Lyceum Speaker Series

Thomas LaVeist, PhD, is the Dean of Tulane University School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine and the Principal Investigator for Partners for Advancing Health Equity. He is an award-winning research scientist and the author of six books, including Minority Population and Health: An Introduction to Health Disparities in the United States, the first textbook on health disparities. He is also the director and executive producer of The Skin You’re In, a documentary series about racial inequalities in health. You can view his lecture here.

Thomas Fisher, MD, MPH, is a board-certified emergency medicine physician at The University of Chicago and a venture chair at Redesign Health. In his book The Emergency: A Year of Healing and Heartbreak in a Chicago ER, he brings readers into the clinical setting to reveal how society and healthcare shape our bodies and cause unnecessary suffering. For more than 20 years he has been an emergency department physician, serving the same South Side Chicago community where he was raised. You can view his lecture here.

Ulrike Boehmer, PhD, adjunct associate professor of community health sciences at Boston University School of Public Health, shared her research investigating differences in quality of life, cancer prevalence, cancer mortality and health-related decision-making while examining disparities due to sexual orientation, gender, race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Boehmer is recognized as a leader in LGBT health, especially in the context of cancer, and she is an associate editor of the journal LGBT Health.

Monica McLemore, PhD, MPH, RN, associate professor in the family health care nursing department at the University of California, San Francisco, shared perspectives on understanding the clinician role in the resolution of health inequities, using Black maternal health as an exemplar. McLemore presented evidence and created a sense of urgency for healthcare providers to address the disconnect between what patients want and need and what the current healthcare system provides.

Oluwaferanmi Okanlami, MD, MS, an assistant professor of family medicine and of physical medicine and rehabilitation as well as the director for medical student success in the Office for Health Equity and Inclusion at the University of Michigan, emphasized that disability doesn’t mean inability and promoted a health system that is more inclusive and accessible for all.

Read about Okanlami's lecture.

Jonathan Holloway, PhD, president-elect of Rutgers University and former provost of Northwestern University, provided a historical overview of African Americans in majority-white universities during his address. He also spoke personally of progress and his optimism for the future.

Read about Holloway's lecture.

Monica Vela, MD, professor of medicine and associate dean of multicultural affairs at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine, engaged the audience in a lively discussion about common language proficiency challenges and opportunities in clinical settings.

Antonia Novello, MD, U.S. surgeon general from 1990-1993, was the first woman and the first Hispanic to hold this office. During her tenure, she was an outspoken champion of diversity and inclusion.

Watch Novello's public lecture.

Watch Novello's lecture to M1 students.

John Rich, MD, MPH, MacArthur fellow and professor of health management and policy at the Center for Nonviolence and Social Justice at Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health, discussed violence through the lens of trauma in young, urban African American men.