Drexel University to Establish Center on Racism and Health
In September, the University of Pennsylvania announced that its health services researchers would explore and implement solutions to entrenched racial inequities in the U.S. healthcare system. Now Penn’s next-door neighbor, Drexel University, has announced it will launch a Center on Racism and Health, recruiting faculty experts on racial inequities in health.
A $9 million gift from Drexel University alumna Dana Dornsife and her husband David is funding the new center. The longtime philanthropists are the largest single benefactors in the university’s history, having donated more than $70 million. The School of Public Health was named in their honor after a $45 million gift in 2015.
The new gift will allow the Dornsife School of Public Health to elevate research on racial inequality and health disparities. The proposed Center on Racism and Health will leverage strengths across the Dornsife School’s departments, the Urban Health Collaborative and many partners across the university synergizing and elevating existing work on racial health inequities and promoting new work, the university said.
“All over the world there are renewed calls to address racism as the public health crisis that it is,” said Ana Diez Roux, M.D., Ph.D., dean of the Dornsife School, in a statement. “The Dornsife School has a responsibility to respond to this crisis. We are thrilled that this gift will allow us to elevate and expand critically needed research, training and policy work in this area at Dornsife and at Drexel more generally.”
The major goals of the center will be to:
• Advance multidisciplinary, anti-racist public health research and scholarship rooted in historical context, contemporary theoretical frameworks and rigorous, innovative methods.
• Provide anti-racist public health educational and training opportunities for students and public health professionals.
• Foster engagement in anti-racist practice and advocacy to advance health equity and racial justice through alignment with social justice movements and equitable local, national and global partnerships.
To achieve these goals, the proposed center will focus on structural racism and racial inequities in urban contexts and how these intersect with pressing population health challenges like police brutality and climate change. The center will also adopt a global perspective, linking local work in Philadelphia to similar challenges facing cities worldwide. The center will be complimentary and synergistic with Drexel’s recently established Center for Black Culture and will aim to forge partnerships across the university.
“Grounded in the lived experiences of those most directly impacted by racism, this center will provide an opportunity for innovation and impact in addressing the root causes of racial health inequities in Philadelphia and beyond,” said Sharrelle Barber, ScD, an assistant professor in the Dornsife School, in a statement. Her research documents how racism becomes "embodied" through the neighborhood context — evidence that can be leveraged for transformative change through anti-racist policy initiatives. Barber has been chairing the planning group to launch the new center.
The gift will allow the Dornsife School to hire two new faculty members whose work focuses on racial inequities and health. Additionally, endowing the deanship for public health will support strategic initiatives for the Dornsife School, enabling the named dean to strengthen departments and programs, and support faculty and professional staff across the Dornsife School with the aim of advancing its reputation throughout the United States and the world.
