NYS Citizen Public Health Leader Training

Course Preview

Check out Dr. Susana Morales, Co-Associate Director of Cornell Center for Health Equity and Director of Diversity Center of Excellence and one of our community partners, Davon Russell, President of the Women's Housing and Economic Development Corporation (WHEDco) on PBS METROFOCUS discussing COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccine.

The Racism in America webinar was held on March 29^th, featuring four of our Center members (Jamila Michener PhD, Jerel M. Ezell, PhD, MPH, Susana Morales, MD, and Neil Lewis Jr, PhD and moderated by Akilah Johnson. Panelists discussed the impact that racism has on access to healthcare and health outcomes.

Check this piece by Tom Fleischman entitled "Cornell experts working to increase vaccine acceptance" highlighting Center member's efforts to increasing COVID-19 vaccine acceptance.

Our six New York City medical school collaborative has recruited 775 diverse students from 28 states, DC, PR, and 3 int’l schools to our new Covid-19 STEM Community Education and Empowerment Internship. The students will be divided into two cohorts, each 4 weeks in length and the program will take place over 4 Saturdays for each cohort. Speakers will include Dr. Thomas Frieden, former Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Torian Easterling, First Deputy Commissioner/ Chief Equity Officer of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Dr. Kristen Marks, Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, and site PI for the Moderna vaccine trial at NYP-Weill Corrnell, and Dr. Oni Blackstock, founder and Executive Director of Health Justice.  

The Weill Cornell Medicine Diversity Center of Excellence is administratively hosting this program due to our history of engaging students and community partners. The Diversity Center of Excellence collaborates with various internal partners at Weill Cornell, NYP, and community partners to work collaboratively toward eliminating health disparities. As part of the HRSA funded Diversity Center of Excellence grant, we launched the Pre-Medical Diversity Initiative which has engaged underrepresented minority, first-generation college student, and immigrant pre-medical students through small group mentoring, an annual conference, and pipeline programs. 

The format of each session will consist of a lecture followed by a discussion on the topic and a supply of relevant information that can be used by the students. An assessment will be conducted after each session. Students will raise awareness of Covid-19 safety measures and vaccines during the final session of the program by presenting their capstone projects, examples of anticipated projects include Tik Tok videos, infographics, powerpoint presentations, etc.  Each student will commit to speaking with at least ten people about Covid-19 vaccination. Upon completion, each student will receive a certificate of acknowledgment for their participation in the Covid-19 STEM Education and Empowerment Program.

For more information on the internship please email Grace Figuereo at grf7002@med.cornell.edu.

The Diversity Center of Excellence had many activities in March, ranging from outreach to pre-medical students to educational programs for faculty.

Dr. Andrea Card and the Weill Cornell Diversity Center of Excellence team, continued the Careers in Medicine Enhancement Program (CMEP), an 8-week program to support and nurture premedical students’ interests and journey to medical school through the lens of health equity. Participating students engaged in a health disparities and equity lectures, participated in speaker sessions and panels about Doctoring and Caring for the Vulnerable which included CCHEq member Dr. Christopher Gonzalez and Advocacy in Medicine included Dr. Amanda Ramsdell and Dr. Joseph Shin. Students were also matched with physician mentors that included CCHEq members Dr. Jonathan Villena-Vargas and Dr. Lynda Nwabuobi. The program concluded on March 24, 2021 with presentations on health equity topics.

The Diversity Center of Excellence continues to provide administrative support to Black and Latino Men in Medicine (BLMiM) which has hosted their annual mentoring program Science and Leadership in Medicine (SLiM) on Sundays since February 28, 2021. There are over 90 high school and college pre-medical students participants. The program concludes with the annual BLMiM conference, Representation: A Matter of Life and Death which will be held on May 1 and is a part of the medical college’s Diversity Week. Visit the BLMiM website for more details.

The Diversity Mentoring Cascade program hosted a special session on vaccine ambassador training for physicians and trainees on March 9, 2021 which was attended by over 290 participants. The goal of the session was to provide information and resources on how to talk to patients and community members about covid vaccinations. For a recording and access to resources visit the Diversity Center of Excellence website. Faculty that participated in the training are encouraged to provide outreach details to Grace Figuereo at grf7002@med.cornell.edu.

For questions on any of our programs, email dcoe@med.cornell.edu, visit our page on the Cornell Center for Health Equity (CCHEq) website, which include editorials and videos, and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram (@WCMDiversityCtr).

The REACH Project, Inc. (Respectful, Equitable Access to Compassionate Healthcare) is a community based, health equity organization with a focus on providing low threshold, harm reduction-informed healthcare services. We will describe our approach to delivering high quality healthcare to people who use drugs and others who face stigma in traditional settings. Specifically, the rapid implementation of telehealth in response to COVID-19 and expansion of services through an outreach team will be explored. Further, our presentation will review REACH’s educational initiatives to train a trauma responsive and structurally competent clinical workforce, as well as present our research and program evaluation efforts.

Justine Waldman, MD; CEO and Medical Director

Justine Waldman is Board Certified in Addiction Medicine, Emergency Medicine, and a Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians. For 15 years she practiced emergency medicine primarily in Ithaca, NY. Her interest in medicine has always been driven by access to care and health equity issues. In 2005, she spearheaded the opening of the Ithaca Free Clinic, a volunteer multidisciplinary clinic open to the uninsured. In 2014, she was part of the Harm Reduction Team that gave recommendations for the Ithaca Plan: A Public Health and Safety Approach to Drugs and Drug Policy. Since her involvement on that team, she has focused most of her work on health equity. In December of 2016, she began providing medical services at the first Health Hub at a Syringe Exchange Program in New York state at the Southern Tier Aids Program in Ithaca. At the Health Hub, Dr. Waldman provides Low Threshold Medication Assisted Therapy, Hepatitis C treatment, and acute care to People Who Use Drugs. She is currently the CEO of Reach Medical in Ithaca, NY, a medical practice offering integrated primary care and low threshold harm reduction services for people who tend to face stigma in the current medical system. Reach Medical offers full primary care, medication assisted therapy with buprenorphine, Hepatitis C screening and treatment and medical cannabis. Reach Medical is a tax exempt PLLC under The REACH Project, a non-profit providing Respectful Equitable Access to Compassionate Health.

Judith Griffin, MD; Director of Research and Staff Physician

Judy Griffin completed medical school at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and she trained at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, NY in the Primary Care and Social Internal Medicine residency program. Judy is board-certified in internal medicine and addiction medicine, and she currently works as a primary care physician and buprenorphine provider at REACH in Ithaca, NY. She also serves as the Director of Research at REACH and is the Director of the Rural Health Equity Training Collaborative (RHETC), affiliated with Cayuga Medical Center Internal Medicine residency program and the Tompkins-Cortland Community College nursing program. Dr. Griffin also holds an appointment as a Clinical Instructor in Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and is a member of the Criminal Justice-Alternatives to Incarceration Advisory Board for Tompkins County.

The Cornell Center for Health Equity (CCHEq) hosts a series of Health Equity Seminars on the first Friday of the month. Sessions are broadcasted via webinar for remote attendees. These colloquia are intended for center members to share their work on various equity focused and social justice issues as well as obtain multidisciplinary input on works in progress. Recordings of seminars are now accessible on the Cornell Center for Health Equity website.

The final workshop session for the CCSS NIH Grant Writing Development Program will be held on Friday, April 2, 2021 from 12pm – 1pm.

Session will focus on The Grant Review Process at NIH, presenting a point of view from officers at a different NIH branch and institute.

This is the final session of a 4-part workshop series focused on tips, strategies and resources for social science research at NIH.

Presented by Rebecca Clark, Chief of Population Dynamics Branch at the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, NICHD

For questions pertaining this workshop, please email Irina Bovt. This series is in partnership with the Cornell Population Center (CPC)and the Cornell Center for Health Equity (CCHEq).

Jane Powers and Amanda Purington from BCTR ACT for Youth, will discuss best practices of focus group research. Participants will learn how to develop a focus group protocol and construct questions, as well as prepare for and conduct focus groups. Tips for transcription, data management and data analysis strategies will be discussed.

The Cornell Center for Health Equity is pleased to request applications for one-year pilot project grants. The primary goals of this opportunity are to:

The purpose of this funding opportunity is to advance the One Cornell strategic objective by forming teams comprised of scientists and scholars from across our Ithaca and New York City campuses with the overall goal of enhancing collaboration to take more complete advantage of Cornell University’s considerable talent pool.

Monday, April 19^th, 2021 at 5 PM EST