Posted 07/22/2006

Dean Richter to lead national health disparities task force

Arnold School Dean Donna Richter has been named chair of a national task force on eliminating racial and ethnic health disparities organized by the Association of Schools of Public Health and funded by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.

Richter, who has been serving on the task force, replaces James Kyle, former dean of the Loma Linda University School of Public Health.

The taskforce has been working on developing benchmarks for public health schools and graduate programs to achieve. Richter presented the benchmarks to the ASPH deans at their retreat in Newport, RI and lead the taskforce in completing its work. 

"The mission of the taskforce is to put schools of public health in the forefront of the effort to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities. We have developed a set of benchmarks that will guide the schools of public health in the implementation of programs and policies that tackle this issue head-on in our teaching, our research. and our community engagement."

The connection between the lack of diversity in the nation’s public health workforce combined with the prevalence of preventable health conditions affecting specific groups of Americans has influenced how public health schools and programs recruit faculty and students, what they teach and priority areas for research.

The taskforce is the outgrowth of a February 2005 seminar called by the Kellogg Foundation to help public health schools make the elimination of racial and ethnic health disparities an integral part of their teaching, research and service.

The taskforce includes a diverse group of public health educators experienced with working in underserved communities, as well as leaders from public health programs that house researchers and students of minority backgrounds.

USC’s Arnold School houses the Institute for Partnerships to Eliminate Health Disparities directed by  Saundra Glover.

The institute was created to allow USC to enhance its public and private partnerships in the pursuit of inter-institutional, multi-disciplinary research, education, and training to address health disparities in South Carolina and the Southeast.

An important objective of the task force is developing a report or manual of recommendations and guidelines. The manual will be distributed widely throughout the schools, programs and community health organizations they serve to ensure that the goals are realized.

 For more information about this project, please contact Gillian Silver at gsilver@asph.org or (202) 296-1099, ext. 132.

For more information about health disparities research activities of member schools and diversity-related issues in public health, visit ASPH’s Health Disparities Research and Diversity Resource Center at http://www.asph.org/diversity/.