The IU School of Public Health-Bloomington proudly hosted the COVID-19: Health Disparities, Communities, and Discrimination seminar on June 18. This seminar is one small part of the School’s efforts to promote inclusion, equality, and diversity.

Moderated by Dr. Maresa Murray of the School of Public Health-Bloomington, the event featured the following esteemed speakers: Dr. Selwyn Vickers, dean of the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine; Dr. David Hayes-Bautista, a professor at the UCLA School of Medicine and director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture; and Dr. Nir Menachemi, Fairbanks Endowed Chair at the Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health in Indianapolis.

“These are uncomfortable times. As has been famously quoted and as I have recently mentioned, it is in part the role of leaders to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. Here in the School of Public Health and in this seminar we are trying to do both. This discomfort so many of us are experiencing is vital. We should be uncomfortable. Let that discomfort be an energy for us. Let it drive us to do better,” said Dean David Allison in his opening remarks for the seminar.

In addition, a new task force was initiated after the seminar to assist Dean Allison with the School’s inclusion, equality, and diversity efforts. It will be co-chaired by Col. Ishmon Burks, an alumnus of the School of Public Health-Bloomington and the first African-American commissioner of the Kentucky State Police, and Ms. Martha Lemert, an Indiana-based attorney who is a champion for ending gun violence.

The COVID-19: Health Disparities, Communities, and Discrimination seminar was recorded and can be viewed here: