Center for the Elimination of Minority Health Disparities

CEMHD (Center for the Elimination of Minority Health Disparities), is a collaborative effort focusing on minority health disparities in the smaller cities and towns of New York. For more on who we are please click here.

CEMHD is deeply involved in COVID-19 research and projects.
Read more here.
 

December 9th, 2020
2020 PREMIS Series: A Conversation with Dr. David Satcher: My Quest for Health Equity: Notes on Learning While Leading

Click Here to Register!

COVID-19 Conversations
with the APHA and the National Academy of Medicine

The sixteenth COVID-19 Conversations webinar will discuss the next steps for ensuring COVID-19 vaccines reach the public, including overcoming vaccine hesitancy, ensuring a robust supply chain and communicating clearly and consistently throughout.

The webinar will begin with an introduction from the session's moderator, Jewel Mullen, Associate Dean for Health Equity at the University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School, and then feature a conversation with a panel of experts, including:

• Paul Offit, Director, Vaccine Education Center, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
• Katie Greene, Visiting Policy Associate at Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy
• Julie Swann, Department Head, Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, NC State University
• Noel Brewer, Professor, Department of Health Behavior, University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health

Click Here to Register!

October 24th, 2020
Acacia Network and Capital District Latinos present:
Wellness Workshops & Health Screenings



October 22nd, 2020
Brooklyn Health Disparities Center Presents:
2020 PREMIS Series: A Conversation with Richard Rothstein
The Color Of Law

Register HERE for the event!
 

October 1st, 2020
Racism and Racial Bias in the Medical Community
Zoom Talk Hosted by the Student Association's Health and Sustainability Department

Congratulations to our 2020 Health Disparities Fellowship Graduates:
Drs. Melissa Noel and Wayne Lawrence

Melissa Noel received her Ph.D. from UAlbany, School of Criminal Justice. Dr. Noel starts a Post-Doc this fall at American University in Washington, DC in the Justice, Law, and Criminology Department where she will be teaching a course and conducting her own research.

Wayne Lawrence received his PhD. in epidemiology from UAlbany, School of Public health. He is now a Cancer Prevention Fellow at the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

June 22nd, 2020
Associate News Feature:
Dr. Wayne Lawrence's Article in the Times Union
Commentary: Public Health Experts Can't 'Stay Out of Politics', Nor Should They

Black/African Americans Outside NYC Suffer Even Greater Health Disparities in the Impact of COVID-19 than NYC Black/African-Americans According to Data from the NYS Department of Health

For ease of access, the position paper is also available as a PDF here.

Albany Minority Health Task Force
Position Paper on Racial Disparities in COVID-19

Please read the Albany Minority Health Task Force Position Paper on Racial Disparities in regards to COVID-19 below. For ease of access, the position paper is also available as a PDF here.

Alzheimer's Association: Ask the Expert

June 17th, 2020
COVID-19 and the Black Community

Congratulations to Our New Health Disparities Fellows!

Justin Clayton

Justin Clayton is a native of Durham, North Carolina. He is a second-year PhD student at the UAlbany School of Criminal Justice, as well as a graduate certificate student in Economic Forecasting. Justin previously attended North Carolina Central University, earning a MA and a BA in Psychology. He became interested in health disparities research while working at Duke University on a team-based ethnography. The project sought to understand inequality in public and private healthcare settings, while examining how patients navigate barriers to service. Justin used the data he collected for this study to write his Master’s thesis. As a Presidential Doctoral Fellow, he plans to continue studying the health disparities and inequality that un(der)insured blacks and Latinos face. He is particularly interested in the relationship between minority health outcomes and contact with the criminal justice apparatus. Additionally, Justin would like to study this relationship cross-nationally.

Alexis Chamorro-Ortiz

Alexis Chamorro-Ortiz is an upcoming doctoral student in the Department of Anthropology at the University at Albany, SUNY. He completed his B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Central Florida, focusing on Anthropology, Biomedical Sciences, and History.

His college career began at the University of Puerto Rico in Ponce, where he became interested in researching health disparities by attending a series of discussion panels that pertained to the identity and personal experiences, primarily within healthcare, of Puerto Rican transgender women. They shared extraordinary details regarding their own agency and production of knowledge by relying on self-medication to aid their gender transitions.

Chamorro’s research interests consider how Puerto Rican transgender women’s mistrust of physicians, and a severely discriminatory healthcare system, continues to redirect them to alternative therapeutic spaces. In the metropolitan region of Puerto Rico, transwomen have long relied upon what they refer to as a “black market” to access hormonal therapy administered by “inyeccionistas” to facilitate their gender transition. Signs of social justice changes in health is grimmer than ever given the shortage of doctors in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, stringent fiscal policies, rising hate crimes, a series of devastating earthquakes, and, now, the COVID-19 pandemic.

This disadvantaged population suffers from sociocultural dilemmas that can only be fully explored through a transdisciplinary approach that considers their experiences within a heteronormative Caribbean (and American) society. Through the Presidential Doctoral Fellowship for Research Training in Health Disparities, and his doctoral training, Alexis aims to contribute towards the lives of Puerto Rican transgender women.

May 1st, 2020

Reminder: Complete the 2020 Census Today!

Census information is an important source for research into assessing various community needs as well as informing federal funding for local school programs. Be sure to complete your 2020 Census! More information on how to send in your response can be found here.

Associate News Feature:

Five Questions with Elizabeth Vasquez

Our very own Dr. Vasquez was featured in a Five Questions article with the UAlbany News Center. Check out the full article here!