Spring 2, 2021 Newsletter |
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Things go better with love and understanding
As we speed towards the end of another academic year, I want to acknowledge the challenges that all our staff and faculty but, especially our students, have faced and overcome. No prior group of students have ever had to live through what our students have -- so much time working remotely while also grappling with fallout from the pandemics of Covid-19 and racial injustice. And we are all emotionally drained from witnessing the steady drumbeat of police shootings of Black people and violence directed at Asian Americans and other people of color. And as we look outside the US, we see the tragic and horrifying images of Afghan girls brutally murdered just because they went to school, and millions in India and Brazil who are overwhelmed by the tidal wave of Covid-19.
And so congrats to our graduates and to every member of the SBS community for what you have accomplished this academic year, under the most difficult of circumstances. All of the challenges in our world remind us of the desperate need in our society of the values of equity, justice and compassion that we hold dear. Let the darkness of our times inspire us to continue to light candles with renewed strength. Light has never been more desperately needed than now.
And as we do this work, let’s resist the “cancel culture” of our time. Let us pioneer new ways to effectively engage with others who see life differently than we do. As we raise awareness of social inequities and build new coalitions to address them, let us not forget that we all have blind-spots. Let’s acknowledge that we all have many lessons to learn and many, many to unlearn. Let’s be more tolerant with each other. Let us create spaces where each voice is valued even when that individual’s knowledge and understanding is pitifully limited. And let’s create innovative new opportunities for each of us to learn and grow. I remember a 1970s song from the Soul group, Chairmen of the Board. It stated that “The world has problems, let's all solve them” but it reminded us that, “It's gonna be alright, with a little more understanding … 'Cause things go better, with love and understanding.” I believe that it is still true in 2021 that things go better with love and understanding. Let’s model it in all of our social interactions and carry it into all of our work of creating positive change and opportunities for individuals and communities to build a healthier world.
David R. Williams
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Kasley Killam MPH ‘20, is a SBS graduate interested in how social relationships influence health and well-being. As the founder of Social Health Labs, she collaborates with cross-sector partners on local, state, and national initiatives to alleviate social isolation and loneliness. In an update, she advises students to take advantage of the opportunity to connect with peers and faculty at HSPH and the other Harvard graduate schools.
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In December, you launched a monthly microgrant program to strengthen communities across the country. What inspired you to create this program?
It all began with an intergenerational gathering I hosted in San Francisco a few years ago. The intent was to facilitate a few enjoyable hours of conversation across ages—but it ended up having ripple effects far beyond that. I realized how simple yet impactful local community connection can be.
Fast forward to a lecture I attended at Chan where we learned about the Social Ecological Model, which is a helpful way to think about the different levels through which you can improve people’s health (e.g., policy, workplaces, schools, etc.). My work since graduating has focused on applying this model to the public health issue of loneliness, which can be as harmful as smoking.
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Lauren Chapman joined the SBS department March 2021 as a Faculty and Financial Coordinator. She joins the Department as a recent graduate of William & Mary, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Sociology with a concentration in Social Problems, Policy & Justice. She comes to the job with experience in administrative support roles from helping to run a small Virginia-based nonprofit as well as interning for the Boston City Department of Neighborhood Development. The combination of her past roles as well as her studies has given her an interest in social equity and welfare, which makes her excited to be a part of the SBS department that works towards the improvement of social policy and interventions and promoting social equity.
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Kelsey Hunt joined the SBS department May 2021 as the Program and Research Coordinator at the Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness. Before earning her master's degree, she worked as an instructor at a wilderness therapy program in North Carolina, which led her to the field of public health. Kelsey holds a Master of Public Health in Social and Behavioral Sciences from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a B.A. in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Harvard College.
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Claudia Trudel-Fitzgerald has been selected as one of the 2021-2022 Michigan Integrative Well-Being and Inequality Scholars, who will participate in a NIH-sponsored state-of-the-art, interdisciplinary methods training program on the intersection of mental and physical health, with an emphasis on how this intersection relates to health disparities
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In an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes, David R. Williams speaks about how racism is negatively impacting Black Americans’ health and people of color’s health around the word.
“We’ve done studies in South Africa. There’re colleagues doing studies in Australia, studies in the U.K., studies across the world,” he says. “And we find in all of these contexts, empirically, statistically that experiences of discrimination are directly impacting health.”
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Krieger N. “Dismantling Racism and Accelerating Equity." AMA Future Shock Series, Chicago, IL (Invited Panelist): Online, March 24, 2021.
Gomez VB, Garthe RC, Mendez SR, Johnson C. “H.E.A.L.T.H.: Designing for Safety and Equity.” Environmental Design Research Association EDRA52 Conference: Online, May 21, 2021.
Smith, CL. “Liberation Medicine and Abolition Health.” Boston University School of Theology and Duke Divinity School Health and Liberation Theologies Symposium 2021: Addressing the Roots of Social Violence (Invited Presentation): Online, April 10th, 2021.
Trudel-Fitzgerald, C. "Psychological functioning and chronic diseases: Is it more than coping?" Université de Montréal & Institut Universitaire en Santé Mentale de Montréal, Montréal, Canada (Invited Lecture): Online, March 15, 2021.
Trudel-Fitzgerald, C. "Coping with cancer during a pandemic: Fostering resilience." Annual Conference of Coalition Priorité Cancer au Québec, Québec, Canada (Invited Lecture): Online, March 25, 2021.
Williams DR. "Covid-19: A Tutorial on Racism." 5th Cutter Symposium: Epidemiology and Racism, sponsored by the HSPH Department of Epidemiology, Boston, MA (Invited Presentation): Online, May 14, 2021.
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Ivey Henry P, Morelli G. “Niche Construction in Hunter-Gatherer Infancy: Growth and Health Tradeoffs Inform Social Agency” in Sybil Hart and David Bjorklund, eds. Evolutionary Perspectives on Infancy. Springer Nature. In press.
Woulfe JM, Mereish EH, Katz-Wise SL. Social support as a mediator of anti-bisexual prejudice and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. J Trauma Dissociation. In press.
Katz-Wise SL, Boskey ER, Godwin EG, Thomson K, Post J, Gordon AR. “We're moving in the right direction. Still a long way to go”: Experiences and perceptions of the climate for LGBTQ+ employees at a pediatric hospital. J Homosex. In press.
Krieger N. Counting for accountability in a time of catastrophe: COVID-19 and other deaths, cohorts, color lines and dollar signs. Am J Public Health. In press.
Lovejoy M, Kelly EL, Kubzansky LD, Berkman LF. Workplace Redesign for the 21st Century: Promising Strategies for Enhancing Worker Well-Being. Am J Public Health. In press.
Simon MA, O'Brian CA, Tom L, Wafford QE, Mack S, Mendez SR, Nava M, Dahdouh R, Paul-Brutus R, Carpenter KH, Kern B, Holmes KL. Development of a web tool to increase research literacy in underserved populations through public library partnerships. PLoS One. Vol. 16(2), e0246098, February 3, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246098.
Shiba K, Kubzansky LD, Williams DR, VanderWeele TJ, Kim ES. Associations Between Purpose in Life and Mortality by SES. Am J Prev Med. In press.
Chmieliauskaite M, Stelson EA, Epstein JB, Klasser GD, Farag A, Carey B, Albuquerque R, Mejia L, Ariyawardana A, Nasri-Heir C, Sardella A, Carlson C, Miller CS. Consensus agreement to rename burning mouth syndrome and improve ICD-11 disease criteria: An international Delphi study. Pain. In press. https://doi.org/10.1097/j.pain.0000000000002243.
Marini M, Waterman PD, Breedlove E, Chen JT, Testa C, Reisner SL, Pardee DJ, Mayer KH, Krieger N. The target/perpetrator brief-implicit association test (B-IAT): an implicit instrument for efficiently measuring discrimination based on race/ethnicity, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, weight, and age. BMC Public Health. Vol. 21(1), 158, January 19, 2021. http://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-10171-7.
Williams DR, Etkins OS. Racism and Mental Health. World Psychiatry. In press.
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Upcoming Events & Seminars |
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Center for Health and Happiness | When Twin Public Health Crises Meet: Trends in Ill-Being and Deaths of Despair during the COVID Pandemic
Speaker: Dr. Carol Graham
Wed, May 19, 1-1:50pm ET, Via Zoom
WGH Summer Planning Meeting
Tue, Jun 15, 12-2pm ET, Via Zoom
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Past Events & Seminars Recordings |
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SBS Racism and Health Seminar Series
Center for Health and Happiness
MCH Center of Excellence
STRIPED
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Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
677 Huntington Avenue | Kresge Building
Boston, MA 02115
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phone: 617.432.1135 | fax: 617.432.3123
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