The HEART series is an institutional race, equity and inclusion speaker series at OHSU funded by a grant through the Racial Equity and Inclusion Funding Opportunity sponsored by the Center for Diversity and Inclusion and Educational Improvement and Innovation. The planning committee is a collaboration of volunteers from OHSU Health Services, Clinical Psychology, Dermatology, and Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery.

This online lecture series will provide opportunities for OHSU members to learn about the role that systems of oppression have in creating inequitable social structures. The quarterly virtual lectures will touch on a variety of related topics in order to start and continue conversations about health equity and anti-racism.

Accreditation: OHSU School of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.  

Credit: OHSU School of Medicine designates this live activity for a maximum 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. Registration is required to claim credit.

Upcoming talks

Contextual Approach to Health Equity

Wednesday, January 15, 2025 12pm-1pm

Theo Latta, Director of Indigenous Health Equity for OHSU Health

Health Equity Manager/Tribal Affairs Advisor OHSU Health Services 

Health equity is not an exercise in altruism, nor is it a method of separating health care professionals into categories of orientations toward policy, health, or individual interactions. Moving toward health equity is professional development that endeavors to provide resources for health care workers to provide the best possible care. As health care needs, goals, and priorities are dynamic and nuanced, health equity programming must be approached contextuallyand developed in collaboration with various communities. In this conversation, Theo Latta will discuss a contextual approach to organizing professional development toward health equity. 

Theo Latta is an Indigenous researcher, speaker and lecturer whose research focuses on contextual health and Indigenous-specific issues within academia, healthcare and policing.

Registration Link:  https://ohsu.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5gn7bWaqTjHMiHQ

Screening of Still Here. Portland’s Other Pandemic & Panel

October 28, 2024 5:30-8:00pm

In-person screening of Still Here. Portland’s Other Pandemic followed by a panel with the documentary creators and POIC staff. The screening and panel will be held in the Knight Cancer Research Building.

About the Documentary: Amidst the challenges of a pandemic and escalating community violence, Still Here: Portland's Other Pandemic is an inspiring documentary that follows the unwavering dedication of the staff at POIC + RAHS as they navigate racial injustices, tragedies, and systemic issues to provide hope and support for the most disadvantaged populations in Portland, Oregon. The film sheds light on the transformative power of education, family outreach, and mentorship in the face of overwhelming adversity. For more information visit: https://www.portlandoic.org/still-here

Culture specific experiences with HIV/AIDS advocacy and activism

June 5, 2024

View the recording. (password Mdn474zb)

Maricela Berumen
Social Work Specialist, Partnership Project
OHSU

In twenty years, the challenges of living with HIV have eased. Medical treatments, stigma and conversations about the disease are vastly different. However, there is still work to be done. In this talk, Maricela Berumen will address her own lived-experiences and professional learnings:

• How to communicate sexual health with cultural sensitivity.
• Experiences navigating a medical system when English is not the language spoken at home.
• How to empower women to advocate for their reproductive rights while living with HIV.
• Advising newly-diagnosed people in the complexities of the care system.

Maricela Berumen is mother of five and grandmother of five. She was born in Mexico and raised in the U.S. since the age of two. Maricela tested positive for HIV in 2003. She worked at Cascade AIDS Project for 17 years as an HIV tester and counselor, as well as an MAI Latino Services Navigator. She has been an HIV advocate for the past 21 years and frequently speaks to the public. She is currently a social worker specialist with Partnership Project at OHSU, a consortium of 13 public and private medical and social services agencies in the Portland metro area that focuses on ensuring people living with HIV have access to affirming, competent and high quality health care.

Because of her lived-experience, Maricela believes that it is vitally important to educate the community around prevention methods and measures for a disease that is preventable.

Food is Medicine: Innovations in Social Needs Data, Engaging Communities, and Bridging Silos

Feb. 28, 2024

Reshma Gupta, M.D., MSHPM
Chief of Population Health and Accountable Care, UC Davis Health
UC-wide Steering Leadership Team, University of California Health
Associate Professor, Department of Internal Medicine

Eight percent of chronic disease and premature death is preventable through improved diet, exercise, and treatment therapy. California launched the Medically Tailored Meals (MTM) program in January 2023 after their pilot showed reduction in hospitalizations, ED visits, and patients with poorly controlled diabetes. Our office developed a multi-disciplinary team including the Office of Population Health, the Office of Health, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and Food and Nutrition Services, worked together with community partners to develop a comprehensive “Food Is Medicine” program for low-income patients with chronic disease. We will discuss how food as medicine can serve as a common unifier between our health systems and community organizations to serve patient needs in an effort to achieve improved health outcomes.

A recording of this talk is available at request for OHSU members.

Rainbows out of the rain: TGD youth creating a world where they can thrive

Dec. 14, 2023

View the recording (password: SuTpHM6s)

Doernebecher Gender Clinic Team
Kara Connelly, M.D., Medical Director, Doernbecher Gender Clinic, Pediatric Endocrinologist (she/her)
Jess Guerriero, CSWA, M.A., Pediatric Social Worker, Doernbecher Gender Clinic, Transgender Health Program (they/them)
Danielle Moyer, Ph.D., Pediatric Psychologist, Doernbecher Gender Clinic (she/her)

Many educational opportunities and research details the long history of historical trauma and minority stress that transgender and gender diverse (TGD) youth experience. While it is important to understand this context for care, especially in the current political climate, we see over and over examples of TGD youth embracing their creativity, building their chosen families and social networks, and engaging in the world in ways that make them more than just a statistic. In this presentation, we will briefly discuss the current political context and minority stress impact factors, but will focus the majority of time on resilience and the role providers can play in fostering TGD youths' opportunity to thrive.

The role of Medicaid policy in driving disparities in maternal health

Sept. 28, 2023

View the recording. (password Xg9eW4AN)

In this talk, Dr. Maria Rodriguez described the effect that restricting access to care during pregnancy by citizenship status has on immigrant maternal and newborn health. She identified the role that Oregon’s progressive policies have played in mitigating maternal health disparities among immigrant families.

Maria I. Rodriguez, M.D., M.P.H. is a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Medical Director for Oregon's Reproductive Health Program. She is Deputy Editor of the Cochrane Fertility Regulation Group, newly housed at OHSU. She completed medical school and residency at OHSU (2004, 2008), and a fellowship in family planning at UCSF (2010). As part of her fellowship, she completed a Master’s in Public Health at UC Berkeley (2010). Following her fellowship, she spent five years working for the Department of Reproductive Health and Research at the World Health Organization is in Geneva, Switzerland. She serves as chair of Oregon’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee and as co-chair on the Medicaid Advisory Committee.

Dr. Rodriguez’s research focuses on the intersection of medicine, policy and economics. She is specifically interested in generating information to help guide evidence based reproductive health policy both domestically and internationally. She has expertise in cost effectiveness, health systems and policy research, systematic reviews and GRADE methodologies. Her research has been nationally recognized with the Guttmacher Institute’s Darroch Award for Excellence in Sexual and Reproductive Health Research and the Society of Family Planning’s Beacon of Science Award in 2019.

Her current research includes a study called The Reproductive Health Equity Project: Determining how Medicaid Policy Drives Contraceptive Access & Choice. This study examines how Medicaid policy - at the local, state, and national levels - influences initiation and use of effective contraception. 

Black Children and Youth with Special Health Needs: Families Navigate Oregon’s Broken Systems

April 6, 2023

View the recording (YouTube)

Sheila Harris, community member and parent
Tia Moore, community member and parent
Laurie Palmer, community gun violence activist and parent
Pastor Marcia Taylor, executive director, Sickle Cell Anemia Foundation
Mortuma Murry, D.N.P., pediatric to adult healthcare transition provider, OHSU

Moderated by Lydia Dennehy, parent partner and resource specialist, Oregon Family-to-Family Health Information Center at OHSU

The final talk of the 2022-2023 HEART series will feature a panel conversation with parents, community activitists and leaders, and healthcare professionals to discuss the layered experiences of Black families when they walk into a health care or other systems setting with their child of special needs. This discussion will explore both some of the barriers they face in receiving care and services, as well as the work-arounds that Black and other underrepresented families have gone through in order to get the needed care.

This conversation is brought in partnership with Family Voices, a national organization and grassroots network of families and friends of children and youth with special health care needs and disabilities, as well as with Oregon Family-to-Family Health Information Center at OHSU.

Indigenous Research and Action in Canadian Healthcare: Stories of Progress and Knowledge Generated

Feb. 28, 2023

View the recording. (password Zhx9N96M)

Lyndon (Lindsay) Crowshoe, M.D.
Assistant Professor and Assistant Dean, Department of Family Medicine & Indigenous, Local and Global Health Office
University of Calgary, Canada

Adam Murry, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology
University of Calgary, Canada

In this dynamic conversation, Lynden (Lindsay) Crowshoe, M.D., and Adam Murry, Ph.D., will talk about their work and research in healthcare. Dr. Crowshoe's 30+ years of experience and diverse outputs will showcase some of the tensions, challenges, possibilities, and lessons learned in the work to decolonize primary care delivery. Dr. Murry joins the conversation as an organizational psychologist, whose evaluation research in Indigenous health networks helps to identify actions and attitudes that support Indigenous patients and students in healthcare education.

Dr. Crowshoe is a Blackfoot primary care physician and researcher, member of the Piikani First Nation, Associate Professor of Medicine and Assistant Dean Indigenous Health at the University of Calgary (UC) Cumming School of Medicine (CSM). He has experience leading provincial, national and international research teams focusing on primary care, public health and health education.  In research, he brings together and bridges multiple disciplines of knowledge including health, clinical, social sciences, professional health education and Indigenous Ways of Knowing.

Dr. Murry (Apache) is an assistant professor at the University of Calgary where he runs the Indigenous Organizations and Communities Development Research lab. He is co-principal investigator for the Alberta Indigenous Mentorship in Health Innovation (AIM-HI) network and Network Environment for Indigenous Health Research (NEIHR) in Canada, and conducts research on Indigenous employment, mentorship, allyship,  education, Indigenous studies, substance use, mental health, sustainability, and ministry. Dr. Murry has multiple peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, serves on several diversity and Indigenous-specific committees, and consults with both the non-profit and Tribal sector.

Navigating the Noise: Abortion Politics, Equity and Ethics

Dec. 7, 2022

View the recording.

Alison Edelman, M.D., M.P.H.
Professor, OB/GYN, OHSU

Katie Watson, J.D.
Associate Professor of Medical Social Sciences, Medical Education, and Ob/Gyn
Faculty, Medical Humanities & Bioethics Graduate Program
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Professor Watson will explore the underdiscussed racial justice, economic justice, and health equity impacts of abortion access. Professor Watson will argue that these historical and contemporary elements, plus the role safe and legal abortion plays in gender equity, make its preservation an ethical imperative in medicine.

Dr. Watson’s talk will be preceded by a brief introduction by Dr. Alison Edelman, professor of OB/GYN and Division Director of Complex Family Planning at OHSU. Dr. Edelman will briefly review the impact on abortion care with the reversal of Roe v Wade; providing context for what those changes mean for pregnant people nationally, in Oregon, and at OHSU.

A Cede at the Table: Relocating Power for Health Equity

Sept. 29, 2022 noon - 1 p.m.

Steffanie Roaché, M.S., LPC
Assistant Professor of Practice, Trauma Informed Oregon

Trauma Informed Oregon is a statewide collaborative aimed at preventing and ameliorating the impact of adverse experiences on children, adults and families. Trauma Informed Oregon works in partnership with providers, individuals with lived experience and families to promote and sustain trauma informed policies and practices across physical, mental and behavioral health systems and to disseminate promising strategies to support wellness and resilience.

At this lecture, Roaché presented the following learning objectives:

1) Explore ways a trauma-informed lens supports equity and inclusion.

2) Identify overlooked and commonly used behaviors/actions within systems that continue to exclude and devalue those most in need.

3) Outline ways to cede power back to people of color and cultures most affected by systematic oppression.

A recording of this lecture is available at request for OHSU members. Contact Kate Stout.