In summer 2021, the School of Public Health launched its five-year Strategic Plan for Antiracism (SPAR), an historic resolution supported and crafted by the entire school to move us toward a culture of justice and sustained antiracism. Racism has a profoundly negative affect on health equity and it stands in the way of making health a human right for people across the U.S. and the world.
SPAR’s success depends on the deep commitments, actions, and attitudes of each individual at the school, but there are also larger, organized efforts that can make a profound difference. One of those is philanthropy.
Our school established the Antiracism Innovation Fund to support programming, scholarships, assistantships, tuition relief, emergency funds, and recruitment for students from historically excluded and marginalized communities.
“I am inspired by our donors — individuals and corporations — who acknowledge that racism is a public health crisis and who are funding antiracism efforts at our school.”
Jess Kowal
“Our school is really focused on making sure that these students who will go on to do public health work in culturally relevant ways have ongoing support,” says Lauren Jones, director of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. “They come here with the hopes of going back home to support health equity in their own communities and we do not want to contribute to cycles of debt for them.”
In addition to the Antiracism Innovation Fund, donors are contributing to the Health Equity Work Group (HEWG), a nearly 20-year-old SPH initiative to foster scholarship in health equity; the Center for Antiracism Research for Health Equity (CARHE), founded with a $5 million gift from Blue Cross Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota; and family funds and scholarships.
“I am inspired by our donors — individuals and corporations — who acknowledge that racism is a public health crisis and who are funding antiracism efforts at our school,” says Jess Kowal, SPH chief advancement officer. “They are using their philanthropy to help make a difference by supporting students, staff, and faculty who are dedicated to health equity and to ending racism.”
The School of Public Health is gaining recognition across the University for its commitment to antiracism and that is inspiring for SPH community members doing the hard work. Jones stresses the need for ongoing support to make lasting, sustainable change within the school and to broaden our reach nationwide among schools and programs of public health.
“We need to let folks across the national public health community know that being antiracist is who we are as a school and that this is what’s important to us in this particular time and place,” Jones says. “What happened to George Floyd was pivotal, but that isn’t the end of the story in Minnesota. We want to tell a more comprehensive story of our school and our state.”
