Kick-off Plenary Virtual Session

October 8, 2020 

8:00  A.M. - 9:00 A.M.

With our compliments, no fee to attend this session. 

Pre-Election NO Wealth—NO Health: Where Do We Go From Here? Understanding the Wealth Gap Helps Us Better Understand SDOH and Health Disparities

Welcome to the State of Health of Chicago! From September through June 2021, the Institute of Medicine of Chicago (IOMC) will host over 15 live, interactive virtual learning sessions during the "State of Health of Chicago 2020-2021 (SOHOC)." In its 105th year, IOMC captures the theme for 2020-2021 Collaboration for Systemic Change in the Time of a Pandemic: WE CAN DO BETTER. 

This session NO Wealth—NO Health: Where Do We Go From Here? is the kick-off plenary session pinpointing wealth disparities and its relationship to social determinants of health and ultimately persistent poor health outcomes.  Health is an afterthought without housing. Wealth gap and health gaps will continue to widen as social determinants become more difficult to manage if change is not made in the future.

By attending the session, you will:

● Discover the strong link between the historical and current structural determinants of wealth, structural racism practices, and their influence on social determinants of health and resulting health outcomes.

● Understand how the wealth gap helps us better understand the Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) and health disparities.

● Learn how we move forward as a society to address the wealth gap and the health gap.

There is an urgent need to fortify Chicago’s and the nation’s public health infrastructure is evident in the COVID-19 pandemic. The public health emergency has collided with a private health system that is failing to address the root causes of health disparities and social economic inequities.

SPEAKERS

Moderator: 

Cheryl Rucker-Whitaker, MD, MPH, FACP, Chief Executive Officer, NextLevel Health and President and Chair of the Institute of Medicine of Chicago

Panelists:

Helene Gayle, MD, President & CEO of The Chicago Community Trust

Earl Frederick III, MD, MBA, Senior Medical Consultant and Emergency Physician

Greg Fairchild, PhD, University of Virginia- Darden School of Business

SUGGESTED READING

In addition to attending this session, we are providing some advance reading from Dr. Earl Frederick III, MD, MBA, panelist. Check out his article titled ‘Death, Violence, Health, and Poverty,’ that was widely recognized in the Harvard Public Health Review (Vol. 19, Fall 2018). He identified gun violence as a public health issue rather than criminal justice problem.  More>

'Structural Racism, Social Risk Factors, and Covid-19 — A Dangerous Convergence for Black Americans' by Leonard E. Egede, M.D., and Rebekah J. Walker, Ph.D. More>

'Covid-19 and Health Equity — Time to Think Big' by Seth A. Berkowitz, M.D., M.P.H., Crystal Wiley Cené, M.D., M.P.H., and Avik Chatterjee, M.D., M.P.H. More>

BIOS

Cheryl Rucker-Whitaker, MD, MPH, FACP

Dr. Cheryl Whitaker, a physician, healthcare executive and entrepreneur, has dedicated her career to developing and executing innovative healthcare solutions for underserved populations. In 2014, she co-founded NextLevel Health, a groundbreaking insurance company dedicated to helping Cook County’s underserved access and manage Medicaid services addressing health disparities and inequities in services for black women. She is the chair of the state’s Medicaid advisory committee and President of the Institute of Medicine Board of Governors. In 2013, she received the La Rabida Community Leadership Award; in 2015, she received Fifth Third Bank's Community Leaders Award, and was named one of Chicago Business Journal's 2018 Women of Influence, and in 2020 Crain's Notable Women Executives Over 50.

Helene Gayle, MD, MPH

Dr. Helene D. Gayle is president and CEO of The Chicago Community Trust, one of the nation’s oldest and largest community foundations, since October 2017. Under her leadership, the Trust has adopted a new strategic focus on closing the racial and ethnic wealth gap in the Chicago region. For almost a decade, she was president and CEO of CARE, a leading international humanitarian organization. An expert on global development, humanitarian and health issues, Dr. Gayle spent 20 years with the Centers for Disease Control, retiring at the rank of Rear Admiral and Assistant Surgeon General.  She also led the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s programs on HIV/AIDS. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.  Dr. Gayle earned a B.A. in psychology at Barnard College, an M.D. at the University of Pennsylvania and an M.P.H. at Johns Hopkins University. She has received 18 honorary degrees and holds faculty appointments at the University of Washington and Emory University.  She serves on public company and nonprofit boards, including The Coca-Cola Company, Colgate-Palmolive Company, Brookings Institution, and others.

Earl Frederick III, MD, MBA

Dr. Earl  Fredrick is an Emergency physician practicing for the past 31 years. Most of this time was spent practicing in community hospitals on Chicago’s south west and south east side. He was Emergency Department Medical Director at Advocate, and on staff at Trinity Hospital, Holy Cross Hospital, and Jackson Park Hospital over his career. He served as Medical Director for Molina Heath Illinois; and as the Senior Medical Director for Next Level Health, a Cook County Managed Care Organization (MCO). He co-authored the MCO’s population health report, authored the MCO’s disease management program, and managed the Transitions of Care team.  Recently Next Level health transitioned to become a Care Coordination Entity for which Dr. Fredrick serves as Consulting Medical Director. A keen observer of public health in Chicago, he authored an article on gun violence in Chicago in the Harvard Public Health Review entitled: Death, Violence, Health, and Poverty in Chicago; volume 19, Fall 2018. He identified gun violence as a public health rather than criminal justice problem. Dr.  Fredrick’s current consulting work centers on population health.

Greg Fairchild, PhD

Dr. Gregory Fairchild is the Isidore Horween Research Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business and associate dean for Washington, D.C., area initiatives and academic director of public policy and entrepreneurship. He serves as an academic director for Darden's Institute for Business in Society (IBiS). He teaches strategic management, entrepreneurship and ethics in Darden's MBA and Executive Education programs. His research is likewise renowned, as he was recently the lead investigator studying business models and public policy issues in the field of community development finance, an initiative supported by a three-year $850,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Dr. Fairchild was named one of five high impact research professors and the sole scholar focused in entrepreneurship by the Financial Times in 2010. In 2009, he received a faculty Pioneer Award presented by the Aspen Institute's Center for Business Education for his leadership and risk taking in integrating ethical, environmental and social issues into the MBA curriculum. In 2012, Fairchild was named one of the Top 10 Business School Professors in the World by CNN/Fortune and one of the 50 Best Business School Professors by Poets & Quants. His multidisciplinary work has been cited by Inc. Magazine, The Economist, National Public Radio (NPR), USA Today, New York Times, and The Washington Post, among others.

Please join us for a dynamic and informative discussion~

Interested in Sponsorship - Full Conference or a Session? Download the Sponsorship Packet here. 

Questions? Contact Deborah J. Hodges at 312.675.6080

###