Recent Accomplishments

•  Published findings and recommendations from a multi-year project, sponsored by The Commonwealth Fund, to highlight strategies to eliminate health disparities which have been implemented by national public and private stakeholders. The document is entitled, From Awareness to Action/Stakeholders’ Strategies to Eliminate Racial & Ethnic Health Disparities, and can be downloaded. (See Publications as of March 30, 2007.)

•  Prepared and presented SHIRE’s document, Health Information Technology in Communities of Color, at the 2006 5th Annual HIMSS Advocacy Days conference in the session, “Leave No Community Behind: Ensuring HIT Access in Underserved Communities.”  (See Publications section.)

•  With support from Kaiser Permanente, established an Early Childhood Obesity Collaborative, encompassing 65 stakeholders in the District of Columbia to develop policies and programs to address the critical health issue of obesity among children 0-5.

•  In support of the National Organization of Black County Officials, conducted focus groups and prepared an analysis of health care disparities, public health issues and recommendations from seven counties for use in planning with respect to the “Place Matters” initiative of the Health Policy Institute, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

•  Documented and supported the convening of a regional conference on pharmaceutical access strategies and solutions, sponsored by the Regional Primary Care Coalition, which addresses cross-cutting health issues and solutions in the metropolitan Washington region.

Other Accomplishments

• Initiated faith-led partnership programs with health centers to attack diabetes in five cities.

• Launched community-based health advocacy groups in several states.

• Spearheaded, coordinated and helped sustain first national program to reach health parity initiated by five racial and ethnic groups - Out of Many, One.

• Launched youth diabetes education and healthy living advocacy program with support of faith, private and public community partners.

• Created and disseminated field-tested guides on perinatal HIV testing in English, Spanish and French to pregnant women and their providers in three states and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

• Prepared a report, entitled Giving Voices to the Voiceless, on health needs and barriers of language and culture encountered by immigrants and refugees of African descent, which was published by The California Endowment and introduced to the public in forums in California and Washington, D.C.

• Held 14 focus groups among multicultural consumers and other stakeholders to understand views and to make recommendations for enhancing cultural competency in health centers.

• Developed Building Coalitions Among Communities of Color, a guide to coalition-building among communities of color that was published and distributed by the Office of Minority Health (OMH), Department of Health and Human Services.

• Published nationally influential analysis of federal minority health data policies entitled Racial, Ethnic, and Primary Language Data Collection in the Health Care System: An Assessment of Federal Policies and Practices.

• Planned, coordinated and provided technical assistance for national OMH conference of experts and stakeholders at Tuskegee University that focused on strengthening the informed consent process as a strategy to address racial and ethnic health disparities.

• Conducted an analysis of technical assistance needs of African immigrants and refugees in California in relation to resources available to address them, with recommendations to address unmet needs.