Social Justice Series
The Social Justice in Public Health Seminar (Webinar) Series is an innovative collection of lectures from experts in the field of public policy, public health, and social justice, designed for students in public health, medicine, education, pharmacy and nursing degree programs. The purpose of this seminar series is to provide an introduction to topics in social justice and public health.
2023 Lecture Series
Impacts of Technology on Health Equity and Social Justice
Our 2023 Series will focus on the Impacts of Technology on Health Equity and Social Justice. Please join us as we examine the current technology landscape within the context of social justice and health equity; and explore existing challenges and solutions, including how it can be utilized as a tool to empower marginalized communities, increase access to resources, and challenge existing power structures.
Session 1
New Jim Code? Innovation, Imagination, and Inequity in the Digital Age
Date: This Event has Concluded
Synopsis: A groundbreaking analysis on race, technology and social justice, focusing on big structural changes necessary for heath equity.
Speaker: Ruha Benjamin, PhD
Photo Credit: Cyndi Shattuck
Dr. Benjamin is Alexander Stewart Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, founding director of the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab, and author of the award-winning books Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code (2019) andViral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want(2022). Ruha earned a BA in Sociology and Anthropology from Spelman College, MA and PhD in Sociology from UC Berkeley, and completed postdoctoral fellowships at UCLA’s Institute for Society & Genetics and Harvard’s Science, Technology & Society Program.
Session 2
Technology, Environmental Justice and the Built Environment
Date: This Event has Concluded
Synopsis: A conversation on urban policy and tech issues: Strategies for health equity centered around technology’s impacts on urban life, governance, and the built environment.
Speaker: Molly Turner, MA
Molly Turner is a leading expert on technology startups and cities. Through her teaching at the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business and her work in the field, she has shaped the conversation about technology’s impacts on urban life and governance. Turner is deeply engaged in urban policy and tech issues through her work with city leaders and tech startups and her service on the boards of urban policy think tank SPUR, and non-profit affordable housing developer BRIDGE Housing. Turner holds a Master in urban planning from Harvard University and a BA from Dartmouth College.
Session 3
The Digital Divide as a Social Determinant of Health Maya Wiley
Date: This Event has Concluded
Synopsis: TA discussion on the digital divide as a social determinant of health and models for expanding affordable broadband access to advance civil and human rights and gender equity.
Speaker: Maya Wiley, JD
Maya Wiley is a renowned expert on racial justice and equity. She is Senior Vice President for Social Justice at the New School University and Cohen Professor of Public and Urban Policy at the New School’s Milano School of Management, Policy & Environment. As an expert on Digital Equity, she founded the university’s Digital Equity Laboratory. Wiley is a Legal Analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, and has written numerous editorials for The Guardian, Time Magazine, Essence.Com, and Fast Company. She served as chief legal advisor to Mayor Bill DeBlasio of New York City and as a member of his Senior Cabinet. Wiley was at the helm of Mayor DeBlasio project to expand affordable broadband access across New York. She holds a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law and a B.A from Dartmouth College.
Session 4
Big Data and Medicine
Date: This Event has Concluded
Synopsis: A conversation on the social significance and impacts of big data, artificial intelligence and policy on health equity and social justice: Implication and tools for support health ethics and mental health.
Speakers: Sergio Litekwa, MD, MPH and Terika McCall, PhD
Dr. Sergio Litewka is a faculty member in the University of Miami Department of Surgery and the Director of Global Bioethics at the university’s Institute of Bioethics. Dr. Litewka’ s work focuses on the development of research and education activities with international governmental organizations, universities, and the private sector on human subject protection, research ethics and responsible conduct of research. He was the International Director for the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative, a web-based initiative for research ethics and responsible conduct of research education. Dr. Litewka completed his medical degree at the University of Buenos Aires and his master’s in public health at the University of El Salvador, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Dr. Terika McCall is an Assistant Professor in the Biostatistics Department (Health Informatics Division) at the Yale School of Public Health, secondary faculty at the Yale School of Medicine’s Biomedical Informatics & Data Science Section, and Director of the Consumer Health Informatics Lab (CHIL) at Yale. Dr. McCall’s research interests focus on reducing disparities in mental health service access and use through technology. Specifically, she examines the use of telehealth modalities to deliver mental health services and resources to communities that are underserved. Dr. McCall’s expertise is in user-centered design and usability testing of digital health tools.
Session 5
Techno-solutions that Drive Health Equity and Social Justice
Date: This Event has Concluded
Synopsis: A discussion on increasing digital equity and inclusion in healthcare by through a systematic approach.
Speaker: Caroline Franz, MBA
Caroline Franz has been in the design, strategy, and innovation field for over fifteen years. At Kaiser Permanente, she has led design research and strategic visioning for projects looking at care in the home, preventing adverse childhood experiences, covid-19 response, and digital equity. Ms. Franz’s career began in architecture focusing on workplace and healthcare projects. She has been an innovation strategist for clients like the University of Michigan, AdvocateAurora Health, Health Quality Partners, Rush University Medical Center, Regional Health Partners of South Dakota, and communities in Denver, CO, and Edmonton and Calgary in Canada. Ms. Franz has facilitated workshops and presented work at the Cleveland Clinic Patient Experience Summit, the European Healthcare Design Conference, the US Health Care Design Conference, and the American Public Health Associate Conference.
Session 6
Innovation: Implications for Racial and Criminal Justice
Date: This Event has Concluded
Synopsis: An examination of the social and racial implications of artificial intelligence, predictive algorithms and their impact on health equity and criminal justice.
Speaker: Steven Renderos
Steven Renderos is Executive Director of MediaJustice, a national racial justice organization that advances media and technology rights of people of color. Steven has led campaigns with MediaJustice that lowered the cost of prison phone calls, secured net neutrality rules, and got Donald Trump kicked off of Twitter. Steven is a regular commentator on media, technology, and racial justice, appearing in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and The Guardian. He was a 2013 Rainbow PUSH Coalition Top Inspirational and Engaged Leader and a 2020 Rockwood Leadership Institute Fellow. In 2020 Steven was an advisor for Just Futures Law’s Take Back Tech Fellowship, and serves on the board of Americans for Financial Reform.