Season Three

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Increasing Diversity in Public Health

Effective change takes effective changemakers. Today, we talk to a few changemakers who are dedicated to improving diversity in public health and healthcare leadership. Research has long shown that the most effective way to improve health for any community is to have public health leaders from that community involved in the day-to-day decision making around the care of that population. Pipeline programs, like the University of Michigan’s Summer Enrichment Program, create avenues for students from underrepresented communities to be exposed to careers in public health, healthcare management, and policy-making. Increasing diversity in public health is both a macro mission, taken on by universities and programs around the country, as well as an individual one, best exemplified by committed mentors who do what they can to support their students.

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Healing Flint Through Community Partnership

In this episode of Population Healthy Season 3: Race, Inequity, and Closing the Health Gap, we explore how the city of Flint faces a myriad of interwoven and complex public health challenges and how incorporating the voices of the city’s residents into research and decision making through the practice of Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) can lead to more positive and meaningful health outcomes for the community.

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How Food Insecurity Shapes Children and Families

In this episode of Population Healthy Season 3: Race, Inequity, and Closing the Health Gap, we talk with two nutritional sciences experts at the University of Michigan School of Public Health about what food insecurity is, why it’s been increasing in the US, and what we can do to address this devastating public health crisis.

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The Inequitable Impact of the Environment on Health

In this episode we’ll hear from School of Public Health faculty, community partners, and alumni working in environmental policy about the disproportionate environmental risks that communities of color face in the age of climate change and what can be done at the policy-level to balance out inequitable burdens of poor environments and environmental health outcomes.

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How Bodies Weather Social Stress

In this episode of Population Healthy Season 3: Race, Inequity, and Closing the Health Gap, experts from the University of Michigan School of Public Health discuss weathering, which encapsulates the idea that lived experiences and stress have impact on our bodily systems—with disadvantaged and/or populations of color often experiencing this firsthand. We’ll also learn about the ways researchers are studying the impacts of these social stressors—such as racism and discrimination—and how they can literally have an impact on your body at a cellular level.

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The Impact of Race on Data

In this episode of Population Healthy Season 3: Race, Inequity, and Closing the Health Gap, we talk with experts about the problematic history of racialized data in the United States, the dangers of “garbage data,” and the ways we can both gather better data, and improve collaborations with the populations we serve.