Conference Model
Dr. Barbara Wallace’s Research Group on Disparities in Health (RGDH) convened a 2005 Conference Planning Committee, including the fellows of the RGDH and invited experts:
- Dr. Edmund W. Gordon, Professor Emeritus of Teachers College, Columbia University and Yale University who stressed consideration of the overlapping issues of equity in health and educational equity
- Gbenga Ogedegbe, MD, MS, MPH, FACP formerly of Columbia University and now with New York University who shared a vision of advancing the next generation of health disparities research that investigates the underlying mechanisms, while also stressing the importance of the conference nurturing a pipe-line for the next generation of researchers
- Dr. Robert Fullilove, Professor and Associate Dean, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University who stressed the power in having not only Keynote speakers, but also Plenary Panels, while sharing a vision of attracting members of the Harlem and Washington Heights communities, as well as the larger Columbia University community
- Fellows in the RGDH who stressed the importance of a Poster Session and Community Health Fair
- Dr. Barbara Wallace, the RGDH Founder/Director, who contributed the determination to ensure a well-organized, “on-time” conference with dissemination of published proceedings.
The Emergent Conference Model
The 2005 Conference Planning Committee perceived additional specific needs for:
- an inclusive intimate community of conference learners—as something not possible at large national conferences (e.g. American Public Health Association, American Psychological Association)
- a Friday focus on “what researchers, academics, varied practitioners, and students in public health/community health need to know, value and do” with regard to health disparities
- a Saturday focus on “what community members, researchers, academics, students, as well as community-based and faith-based organizations need to know, value, and do in PARTNERSHIP” with regard to health disparities
- a technical approach to education and training that involves a focus on the science for evidence based practices
- building PARTNERSHIPS, while featuring examples of community-based participatory research and collaborations others can emulate
- featuring a Poster Session for assisting the national and global community in building a pipe-line, nurturing the next generation of health disparities researchers, and creating the kind of diverse workforce perceived as needed to effectively address health disparities
- including a free lunch during the poster session (i.e. 12:00-2:00) to permit relaxed conversation with Poster presenters and to appropriately host community members attending the overlapping Community Health Fair held in the same space
- fostering genuine community involvement via a Community Health Fair component to the conference (Saturday, 10:30 am – 3:30 pm)—made possible by Harlem Hospital’s volunteer staff providing health screenings, including the provision of free Rapid HIV testing outside of Teachers College in a comfortable van