HEALTHY COMMUNITIES Conference participants then dispersed into dif-
ferent groups to discuss tangible things the Univer- sity can do to address some of the issues discussed. The groups determined that leveraging the many resources and areas of expertise Loyola already has is key, with a priority on the issues of environmental exposures, the stress and trauma of violence, housing inequality, and mass incarceration. —Erinn Connor
2020 PLAN
Following the conference, Loyola has established a goal of creating a “Health Disparities Collaborative” that will direct all of the University’s health disparities-related projects. The
collaborative will identify all work already in existence at Loyola in the areas of education, research, and com- munity partnerships, and will identify existing work in these areas across the nation and create a respository of this information. The collaborative will direct, coor- dinate, and manage all calls for funding health dispari- ties projects, with a focus on the following priorities:
EDUCATION
• Create a health equities undergraduate major/minor
• Create health equity graduate courses • Establish faculty and student development programs that focus on equity, diversity, and inclusiveness
RESEARCH
• Generate knowledge of bio/psycho/social mechanisms that contribute to health disparities
• Investigate innovative strategies that reduce the health impact of adverse physical and/or social environmental exposures
• Develop and test innovative community and clinically based strategies designed to reduce the impact of exposure to an adverse physical and/ or social environment on disparities and improve health outcomes
COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS
• Develop/explore new partnerships and identify/ strengthen existing strategic community partnerships to focus on health equity
• Create replicable and sustainable community partnership models that promote heath equity
• Align Loyola’s academic, research, and service programs with community partners in order to advance health equity
Pediatrician Emily Obringer (MD ’11) works with children at Maywood’s Quinn Community Center, where she helps introduce kids and their families to healthier lifestyle choices. Obringer began working with the center during her third year as a student at the Stritch School of Medicine, and five years ago she helped to organize a summer camp at the center. The camp now serves more than 120 local children, with about 30 Maywood teens acting as counselors and current Loyola medical students serving as volunteers. As the camp grew, Obringer obtained a grant from the American Academy of Pediatrics to incorporate
a nutrition component into the program. “It’s been interesting to watch them grow from a health perspec- tive,” she says of the campers. “In one of the boxed lunches in the first year of the camp there was a stick of celery and we had the 5-year-olds saying, ‘what is this?’ So that spurred me into getting the grant—and now they grow their own veggies.”
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