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Pacific Center Symposium: Moving Toward Equity in Health Care

Friday, January 20, 2023
09:00 a.m. - 04:00 p.m.

Add to Calendar 2023-01-20 09:00:00 2023-01-20 16:00:00 Pacific Center Symposium: Moving Toward Equity in Health Care Dentistry as Participant and Casualty of Racism and Bias in Medicine: Moving Toward Equity in Health Care This program seeks to build consensus that viewing others as "Other" has implications for access and outcomes in oral health care that extend to the entire health care system. Attendees will learn from a variety of health care providers, researchers and advocates who are experts in their fields to gain an understanding of why and to what extent disparities in health care are experienced persistently by some groups. Brought to you by the Pacific Center for Equity in Oral Health Care, the program will help oral health care professionals and advocates identify what we may miss on a day-to-day basis about patient experiences that limit or prevent access to and successful outcomes of oral health care. Participants will examine their own biases and use that awareness to improve patient experiences and clinical outcomes by making changes large and small in their own practices, communities and organizations. Participants will also consider how dentistry as a profession both suffers and perpetuates disparities in healthcare as part of the larger healthcare system. Steps and strategies that can be used in practice, research, dental education and policy to advance equity in and for oral health care will be identified through reflection on course content and group discussion. Topics include How poor oral health has perpetuated bias and discrimination against some groups Analyzing challenges in accessing or receiving healthcare based on the experience or perception of bias or discrimination Identifying and mitigating your own biases toward patients seeking care in your practice and community so they can be more welcoming and accessible Examining barriers to clinical care and discussing solutions to improve patient experiences and outcomes of care How to improve access to care through policy Strategies in education, workforce and research to address issues of equity and access to quality oral healthcare Disparities of resources within the larger healthcare system; developing strategies to access or create more resources for oral health care as part of the larger system Presenters Mary J. Lomax-Ghirarduzzi is an academic and thought leader on race, leadership, and faith-informed social justice with almost three decades of higher education experience. She is the inaugural vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and Full Professor of Communication at University of the Pacific (Pacific). Dr. Lomax-Ghirarduzzi is also an affiliate faculty member at the Race and Equity Center at University of Southern California. She was awarded the 2018 Human Rights Defender for Gender Equality in San Francisco and in 2017 she was named one of the Bay Area’s Most Influential Women by the San Francisco Business Times. She currently leads Pacific’s faculty, staff, and students in Stockton, Sacramento, and San Francisco through a transformative DEI framework that seeks to humanize teaching, learning, research, community engagement, and pedagogical practices, as acts of love within higher education. Additionally, she recently published her first book, Twice as Good: Leadership and Power for Women of Color. Keith C. Norris, MD, PhD is the Executive Vice Chair of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion for the Department of Medicine at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine (DGSOM) and Professor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research. He has made substantive intellectual scientific and policy contributions to the areas of chronic kidney disease, health disparities in under-resourced minority communities, the development of transformative methods for community partnered research, and the development and implementation of innovative programs that have successfully increased diversity in the biomedical/health workforce. He currently serves as PI or Multi-PI for 6 NIH research and training grants. An elected member to the National Academy of Medicine and an active member of the NIH-NIDDK Advisory Council, he has co-authored over 500 articles in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters. Christine Wieseler, PhD is Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Her areas of specialization are biomedical ethics, feminist philosophy, Continental philosophy, and philosophy of disability. She has published numerous articles at the intersection of these areas in journals including Hypatia, IJFAB: International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics, American Association of Philosophy Teachers Studies in Pedagogy, and Social Philosophy Today. Joel Michael Reynolds and Wieseler co-edited The Disability Bioethics Reader. Irene O. Aninye, PhD, is the Chief Science Officer at the Society for Women’s Health Research, a national nonprofit dedicated to improving women’s health through science, policy, and education. She steers SWHR’s science programs to increase investment in research on biological sex differences and awareness of health conditions and diseases that differently, disproportionately, or exclusively affect women. Prior to SWHR, Aninye led strategy teams for the American Association for the Advancement of Science to develop and evaluate STEM research and training programs for universities. With a passion to diversify the face of STEM and increase the equity and involvement of underrepresented groups in the sciences, she facilitates scientific and leadership development training for researchers and professionals across all career stages, and has served on advisory boards for organizations such as the National Institutes of Health, Endocrine Society, Johns Hopkins University, and University of Maryland Baltimore County. A Washington, DC, native, Irene earned her BS in Biochemistry as a Meyerhoff Scholar at UMBC and a PhD in Molecular and Integrative Physiology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Raul I. Garcia, DMD, M.Med.Sc, is Professor and Chair, Department of Health Policy and Health Services Research at the Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine. He is also the Director of the Center for Research to Evaluate and Eliminate Dental Disparities, established at Boston University in 2001 and supported by the National Institutes of Health. The Center’s aims are to identify the determinants of oral health disparities and to design and implement community-based interventions to eliminate oral health disparities, with a primary focus on children and their caregivers. In addition, he is the Director of the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs (VA) Dental Longitudinal Study (DLS), a decades-long investigation on aging and oral health. Dr. Garcia is a 1981 graduate of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, where he received the D.M.D. degree summa cum laude. He is a Fellow of the American College of Dentists. 155 5th St, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA Arthur A Dugoni School of Dentistry Arthur A Dugoni School of Dentistry America/Los_Angeles public

Dentistry as Participant and Casualty of Racism and Bias in Medicine: Moving Toward Equity in Health Care

This program seeks to build consensus that viewing others as "Other" has implications for access and outcomes in oral health care that extend to the entire health care system. Attendees will learn from a variety of health care providers, researchers and advocates who are experts in their fields to gain an understanding of why and to what extent disparities in health care are experienced persistently by some groups.

Brought to you by the Pacific Center for Equity in Oral Health Care, the program will help oral health care professionals and advocates identify what we may miss on a day-to-day basis about patient experiences that limit or prevent access to and successful outcomes of oral health care. Participants will examine their own biases and use that awareness to improve patient experiences and clinical outcomes by making changes large and small in their own practices, communities and organizations.

Participants will also consider how dentistry as a profession both suffers and perpetuates disparities in healthcare as part of the larger healthcare system. Steps and strategies that can be used in practice, research, dental education and policy to advance equity in and for oral health care will be identified through reflection on course content and group discussion.

Topics include

How poor oral health has perpetuated bias and discrimination against some groups
Analyzing challenges in accessing or receiving healthcare based on the experience or perception of bias or discrimination
Identifying and mitigating your own biases toward patients seeking care in your practice and community so they can be more welcoming and accessible
Examining barriers to clinical care and discussing solutions to improve patient experiences and outcomes of care
How to improve access to care through policy
Strategies in education, workforce and research to address issues of equity and access to quality oral healthcare
Disparities of resources within the larger healthcare system; developing strategies to access or create more resources for oral health care as part of the larger system

Presenters

Mary J. Lomax-Ghirarduzzi is an academic and thought leader on race, leadership, and faith-informed social justice with almost three decades of higher education experience. She is the inaugural vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and Full Professor of Communication at University of the Pacific (Pacific). Dr. Lomax-Ghirarduzzi is also an affiliate faculty member at the Race and Equity Center at University of Southern California. She was awarded the 2018 Human Rights Defender for Gender Equality in San Francisco and in 2017 she was named one of the Bay Area’s Most Influential Women by the San Francisco Business Times. She currently leads Pacific’s faculty, staff, and students in Stockton, Sacramento, and San Francisco through a transformative DEI framework that seeks to humanize teaching, learning, research, community engagement, and pedagogical practices, as acts of love within higher education. Additionally, she recently published her first book, Twice as Good: Leadership and Power for Women of Color.

Keith C. Norris, MD, PhD is the Executive Vice Chair of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion for the Department of Medicine at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine (DGSOM) and Professor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research. He has made substantive intellectual scientific and policy contributions to the areas of chronic kidney disease, health disparities in under-resourced minority communities, the development of transformative methods for community partnered research, and the development and implementation of innovative programs that have successfully increased diversity in the biomedical/health workforce. He currently serves as PI or Multi-PI for 6 NIH research and training grants. An elected member to the National Academy of Medicine and an active member of the NIH-NIDDK Advisory Council, he has co-authored over 500 articles in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters.

Christine Wieseler, PhD is Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Her areas of specialization are biomedical ethics, feminist philosophy, Continental philosophy, and philosophy of disability. She has published numerous articles at the intersection of these areas in journals including Hypatia, IJFAB: International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics, American Association of Philosophy Teachers Studies in Pedagogy, and Social Philosophy Today. Joel Michael Reynolds and Wieseler co-edited The Disability Bioethics Reader.

Irene O. Aninye, PhD, is the Chief Science Officer at the Society for Women’s Health Research, a national nonprofit dedicated to improving women’s health through science, policy, and education. She steers SWHR’s science programs to increase investment in research on biological sex differences and awareness of health conditions and diseases that differently, disproportionately, or exclusively affect women. Prior to SWHR, Aninye led strategy teams for the American Association for the Advancement of Science to develop and evaluate STEM research and training programs for universities. With a passion to diversify the face of STEM and increase the equity and involvement of underrepresented groups in the sciences, she facilitates scientific and leadership development training for researchers and professionals across all career stages, and has served on advisory boards for organizations such as the National Institutes of Health, Endocrine Society, Johns Hopkins University, and University of Maryland Baltimore County. A Washington, DC, native, Irene earned her BS in Biochemistry as a Meyerhoff Scholar at UMBC and a PhD in Molecular and Integrative Physiology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Raul I. Garcia, DMD, M.Med.Sc, is Professor and Chair, Department of Health Policy and Health Services Research at the Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine. He is also the Director of the Center for Research to Evaluate and Eliminate Dental Disparities, established at Boston University in 2001 and supported by the National Institutes of Health. The Center’s aims are to identify the determinants of oral health disparities and to design and implement community-based interventions to eliminate oral health disparities, with a primary focus on children and their caregivers. In addition, he is the Director of the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs (VA) Dental Longitudinal Study (DLS), a decades-long investigation on aging and oral health. Dr. Garcia is a 1981 graduate of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, where he received the D.M.D. degree summa cum laude. He is a Fellow of the American College of Dentists.