Rights Act of 1964 graduate investigative capstone and taught best practices in Pakistan. An award-winning journalist, Douglas is author of U.S. Civil Rights Trail: A Traveler’s Guide to the People, Places, and Events That Made the Movement.

James Feigenbaum is an Assistant Professor in the Boston University Department of Economics. He is also a Faculty Research Fellow at the NBER in the Development of the American Economy program and a Junior Faculty Fellow at BU’s Hariri Institute for Computing. He is an economic historian with interests in labor economics and political economy. His research includes work on inequality, intergenerational mobility, health and mortality, and labor markets from the 19th and early 20th century US to today.

Thea James, MD, is Vice President of Mission and Associate Chief Medical Officer at Boston Medical Center (BMC). She is the Director of BMC Violence Intervention Advocacy Program and Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. James has primary responsibility for coordinating and maximizing BMC’s relationships and strategic alliances with local, state, and national organizations to foster innovative and effective models of care that are essential for patients and communities to thrive. Integrating upstream interventions into BMC’s clinical care models are critical in achieving equity and health.

Dr. James’ passion is domestic and global public health. Dr. James served on the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine 2009-2012 as chair of the Licensing Committee. As the Supervising Medical Officer on the Boston Disaster Medical Assistance Team under the Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. James has deployed to New York City post 9/11; New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005; Bam, Iran after the 2003 earthquake; and Port-Au-Prince, Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.

Globally, she and colleagues have worked with local partners in Haiti and Africa to conduct sustainable projects. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Equal Health, an organization that supports sustainable medical and nursing education systems in Haiti.

She was awarded the Boston Public Health Commission’s 2008 Mulligan Award for public service; the Suffolk County District Attorney’s 2012 Role Model Award, and the Schwartz Center 2014 Compassionate Care Award. She received The Boston Business Journal Healthcare Hero Award in 2012 and 2015. The Boston Chamber of Commerce awarded Dr. James the Pinnacle Award in 2015 and she was a 2019 Massachusetts Public Health Association Health Equity Champion. In 2020, Dr. James received the American College of Emergency Medicine Lifetime Achievement Award; a History Maker Award from The History Project; and the inaugural Thea James Social Emergency Medicine Award from the American College of Emergency Physicians.

A graduate of Georgetown University School of Medicine, Dr. James trained in Emergency Medicine at Boston City Hospital, where she was a chief resident.

Kim Janey is the 55th Mayor of Boston. She was sworn-in as the first woman and the first Black mayor in the City’s history on March 24, 2021.

Mayor Janey is leading Boston through the COVID-19 pandemic with a citywide agenda for recovery, reopening and renewal. Mayor Janey’s pandemic recovery priorities include distributing vaccines effectively, returning children to school safely, and centering disadvantaged workers and businesses in the City’s economic recovery. Mayor Janey is committed to ensuring the City of Boston reopens safely and equitably, with relief and renewal in every neighborhood.

A proud fourth-generation Roxbury resident, Mayor Janey comes from a long line of educators, entrepreneurs, artists, and advocates. Mayor Janey was raised with values that guide her to this day: the importance of education, the power of community organizing, and the fundamental principles of equity and justice.

Mayor Janey became a mother in high school and worked hard to give her daughter everything she needed to succeed. She began her advocacy on behalf of children inspired by the interconnection of her own daughter’s experiences with those of other children. In her role at Massachusetts Advocates for Children, Mayor Janey championed systemic policy reforms to increase equity, excellence, access, and opportunity in Boston Public Schools. She placed a special focus on eliminating opportunity and achievement gaps for children of color, immigrant children, students who are learning English, children with special needs, and those living in poverty.

Mayor Janey’s own education followed a path familiar to many Boston residents. After attending the New School for Children, her parents enrolled her in Boston Public Schools. In middle school she had rocks and racial slurs thrown at her during the tumultuous busing era. Later, Mayor Janey attended Reading Public Schools through the METCO program, where she was one of two Black students in her graduating class. Mayor Janey went on to attend Smith College as an Ada Comstock Scholar, but withdrew to care for her grandfather.

Prior to becoming Mayor in 2021, Janey made history in 2017 when she was elected to the Boston City Council as the first woman to represent District 7, which includes Roxbury and parts of the South End, Dorchester, and the Fenway. In 2020, she was elected by her peers as President of the Boston City Council.

Mayor Janey has been recognized for her service with a number of awards, including the Boston NAACP Difference Maker Award in 2015 and the coveted Sapphire Award in 2017. She was named one of Boston’s Most Impactful Black Women in 2021. Mayor Janey is the proud mother of daughter Kimesha and a grandmother of three. She lives in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood.

Ibram X. Kendi is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University, a #1 New York Times best-selling author, and the youngest-ever winner of the National Book Award for Nonfiction. He is also a 2020–2021 Frances B. Cashin Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, where he will continue work on his next historical monograph, Bones of Inequity: A Narrative History of Racist Policies in America.

A professor of history, Kendi is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and a correspondent at CBS News. His first book, The Black Campus Movement, won the W.E.B. Du Bois Book Prize. In 2016, he won the National Book Award for Nonfiction at 34 years old for his best seller Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America. It was also a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award.

Professor Kendi has published numerous essays in academic journals and periodicals, including the Journal of African American History, Journal of African American Studies, Journal of Social History, New York Times, Guardian, Time, Chronicle of Higher Education, Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, and Washington Post. He has received research fellowships, grants, and visiting appointments from a variety of universities, foundations, professional associations, and libraries, including the American Historical Association, Library of Congress, National Academy of Education, Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis, Brown University, Princeton University, UCLA, and Duke University. In 2019, Professor Kendi was awarded the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship and honored on The Root 100, listed as the 15th most influential African American between the ages of 25 and 45 and the most influential college professor.

Professor Kendi’s third book, the #1 New York Times best seller, How to Be an Antiracist, was hailed by the Times as “the most courageous book to date on the problem of race in the Western mind.” How to Be an Antiracist has been named in several lists of best books of 2019, including the Washington Post, New York Times, Time, and NPR. He also coauthored the #1 New York Times best seller, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, a young-adult version of Stamped from the Beginning. He recently released his first board book, Antiracist Baby.

Professor Kendi earned his doctorate in African American studies from Temple University in 2010. He earned his undergraduate degrees from Florida A&M University in 2004. In addition to Bones of Inequity, Professor Kendi is coediting 400 Souls: A Community History of African American History, 1619–2019, an assemblage of 80 writers and 10 poets that weaves together 400 years of African American history.

Reshma Kewalramani, M.D., FASN, is the Chief Executive Officer and President at Vertex. Dr. Kewalramani has dedicated her career to improving the lives of patients, including the last 15+ years through the development of new medicines. She joined Vertex in 2017 and was previously the Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President of Global Medicines Development and Medical Affairs. During that time, Vertex made remarkable progress to bring new medicines to more cystic fibrosis (CF) patients around the world, including the approval of SYMDEKO/SYMKEVI and the rapid approval of TRIKAFTA to potentially treat up to 90% of all CF patients. Under Dr. Kewalramani’s leadership, Vertex also advanced several programs outside of CF into the clinic, including alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, APOL1-mediated kidney diseases, sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia.

Prior to Vertex, Dr. Kewalramani spent more than 12 years at Amgen where she held a variety of roles across Research and Development, including as Vice President, Global Clinical Development, Nephrology & Metabolic Therapeutic Area and Vice President, U.S. Medical Organization, a group she established and grew to assume responsibility for the full portfolio of molecules.

Dr. Kewalramani is passionate about developing and supporting the next generation of scientists and giving back to her community. She is a member of the board of directors of the Biomedical Science Careers Program, an organization dedicated to supporting underrepresented students to pursue a career in STEM, and RIZE Massachusetts, a nonprofit foundation focused on ending the opioid epidemic. She is also a member of Boston University School of Medicine Dean’s Advisory Board. She is a Fellow of the American Society of Nephrology and was on the inaugural Board of Directors of the Kidney Health Initiative.

She is the recipient of the American College of Physicians Associates Council Award, the American Medical Women's Association Janet M. Glasgow Memorial Achievement Citation, and the Harvard Medical School Excellence in Teaching Award. In 2019, she was the recipient of the TiE Boston Healthcare Leadership Award and named one of Boston Business Journal’s Power 50.

Dr. Kewalramani completed her internship and residency in Internal Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital and her fellowship in Nephrology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital combined program. Dr. Kewalramani received her medical degree, with honors, from the seven-year medicine program at the Boston University School of Medicine and completed the General Management Program at Harvard Business School.

Dr. Lance Laird’s research at Boston University has focused on multiple intersections of Muslim identity with healing professions and public health in the US. His early research on shared symbols of Muslims and Christians in Bethlehem set forth a research agenda on the “dialogue of life.” Dr. Laird employs a “lived religion” and ethnographic approach, and draws on theories of racialization, social suffering, and identity formation. While continuing to write on Christian-Muslim relations in theological circles, he has published articles on how Muslims are represented in medical literature, the emergence of Muslim free clinics, Muslim healthcare chaplaincy, American Muslim physician identities, the religious health assets of predominantly Black Christian and Muslim congregations, im/migrant women’s experience of intimate partner violence. With colleagues in medicine, Dr. Laird has led qualitative studies on chronic pain, diabetes, HPV vaccination, chiropractic care, and telehealth disparities. He was a leader in the Greater Boston Muslim Health Initiative and is currently working on projects with the American Muslim Health Professionals; and with local im/migrant communities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Laird teaches courses on theory in medical anthropology, refugee and im/migrant health, religion and public health, and the formation of health professionals.

Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith is Associate Dean for Health Equity Research; C.N.H Long Professor of Medicine, Public Health, and Management; and Founding Director of the Equity Research and Innovation Center (ERIC) in the Office for Health Equity Research at Yale School of Medicine. ERIC’s research focuses on promoting health and healthcare equity for structurally marginalized populations with an emphasis on centering community engagement, supporting healthcare workforce diversity and development, developing patient reported measurements of healthcare quality, and identifying regional strategies to reduce the global burden of non-communicable diseases. Dr. Nunez-Smith currently serves as Senior Advisor to the White House COVID-19 Response Team and Chair of the Presidential COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force at the Department of Health and Human Services. Previously, she served as co-chair of the Biden-Harris Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board and community committee chair for the ReOpen Connecticut Advisory Group on behalf of Connecticut Governor Lamont. She is the principal investigator on several NIH and foundation-funded grants. Dr. Nunez-Smith is also Director of the Center for Research Engagement (CRE); Associate Director for Community Outreach and Engagement at the Yale Cancer Center; Chief Health Equity Officer at Smilow Cancer Hospital; Deputy Director of the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation; Core Faculty in the National Clinician Scholars Program; Director of the Pozen-Commonwealth Fund Fellowship in Health Equity Leadership; and Co-Director of the Doris Duke Clinical Research Fellowship. Dr. Nunez-Smith is board certified in internal medicine, having completed residency training at Harvard University’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and fellowship at the Yale Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program, where she also received a Masters in Health Sciences. Originally from the US Virgin Islands, she attended Jefferson Medical College, where she was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society; she earned a BA in Biological Anthropology and Psychology at Swarthmore College

Lee Pelton is the CEO & President of the Boston Foundation, one of the nation’s leading philanthropic organizations, with $1.6 billion in assets. He joined the Foundation in June 2021, after serving as President of Emerson College (2011-2021) and Willamette University (1998-2011).

Pelton began his professional academic career at Harvard University, where he earned a Ph.D. in English literature with an academic focus on 19th-century British prose and poetry. He taught English and American literature at Harvard and served as senior tutor at Winthrop House. He later served on the Harvard Board of Overseers and as a vice-chair of its executive committee. After Harvard, Pelton served as dean of the college at Colgate University and Dartmouth College.

A well-respected thought and innovation leader, Pelton was inducted by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce into its Academy of Distinguished Bostonians in 2020. He has also received the Governor’s Award from MassHumanities (2020) and the Robert Coard Distinguished Leadership Medal (2021), and was honored by the Eos Foundation with a $100,000 racial justice grant in his name (2020).

He has also been frequently included on lists of civic leaders in Boston, most recently ranking 11th on Boston magazine’s 2021 list of 100 Most Influential Bostonians in his fourth appearance on the list (2014, 2017, 2018). He was also listed as one of the 50 Most Powerful Leaders in Boston by the Boston Business Journal in 2018 and 2020.

He has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Guardian (UK), Forbes, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Color magazine, Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, Diversity Journal, and countless media in America and abroad. He has been a guest on National Public Radio (NPR) as well as on NPR affiliates WBUR and GBH, and on television on CBS, ABC and Boston’s PBS affiliate television station, GBH2. He has received honorary degrees from the Urban College of Boston, Wichita State University and Tokyo International University.

Over the years, Pelton has been active in several higher education associations and cultural organizations including the Board of Directors of the American Council on Education (past chair), the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, the Association of American Colleges & Universities and the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts. In addition to his service as a Harvard Overseer, he has served as a member of the Harvard University Graduate School Alumni Council, the Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility, Harvard Magazine, Board of Incorporators and several Harvard Visiting Committees.

He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce (executive committee, nominating & governance committee, co-chair), and on the Board of Trustees of public media pioneer GBH (executive, finance and compensation committees) and the Barr Foundation, one of the nation’s leading philanthropic organizations, with more than $3 billion in assets.

His previous awards and recognitions also include:

Boston’s 100 Most Influential People of Color (Get Konnected!, 2016)

The Rosoff Award 20/20 (The Ad Club, April 2016)

The Diversity Leadership Award (The National Diversity Council, October 2015)

The Sabra Award (Israeli Stage, November 2014)

Boston 50 on Fire, recognizing 50 leading innovators in Boston (BostInno, November 2014)

Speak the Truth Award (Student Immigrant Movement, December 2014)

Champion of Freedom Award (Freedom House, March 2012)

Pelton grew up in Wichita, Kansas, and resides in Boston.

Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley is an activist, a legislator, a survivor, and the first woman of color to be elected to Congress from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Throughout her career as a public servant, Congresswoman Pressley has fought to ensure that those closest to the pain are closest to the power - driving and informing policymaking. Throughout her first term in Congress, Congresswoman Pressley has been a champion for justice: reproductive justice, justice for immigrants, consumer justice, justice for ageing Americans, justice for workers, justice for survivors of sexual violence, and justice for the formerly and currently incarcerated. Currently, Congresswoman Pressley serves on two powerful Congressional committees – the House Committee on Oversight and Reform and the House Committee on Financial Services– both of which have remained focused on legislatively addressing issues of care, concern, and consequence to the American people. Prior to being elected to Congress, she served on the Boston City Council for 8 years, and was the first woman of color elected to the council in its 100-year history.

Dr. Julia Raifman conducts research on health and social policies drivers of population health and health disparities. She leads the COVID-19 US State Policy database, tracking the dates states changed more than 200 COVID-19 prevention policies and policies to prevent economic precarity during the COVID-19 pandemic (statepolicies.com). During the pandemic, she has conducted research on unemployment insurance, minimum wage, and paid sick leave as well as mask and physical distancing policies to prevent COVID-19. She also evaluates how historical and modern-day structural racism drive racial and ethnic disparities in COVID-19 and food and housing insecurity during the pandemic.

Megan Sandel, MD, is the Co-Lead Principal Investigator with Children’s HealthWatch, the Co-Director of the GROW clinic at Boston Medical Center, and an Associate Professor at the Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health, in Pediatrics and Environmental Health, respectively. She facilitated development of the Innovative Stable Housing Initiative, a collaboration of three academic teaching hospitals to work with community on participatory solutions to stable housing. Dr. Sandel is also the principal investigator for The Boston Opportunity System (BOS) Collaborative, a new community-driven, systems-change approach to open pathways to employment and affordable housing options for people in Boston’s historically disinvested neighborhoods. She is the former pediatric medical director of Boston Healthcare for the Homeless program and is a nationally recognized expert on housing and child health. In 1998, she published with other doctors at Boston Medical Center, the DOC4Kids report, a national report on how housing affected child health, the first of its kind, and over the course of her career, Dr. Sandel has written numerous peer reviewed scientific articles and papers on this subject. In 2001, she became the first medical director of the founding site for medical-legal partnerships, Medical-Legal Partnership-Boston, and from 2007-2016 she served as the Medical Director of the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership. She has served as a Principal Investigator for numerous NIH, HUD and foundation grants, working with the Boston Public Health Commission and Massachusetts Department of Public Health to improve the health of vulnerable children, particularly with asthma. She has served on many national boards, including Enterprise Community Partners, and national advisory committees at American Academy of Pediatrics and CDC Advisory Committee for Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention.

Peter L. Slavin, MD became the President of Massachusetts General Hospital on January 1, 2003. From 1999-2002, he served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization, which included over 1,700 physicians and employed nearly 1,000 of them.

From 1997 to 1999, Slavin served as President of Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. Before that, he did his training in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital from 1984 to 1987 and was Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer from 1994 to 1997.

Slavin graduated from Harvard College in 1979, Harvard Medical School in 1984, and Harvard Business School in 1990.

Slavin teaches health care management at Harvard Medical School where he is a Professor of Health Care Policy.

He serves on the Boards of Amwell (a publicly traded telemedicine company) and the University of Miami Health System. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Jayakanth Srinivasan, PhD, MS, ME is a leading expert in system analysis and health system transformation, with a focus on system redesign, modeling, analytics, performance management and change implementation. Prior to joining Boston University, Dr. Srinivasan spearheaded a research team at Massachusetts Institutes of Technology to transform behavioral health services for soldiers and families. Dr. Srinivasan is a recipient of the 2016 Army Commander Award for Public Service for improving Army Health promotion policies.

Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH, is the 19th Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the ninth Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. She is an influential scholar whose pioneering research has helped advance the national and global response to HIV/AIDS. Dr. Walensky is also a well-respected expert on the value of testing and treatment of deadly viruses.

Dr. Walensky served as Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital from 2017-2020 and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School from 2012-2020. She served on the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic and conducted research on vaccine delivery and strategies to reach underserved communities.

Dr. Walensky is recognized internationally for her work to improve HIV screening and care in South Africa and nationally recognized for motivating health policy and informing clinical trial design and evaluation in a variety of settings.

She is a past Chair of the Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council at the National Institutes of Health, Chair-elect of the HIV Medical Association, and previously served as an advisor to both the World Health Organization and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.

Originally from Maryland, Dr. Walensky received her Bachelor of Arts from Washington University in St. Louis, her Doctor of Medicine from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and her Masters in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Dr. Monica Wang is the Associate Director of Narrative at the BU Center for Antiracist Research, an Associate Professor of Community Health Sciences at the Boston University School of Public Health, and an Adjunct Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her work focuses on addressing racial/ethnic and social inequities in obesity and chronic diseases through community-engaged research and building cross-sector collaborations to promote health and health equity through public health interventions and policies. She has generated over $5 million in federal and foundation funding for her program of research and published over 50 peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters and over a dozen public health policy and public engagement documents. She has received numerous awards for her research, teaching, and service, including the Society of Behavioral Medicine Early Investigator Award and the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce Ten Outstanding Young Leaders Award. At the national level, she serves on the Civic and Public Engagement Committee of the Society of Behavioral Medicine.

Please indicate which fireside keynotes and panels you plan to join.

With University Health and Safety protocols in mind, this symposium is open virtually to the public. Members of the University community (including alumni) are invited to join us in person, where the University’s COVID protocols will be in place.

Boston University is committed to providing a safe campus environment. In accordance with current BU safety protocol, cloth face coverings or disposable masks must be worn at all times when not actively eating or drinking. We also strongly encourage all visitors to campus to be vaccinated. Any participant with symptoms that could be related to COVID-19 should not engage in group activities and seek medical advice.

Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research strives to be accessible, inclusive and diverse in our programming, events and offerings. ASL interpreters and/or live captioning (for virtual or hybrid events) will be provided at all public events hosted by the Center for Antiracist Research. Your experience in this event is important to us, so if you require an accommodation for another reason, please contact Sarah Parise at sparise@bu.edu to discuss your needs.