The Seventh Annual Science of Health Equity Summit
Partnerships in Food Systems

Wednesday, April 5, 2023, at the College of Public Health

Dr. Ellen W. Harris is unable to travel to the University of Iowa due to severe weather; therefore, she will be presenting remotely. The HEAL Keynote address and presentation of the Sprince Zwerling Award for Social Justice will now be presented at 12:30pm via Zoom and streamed in-person in the Callaghan Auditorium (N110 CPHB) for CPH’s Spotlight. The HEAL Summit Community Organizations Panel: “Promoting equitable food systems” will still be held in-person at 2:00-3:00 PM in C217 CPHB.

Presentation of the Sprince Zwerling Award for Social Justice

12:30 PM

The 2023 Sprince Zwerling Award for Social Justice will be presented to a graduate student in the Department of Community and Behavioral Health with interests in promoting health equity and social justice. The 2023 Sprince Zwerling Award for Social Justice recipient will be presented their award by Dean Edith Parker. The 2023 Sprince Zwerling Award for Social Justice recipient is Jessica Andino.

Keynote presentation by Dr. Ellen W. Harris – “Forging Partnerships Through a Career in Food, Nutrition and Agriculture”

12:30 – 1:30 PM
N110 CPHB (Callaghan Auditorium)

The 2023 summit will kick off on Wednesday, April 5, headlined by keynote speaker Ellen W. Harris, PhD, Executive Director for the Institute for Food & Development Policy, better known as Food First. Dr. Harris’s extensive experience within food systems will be highlighted through her presentation titled, “Forging Partnerships Through a Career in Food, Nutrition and Agriculture.” This event is part of the College of Public Health’s Spotlight Series.

Dr. Ellen W. Harris is the Executive Director for the Institute for Food & Development Policy, better known as Food First.

She has a BS in Biology from Antioch College, MS in Nutrition Sciences from Texas Woman’s University at Houston, and a DrPH with an emphasis in public health nutrition and epidemiology from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, School of Public Health at Houston. She taught Community Nutrition at Drexel University for 6 years. For two years, she was a Congressional Fellow with the Select Committee on Hunger, US House of Representatives through the Congressional Black Caucus. That experience led her to USDA in 1990 where she was in federal service for 32+ years as a Program Analyst at the Food and Nutrition Service, Office of Analysis and Evaluation; Branch Chief, Food Consumption Research Branch, Nutrition Monitoring Division (NMD), Human Nutrition Information Service (HNIS); and NMD Director where she managed Food Consumption Research, Survey Systems, and Nutrient Data Branches. At the Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center (BHNRC), Agricultural Research Service (ARS) she served as the BHNRC Assistant Director; established and served as BHNRC Community Nutrition Research Group Research Leader and later served as Associate Center Director and Acting Center Director.

Dr. Harris was a Fulbright Senior Scholar and taught nutrition at the University of Zimbabwe in 2001 and a Fulbright Senior Specialist in 2009 advising on nutrition curriculum and research at the School of Nutrition, University of Antioquia, Medellin, Columbia. Dr. Harris created, coordinated, and convened the USDA Food and Nutrition Summer Institute between 1999-2006 with partners throughout USDA, NIH, CDC, USAID, and FDA. They worked with nutrition students and faculty at the 1890s Historically Black Colleges and Universities for all 8 years and Tribal Colleges with nutrition and/or nursing programs for 2 of those years. Dr. Harris graduated from the USDA Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program and was certified in in the Senior Executive Service in 2009. From 2010 to 2011, she served as a Senior Nutrition Advisor for the Collaborative Research Support Program, Bureau for Food Security, USAID (through ARS PASA Program) and was responsible for scientific program management of a portfolio with 4 university partners and one for-profit nongovernment organization conducting research in Uganda and Nepal. Upon her return to ARS, she served as Acting Associate Area Director for the former South Atlantic Area; Associate Center Director for the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center and then its Center Director. Dr. Harris retired as the Associate Area Director for the Southeast Area, ARS, USDA, having served in that capacity for 5 years where she helped support and direct agricultural research programs in 8 states (AL, AR, FL, GA, LA, MS, NC, SC) and Puerto Rico. She served a total of 32 years and 8 months of federal service with USDA.

Dr. Harris was born and raised in Houston, Texas. She resides in Greenville, MS. She is a mother and grandmother. In her spare time, Ellen is a certified 500-hour experienced yoga instructor and Thai Yoga massage practitioner, who aspires to grow much of her food year-round at her Three Blessings Yoga Farm and Wellness Center.

Community Panel: “Promoting Equitable Food Systems”

2:00 – 3:00 PM
C217 CPHB

The “Promoting equitable food systems” panel discussion will feature professionals from local and state organizations currently working within Iowa’s food system. Panelists will provide insight on how their organizations fit into the larger system and how they are able to promote health equity within their work. Panelists include representatives from Feed Iowa First, the North Liberty Community Pantry, and Grow: Johnson County.

Feed Iowa First is a grass-roots community of businesses, faith organizations, schools, farmers and volunteers that unite in relationship-based service to help our neighbors to ‘Combat Food Insecurity by Growing Food and Farmers’. They believe access to fresh, healthy produce can and does transform lives. Fresh, healthy food is a basic human right, and ensuring access to it is key to building vibrant communities where citizens can reach their full human potential.

The North Liberty Community Pantry exists to engage our community in feeding, clothing and connecting our neighbors to resources and services. The Pantry is an outreach ministry of the First United Methodist Church of North Liberty, but the service area and support are community wide. Our primary focus is North Liberty and surrounding rural areas of Johnson County. Since its creation in 1985, the organization has seen rapid growth as a result of three factors: increasing awareness of the Pantry, increasing population growth in North Liberty, and increasing economic need. The pantry now serves over 700 local families and is regularly distributing more than 400,000 pounds of material goods from food, toiletries, to laundry detergent and clothing.

Grow: Johnson County is a hunger-relief and educational farm initiative located at the Johnson County Historic Poor Farm. Started in 2015, Grow:Johnson County is a community-focused educational farm located on the Johnson County Historic Poor Farm in Iowa City, Iowa. Sitting on five acres of farmland, we train growers through hands-on farming experiences for all ages and backgrounds. All the produce grown on the farm is distributed to local food pantries. Since the program began, Grow has donated over 160,000 pounds of fresh produce to community partners.

Event is free to public and all University affiliates. Community involvement is encouraged.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact Jessica Andino at jessica-andino@uiowa.edu.

HEAL continued with a Zoom webinar in 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which allowed individuals across the country to join us this day. The Sixth Annual Science of Health Equity continued its success in 2022! We are grateful for the support from the College of Public Health, HEAL members, and our guest speaker Dr. Lisa Bowleg and alumni panelists. 

Keynote presentation by Dr. Lisa Bowleg- “Towards Critical Health Equity: Getting Critical About Theory, Methods, and Praxis to Advance Health Equity for All, Not Just the Privileged Some”

We kicked off on Friday, April 1, headlined by keynote speaker Lisa Bowleg, PhD, professor of applied psychology at George Washington University’s Columbian College of Arts and Sciences.

Lisa Bowleg, PhD, MA, a leading scholar of the application of intersectionality to social and behavioral science health research, is Professor of Applied Social Psychology in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the George Washington University (GW), and Director of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Core of the DC Center for AIDS Research (DC CFAR). She is also the Founder and President of the Intersectionality Training Institute (www.intersectionalitytraining.org). Informed by intersectionality and critical race theory, her mixed methods research projects examine the effects of social-structural stressors (e.g., unemployment, incarceration, police brutality), intersectional stigma, and protective factors on the health of Black men at diverse intersections of socioeconomic status and sexuality.

She has served as a principal investigator (PI) of five National Institutes of Health-funded projects and is the PI of the WK Kellogg Foundation-funded, Intersectionality Toolkit Project. She is an associate editor at AJPH and the editor of AJPH’s Perspectives from the Social Sciences section.

In May 2021, GW awarded her its Oscar and Shoshana Trachtenberg Prize for Scholarship (Research). In February 2022, Health, Education and Behavior, the journal of the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) awarded her the 2021 Lawrence W. Green Paper of the Year Award in honor of her article, “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House: Ten Critical Lessons for Black and Other Health Equity Researchers of Color.”

Sprince Zwerling Award for Social Justice

The 2022 Sprince Zwerling Award for Social Justice will be presented to a graduate student in the Department of Community and Behavioral Health with interests in promoting health equity and social justice. The 2022 Sprince Zwerling Award for Social Justice recipient is Bikere Ikoba.

Alumni panel: “A Look at Health Equity in the Field”

On Friday, April 8, a panel discussion featured University of Iowa graduates currently working in health equity and adjacent fields. Panelists provided insight on how health equity values and ideas can be applied to health practice and health-adjacent careers and how attendees might consider making an impact in health equity, no matter which field they aspire to work in. Panelists include Dr. Halkeno Tura (he/him/his), Director of the Center for Health Equity at Minnesota Department of Health, Naomi Marroquin (she/her/hers), Health Care Manager for the Eastern Iowa Region at Proteus, Inc., and Bella De Soriano (she/her/hers), Senior Manager of Public Health, Medical Affairs at Healthline Media.

HEAL continued with a Zoom webinar in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which allowed individuals across the country to join us this day. The Fifth Annual Science of Health Equity continued its success in 2021! We are grateful for the support from the College of Public Health, HEAL members, and our guest speaker Dr. Collins O. Airhihenbuwa.

Keynote presentation by Dr. Collins O. Airhihenbuwa

Dr. Collins Airhihenbuwa leads the interdisciplinary team known as the Global Research Against Non-communicable Disease (GRAND) Initiative at the School of Public Health at Georgia State University. He is also a Professor of Health Management & Policy.

Dr. Airhihenbuwa is an expert in creating solutions to promote health equity in national and global health and has more than 30 years of experience advancing research on culture, identity and health to inform strategies for training young professionals to conduct health behavior and public health research and intervention. Prior to joining the school, he was dean of the College for Public Health and Social Justice at Saint Louis University in Missouri and authored a cultural model (PEN-3) that is used in several countries to develop programs and interventions to address health inequity.

He also has served as a visiting scholar to UN agencies such as the World Health Organization and major universities, including Purdue and Boston University, and has served on boards of Saint Louis City and Hospitals, the National Advisory committee of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Scholars, the Global Philanthropy Alliance, and the board of Scientific Counselors for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Airhihenbuwa has authored more than 130 articles and book chapters and six books, including “Health and Culture, Beyond the Western Paradigm” in 1995 and “Healing Our Differences, the Crisis of Global Health and Politics of Identity” in 2007. He is a former President and Distinguished Fellow of the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) and a fellow of the American Academy of Health Behavior and the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research.

He is the recipient of several prestigious awards including the Scholar of the Year by the American Association of Health Education, the symbol of H.O.P.E award by the American Journal of Health Promotion, the Outreach award by Penn State University, the David Satcher award for leadership in reducing health disparities by CDC and DHPE, and the Mentor award by SOPHE.

Sprince Zwerling Award for Social Justice

The 2021 Sprince Zwerling Award for Social Justice will be presented to a graduate student in the Department of Community and Behavioral Health with interests in promoting health equity and social justice. The 2021 Sprince Zwerling Award for Social Justice recipient is Noah Segal.

The Fourth Annual Science of Health Equity Summit
Monday, April 6th

Due to University policies for spring 2020 regarding COVID-19, the Fourth Annual Science of Health Equity Summit was hosted virtually via Zoom.

Disrupting Links: A Webinar Reflecting on Criminal Justice and Health Equity

As part of the annual Science of Health Equity Summit, join us for a discussion about the intersection of the criminal justice system and health disparities. Hear from panelists working to disrupt these links. This discussion will serve as part of the College of Public Health’s Spotlight Series.

Dave Schwind– Iowa City Police Department

Michelle Heinz– Inside Out Reentry Community

Ashley Wood– Abbe Center for Community Health

Mark Berg– Associate Professor in Sociology & Criminology, University of Iowa

The Third Annual Science of Health Equity Summit
Thursday, April 4th

The event began in the Atrium where 13 students presented posters on the health-equity work being accomplished at the University of Iowa College of Public Health. The poster presentations began the conversations of this year’s theme, “Global to Local”. PDF versions of the posters presented can be found under this excerpt.

During our next session, HEAL students who volunteered to complete a case study on a local to global health equity issue of their choosing, presented their findings in a PechaKucha format. PechaKucha is a presentation format where presenters show 20 images each for 20 seconds as a supplement to the talking points they prepare. Following these presentations, a panel of students provided insights on their preparation and participation in this year’s Summit event.

Keynote Speaker for 2019 Science of Health Equity Summit:

The keynote speaker, and 2018 Hansen Award Recipient, Bernard Tyson, gave a captivating lecture on Kaiser Permanente’s role to achieve equity in health care. Mr. Tyson is the chairman and CEO of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. and Hospitals which is known as Kaiser Permanente. Kaiser Permanente is one of America’s leading integrated health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Under Tyson’s leadership, Kaiser Permanente continues to drive the need for affordable, accessible, high-quality health care and improving the health of its members and the 67 million residents in its communities. A recording of this talk, “Getting to Equity in Health Care: lessons from Kaiser Permanente” can be found at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLiYyEP0lH0.

We concluded the day with a bilingual mixed community and academic panel, which gave admirable insight on addressing health equity in the context of this year’s theme. We were fortunate to hear from a local community advocate, Marcela Hurtado, and fellow academics, Drs. Brandi Janssen and Nicole Novak who break barriers to health equity throughout the Iowa City community and beyond. The panelist discussed the implications of local health equity on global health equity, the import role of public health practitioners play in advocating for global and local health equity, and the barriers we face in achieving health equity.

Student Posters at 2019 Science of Health Equity Summit

• HPV Vaccination in Rural Iowa – Perceptions from School Nurses in 7 Counties
• Description and Evaluation of Influences on Childhood Diarrhea in Rural Western Ghana
• Summer Food Service Program in Iowa
• Understanding the Health Impacts of Immigration Detention

Student PechaKucha Presentations at 2019 Science of Health Equity Summit

• Migrant Farmworkers, Agricultural Practices, and Climate Change: The Effects of Climate Change on Iowa Migrant Worker Health
• Double Burden of Malnutrition: A Case Study

The Second Annual Science of Health Equity Summit
Thursday, April 5th

The event kicked off in the College atrium where 14 student posters were presented on the health equity-related work being accomplished at the University of Iowa College of Public Health and in Kansas City’s Children’s Mercy Hospital. These posters sparked conversations on health equity that could be heard throughout the College of Public Health building. PDF versions of the posters presented can be found underneath this excerpt.

The mixed panel of faculty and community partners engaged in health equity work gave wonderful insights into the barriers, challenges, and future prospects for the field of community-engaged health equity work.

During the staff lightening round, HEAL staff discussed the health equity-based research being conducted by our lab and this research’s implications to the field of health equity.

We concluded the day with a riveting talk by Drs. Kathleen Call and Farhiya Farah on the community engaged-policy work that they are accomplishing in Minnesota to improve the health prospects for the people in the Minneapolis, Saint Paul area. View a recording of this talk. 

Keynote Speakers for 2018 Science of Health Equity Summit:

Drs. Kathleen Call and Farhiya Farah discussed, “Using Community Based Participatory Research to Help Advance Public Health Policy.”

Dr. Farhiya Farah is a Senior Consultant at GlobeGlow Consulting and Research, Inc in the greater Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Her work includes the provision of consulting services in multiple public health arenas including food safety training, ethnic food business, community based participatory research work, healthy homes and lead poison prevention policy, and grant Development. She has been very involved in her community and serves as a liaison between the Somali Community in Minneapolis-St. Paul area and the University of Minneapolis, the Minneapolis Public Health Department, and other community groups and organizations in the area.

Dr. Call graduated with her PhD in Sociology from the University of Minnesota. Her research focuses on access to health care and health insurance among disparity populations; how well health insurance translates into equitable access to health care, and developing community-driven solutions to overcome the barriers that people face to accessing health care. She is a professor in the Division of Health Policy and Management at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health and is the co-director of the School of Public Health’s Healthy Equity Work Group.

Student Posters at 2018 Science of Health Equity Summit

• Addressing Pediatric Obesity Through a Parenting Stress Intervention
• Working Conditions that Exacerbate the Risk of Hypertension in Latinos Working in Meat Packing Plants
• Access to Care Versus Ability to Pay Among Expectant and Parenting Student Mothers
• What are the Important Characteristics of Successful Community Health Worker Interventions to Increase HPV Vaccination in Rural Latinx Communities
• Masculinity’s Role and Contribution to Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) Impacting Latino Men’s Overall Health Equity
• Is Justice Truly Justice for All?
• Using SOPARC to Inform Active Living Planning in Micropolitan Cities in the Midwest
• The Need of Mobile Clinic in Rural Iowa Communities
• Restructuring Interventions to Restructure Inequity: a Paradigm Shift Toward Complexity
• Where Expectant and Parenting Community College Students Seek Information: Implications for Community College Programming
• Barriers and Facilitators to Implementing an Evidence-Based Parenting Program with Families at-risk for Health Inequities
• Patient Characteristics and Services Provided in a Student-Run Free Mental Health Clinic
• Engaging the Latina Community through Ottumwa Activa: A Faith-Based Approach
• Re-adapting the Shop Healthy Iowa (SHI) Toolkit and Store Manager Guide for Latino Communities

The First Annual Science of Health Equity Summit
Monday, April 17th

The event began in the College of Public Health building Atrium with student poster presentations. These posters displayed various work done at the University of Iowa’s College of Public Health and Kansas City’s Children Mercy Hospital as it pertains to promoting health equity. PDF versions of the posters presented can be found under this excerpt.

After the post presentation, a staff panel was held with Lilli Mann, Lauren Slagel, and Becky Bucklin. During this panel, the staff members discussed the various research projects they assist and how health equity is factored into their work.

During the staff panel, the HEAL staff presented on their work and how their research pertained to the field of health equity.

We concluded the day with a fascinating talk by Dr. Scott Rhodes and Lilli Mann on how community-engaged research helps in understanding of the multilevel influences on the health of vulnerable communities including the LGBT communities and the communities of color.

The Keynote Speakers

Dr. Scott Rhodes and Lilli Mann discussed “Promoting Health Equity through Community Engaged Research:  Examples and Outcomes from North Carolina.”

Dr. Rhodes graduated with his PhD in Health Behavior from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, his MPH in Health Administration from the University of South Carolina-Columbia, and his BA in Government from William and Mary.  His research interest include HIV infections, homosexuality, sexual behavior, emigrants and immigrant populations, and Hispanic Americans.  Scott Rhodes is currently the department chair and a professor of the Department of Social Science and Policy at the Wake Forest School of Medicine in North Carolina.

Lilli Mann is a research associate from Wake Forest School of Medicine’s Department of Social Sciences and Health Policy.  She received her MPH at the UNC Gillings School of Public Health from the Department of Health Behavior and her BA for the College of William and Mary in Sociology and Hispanic Studies.  She assists with the implementation and evaluation community-based participatory research (CBPR) studies focusing on HIV prevention interventions with Latino immigrant populations.

Student Posters at 2017 Science of Health Equity Summit

• Exploring Factors Associated with HPV Vaccines and Boys in Latino Community in West Liberty
• The Importance of HPV Education within Latino Culture
• The Role of Psychosocial Factors on Elevated Levels of Blood Pressure Among Residents of a Midwestern Micropolitan Community