In 2005, two professors in the School of Public Health (SPH) noticed that many faculty and researchers across the school were working on health equity issues, but in isolation. “We needed a space that would allow faculty to come together and support each other’s research related to health equity—a place where they would feel supported and their work affirmed,” says one of those professors, Rhonda Jones-Webb.
In the spring of 2005, she co-founded the Health Equity Work Group (HEWG), along with Kathleen Call, who recently retired as a professor from SPH.
Now in its 20th year, the group has cemented its legacy with a list of accomplishments spanning research, education, and community engagement. Among them:
- The creation of SPH’s graduate minor in health equity, the first in the country. “We’re very, very proud of that,” said Jones-Webb. “It was really a collaborative process, and several students really played a key role in that.”
- The development of the Cancer Health Disparities Training Program—a collaboration with the UMN Medical School’s Program in Health Disparities Research. It includes support for three postdocs and three doctoral students to advance equity in cancer outcomes.
- The annual Health Disparities Roundtable, at which local and national speakers address timely topics related to health equity for public health practitioners, policymakers, faculty, students, and the community. The 17-year-old initiative draws up to 700 attendees each year.
Jones-Webb is especially proud of the students who have become graduate assistants for the HEWG. “These are true leaders who have gone on to do amazing work in the health equity field,” she says. “Many of them now have very prominent positions nationally and globally.”
The personal impact of bias
One student on that track is Blaine Damte, a graduate assistant who just completed her first year in the public health administration and policy MPH program. Damte has long been interested in health work, but her awareness of health equity shifted dramatically during the COVID pandemic.
Her father contracted COVID during a time when healthcare resources were stressed. When he was having breathing problems, the family called emergency services, but were told that their home oxygen reading looked fine, and that “we don’t think there’s any issue,” Damte says. “And then we drove him to the hospital and it turned out he had a blood clot in his lungs.”
Curious about the home oximeter reading, Damte did some digging and discovered that oximeters tend to read people with darker skin incorrectly because they use light to detect oxygen levels. “So it’s not a clear picture when your skin is darker,” she says.
That experience shifted her attention to health equity. “Then when I heard about the Health Equity Work Group, I thought, this is really cool that I can have an assistantship that also tackles something that I was passionate about when I got into the health field.”
Looking forward
The Health Equity Work Group recently expanded its leadership to include co-chairs from each of SPH’s four divisions—“to make sure that all divisions have a voice in the work,” says Mark Fiecas, associate professor and the new HEWG co-chair representing the Division of Biostatistics & Health Data Science.
The work remains the same, and the expanded framework may help to better connect students with faculty engaged in their area of research, Fiecas says. “Having folks in leadership from different divisions can be helpful with that.”
Two decades after she helped launch the HEWG, Jones-Webb notes that the work has been very hard, but the outcomes are tangible and validating.
“It’s provided a space where faculty and students and fellows really have felt supported,” she says. “To bring together people around a common goal across the school, and actually engage people in research and training within the health sciences in general and across the University is a real achievement.”
Jones-Webb believes that HEWG is a critical asset, especially given the current political climate.
“The group has an even more important role to play in reminding us of where we’ve been—and where we still need to go—in terms of bringing about equity for all.”
