In August 2020, NYAM launched our Action Agenda for Health Equity, an ambitious strategic approach to continue our important work and to renew our ongoing commitment to ensuring health for everyone. We are working in new ways to build access to what it takes to be healthy and to elevate voices that advance health equity.
Why This Work is Important & Timely
As the city, state and country move cautiously and with hope into a rebuilding phase after the devastation wreaked by COVID-19, it is critical that we continue our commitment to address the systemic issues that led to significant health disparities revealed by the pandemic.
With communities of color bearing a disproportionate burden of the over 580,000 COVID-19-related deaths and nearly 33 million cases in the U.S., we believe that only by working collaboratively with those most affected can we influence meaningful change to create a healthier future for all. This is at the core of our Action Agenda for Health Equity—to truly understand and address the inequitable systems that lead to poor health outcomes. Here are some highlights of NYAM’s critical work in progress:
Building a More Equitable System for Research
Following strategic goal setting and advisor recruitment, in early 2021, we convened the first meetings to begin shaping NYAM’s new Scholars Network—a group established to bring diverse experiences and voices to our research work at NYAM. As its members continue to build their research agenda, this network is also looking at bold approaches to break down longstanding research industry practices that are disadvantageous to both researchers and research participants of color.
Elevating Issues of Relevance to Communities of Color
Across NYAM, our goal is to ensure community voices inform our work. To this end, we have launched our Community Program Advisory Board (CPAB) to ensure our research and public programs address relevant issues and consider different points of view and needs. Active recruitment for individuals with deep ties to their communities is underway.
The CPAB will also influence our public programming, including our popular new Around the Table event series co-hosted by NYAM President Dr. Judy Salerno and Dr. Wayne Riley, NYAM’s Board Chair and President of SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University. Our first event focused on how healthcare professionals can help turn vaccine hesitancy in communities of color into vaccine confidence. We look forward to collaborating on innovative programming that focuses on critical health equity issues of the day.
Continuing our Introspective Work
In doing this important work, we will also continue to look inward to ensure our policies and practices support our role as a credible advocate for change. To date, two-thirds of NYAM’s staff have participated in extensive Undoing Racism® training—a humanistic approach to understanding how we have been conditioned to think about race and racism—with the final cohort being trained later this year. We will continue our ongoing effort to diversify our organization and to ensure an open and inclusive culture.
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