Racial Justice x Health Equity
GHC is committed to practicing anti-racism and to developing leaders who are equipped to advance equity at the intersection of health and race.
The Global Health Corps community’s north star is health equity. In a world where race is a leading social determinant of health, we recognize the inextricable link between health equity and racial justice.
The challenges and uprisings of 2020 clearly illuminated how racism and white supremacy are obstacles to achieving health equity. In this period of reckoning, GHC examined and deepened our commitment to anti-racism, in partnership with our global community.
Cultivating Anti-Racist Leaders
GHC fosters learning, healing, discussion, reflection, accountability, and action to develop health equity leaders who incorporate anti-racism as a guiding principle in their personal and professional development. We build strategic partnerships with Black activists and facilitators to design and facilitate programs that deepen our leaders’ capacity to build coalitions, organize, and advocate for systems change at the intersection of race and health. Our fellows and alumni also play a key role in shaping these programs, including these recent offerings:
Courageous Leadership Across Difference, Discord, and Distance with Dr. Georgette Ledgister
Dr. Georgette Ledgister led an inclusion training anchored in rich and meaningful conversations and connections across differences. Throughout this session, participants discussed what leadership looks like when the human need for connection across differences is centered.
Learning in Collaboration
The Virtual Learning Collaboration (VLC) on GHC’s Community Portal includes a library of resources curated monthly to encourage conversation and connection on racial justice across the community. The VLC follows Acumen Academy’s "The Path to Moral Leadership" framework, designed to “inspire individuals with moral imagination and a will to face the beautiful struggle of creating a more inclusive, just, and sustainable world.”
Mindful Leadership with Urban Yoga Foundation
Led by activist Ghylian Bell, Urban Yoga Foundation and GHC launched a six-part monthly series of workshops with fellows and alumni to support the inner work of leadership. The workshops incorporated tools from two main categories and six overall practices: Preparation (comprising foundation, alignment, and introspection) and Integration (comprising interpersonal, cultural/community, and global/social change).
SONDER For Equitable Leadership with Natalie Patterson
To deepen understanding of community members' lived experiences of inequity and to support community healing through authentic connection, we held three sessions to foster spaces of expression and fellowship facilitated by activists. Two of these sessions were held for BIPOC members of the GHC community, to ensure a safe space that de-centered whiteness, with the final session opening up to the community at large to discuss allyship.
Juneteenth with RAPtivism artist and activist Aisha Fukushima & DEI Facilitator Toyosi Olowoyeye
We convened our community to commemorate Juneteenth in 2020 and 2021. In 2020, Aisha Fukushima of RAPtivism performed original songs, delivered a keynote address, and facilitated a guided meditation and freedom poem activity. In 2021, Toyosi Olowoyeye led our community in an exploration of purposeful joy amidst oppression.
PSiCHArt x Health Equity and Racial Justice
This virtual event was hosted on a digital platform created by alumna Georgina Denis' tech start-up SURU Together and facilitated by alumna Eliza Ramos' coaching start-up Circles International. Participants engaged in reflection, art making, and community building, supported by street artist Pekoe.
McKinsey Black Leadership Academy
Through this partnership, GHC provided 40 Black alumni of varying nationalities with access to world-class management and executive leadership training.
