In Fall 2020, The Department of Pediatrics launched a Monthly Forum on Racism and Injustice. The Forum is organized by Drs. Susan Woolford and Sowmya Balasubramanian. The goal of the Forum is to create a space for staff, trainees and faculty to discuss difficult topics, share readings, learn together and importantly, to brainstorm actions we can take both individually and collectively to fight racism and injustice.
The design of the program is a mixture of sharing information, discussion, and action plans. The forums are virtual now and hopefully in person in the future. They are held on the 4th Tuesday of the month from 12:00-1:00pm. The Forum seeks to not just share information, but to make the sessions a little “edgy” to move people out of their comfort zones a bit to make them more amenable to change.
View each of the below videos in Michigan Medicine's YouTube playlist for the Forum on Racism and Justice, by clicking the title of each lecture.
Previous Sessions:
Speaker: Lynn C. Smitherman, M.D.
Associate Professor
Vice Chair of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Department of Pediatrics
Wayne State University School of Medicine
Racial Literacy and the Path to Anti-Racism
April 27th, 2021
Speaker: Adrianne Haggins, M.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Emergency Medicine
January 26th, 2021
Speaker: Theodore Iwashyna, M.D., Ph.D.
Alpheus W. Walker, M.D. Collegiate Professor, Internal Medicine
Professor, Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine
Co-Director, National Clinical Scholars Program
"Using Patient Safety to Think Better About Achieving Equity"
November 24, 2020
Speaker: Robert M. Sellers
Vice Provost for Equity and Inclusion
Chief Diversity Officer
Charles D. Moody Collegiate Professor of Psychology
"Racism from the Perspective of an African American Man, Race Scholar, & Chief Diversity Officer"
October 22, 2020
Speaker: Joel Howell M.D., P.h.D.
Victor C. Vaughan Professor of the History of Medicine
Professor of Internal Medicine
Professor of Health Management and Policy (School of Public Health)
Professor of History (College of Literature, Science, and the Arts)
University of Michigan
"The Tuskegee Experiment: Lessons on Racism Relevant for Today"
September 22, 2020
Speaker: Michele Freed
Immediate Past Associate Director of National Young Leadership
The Anti Defamation League
"A night at the Garden: White Supremacy in the United States Then and Now"
September 28, 2021
Speaker: Gifty Kwakye, M.D., MPH, FACS
Assistant Professor
Division of Colorectal Surgery
"Coming to America: Becoming Black in America”
October 15, 2021