A Call to Action: Eliminating Compounded Disparities for People with Disabilities in a Year of COVID-19
Our 2021 Symposium, A Call to Action: Eliminating Compounded Disparities for People with Disabilities in a Year of COVID-19 was held virtually on Friday, May 14, 2021, from 8:30 am to 1:30 pm EST. Thank you to all who were able to join us. We are so grateful to our partners and sponsors for helping to make the day so successful. We were honored to have such distinguished guests, speakers, and panelists at this event.
This past year was like no other in memory. COVID-19 has laid bare the gross inequities that are deeply-seated in society. Focusing on lived experience, this symposium explored the intersectionality of disability, race, ethnicity, culture, gender identities, and the political determinants of health. The virtual event with 1,100 registered participants was an effort to provoke a deeper discussion about our shared responsibilities and to help us develop a better path forward for future action in partnership with people with disabilities.
Thank you for joining partners AHRC New York City, Pace University, and Georgetown University’s National Center for Cultural Competence, with participation from the New York City Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, New York City Department of Social Services, and Trinity Church Wall Street for a day of thought-provoking panel discussions led by regional and national leaders.
In case you missed it, watch each panel by clicking the images below or click here to watch the entire symposium on YouTube.
2021 Symposium: Opening Remarks
Keynote Speech and Response to Keynote
Panel One
Panel Two
Panel Three
Speakers and Panelists
Attorney Daniel E. Dawes is a nationally recognized leader in the health equity movement and has led numerous efforts to address health policy issues impacting vulnerable, underserved, and marginalized populations. He is a health care attorney and administrator, and serves as the executive director of government affairs and health policy at Morehouse School of Medicine. He is also a lecturer of health law and policy at the Satcher Health Leadership Institute.
Dawes was instrumental in shaping the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) and founded and chaired the largest advocacy group, the National Working Group on Health Disparities and Health Reform, focused on developing comprehensive, inclusive and meaningful legislation to reform the health care system and address the disparities in health care and health status among racial and ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, women, children, LGBT individuals, and other vulnerable groups in the United States. He is the co-founder of the Health Equity Leadership and Exchange Network (HELEN), which is a national network of health equity champions in virtually every state and territory.
Dawes often lectures and presents on health law and policy while serving simultaneously on several boards, commissions, and councils focused on health equity and health reform. He is an advisor to international, national, regional, state and municipal policymakers, as well as think tanks, associations, foundations, corporations, and nonprofit organizations.
Judith (Judy) Heumann is a lifelong advocate for the rights of disabled people. She contracted polio in 1949 in Brooklyn, New York and began to use a wheelchair for her mobility. She was denied the right to attend school because she was considered a “fire hazard” at the age of five. Her parents played a strong role in fighting for her rights as a child, but Judy soon determined that she, working in collaboration with other disabled people, had to play an advocacy role due to continuous discrimination.
She is now an internationally recognized leader in the Disability Rights Community. Her memoir, authored with Kristen Joiner, of “Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir Of A Disability Rights Activist,” published by Beacon Press and audio recorded by Ali Stroker who is the first wheelchair actor to perform on Broadway. Judy was featured on the Trevor Noah Show. Judy is featured in Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution, a 2020 American award winning documentary film, directed by James LeBrecht and Nicole Newnham, produced by the Obama Higher Ground Production and is available on Netflix.
She has been featured in numerous documentaries including On The History Of The Disability Rights Movement, including Lives Worth Living and the Power Of 504 and delivered a TED Talk in the fall of 2016, “Our Fight For Disability Rights – and Why We’re Not Done Yet”. Her story was also told on Comedy Central’s Drunk History in early 2018, in which she was portrayed by Ali Stroker.
As Senior Fellow at the Ford Foundation (2017-2019), she wrote “Road Map For Inclusion: Changing The Face Of Disability In Media”. She also currently serves on a number of non-profit boards including the American Association of People with Disabilities, the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, Humanity and Inclusion, as well as the Human Rights Watch Board.
Judy was a founding member of the Berkeley Center for Independent Living which was the first grassroots center in the United States and helped to launch the independent living movement both nationally and globally.
In 1983, Judy co-founded the World Institute On Disability (WID) with Ed Roberts and Joan Leon, as one of the first global disability rights organizations founded and continually led by people with disabilities that works to fully integrate people with disabilities into the communities around them via research, policy, and consulting efforts.
From 1993 to 2001, Judy served in the Clinton Administration as the Assistant Secretary for the Office Of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services In the Department of Education.
Judy then served as the world bank’s first adviser on disability and development from 2002 to 2006. In this position, she led the World Bank’s disability work to expand its knowledge and capability to work with governments and civil society on including disability in the global conversation.
During his presidency, President Obama appointed Judy as the first Special Advisor for International Disability Rights at the U.S. Department of State, where she served from 2010-2017. Mayor Fenty of D.C. appointed her as the first Director for the Department on Disability Services, where she was responsible for the Developmental Disability Administration and the Rehabilitation Services Administration.
Throughout her life, Judy has traveled on her motorized wheelchair to countries on every continent, in urban and rural communities alike. She has played a role in the development and implementation of major legislation including the IDEA, Section 504, the Americans with Disability Act and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Judy graduated from Long Island University in Brooklyn, NY in 1969 and received her Master’s in Public Health from the University Of California at Berkeley In 1975. She has received numerous awards including being the first recipient of the Henry B. Betts Award along with the Max Starkloff Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Council on Independent Living. She has been awarded numerous honorary doctorates.
Lydia X. Z. Brown is an advocate, organizer, educator, attorney, strategist, and writer. Their work focuses on addressing state and interpersonal violence targeting disabled people living at the intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, faith, language, and nation. They are Policy Counsel for Disability Rights and Algorithmic Fairness for the Privacy and Data Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, and Director of Policy, Advocacy, and External Affairs for the Autistic Women and Nonbinary Network.
Lydia currently serves as a member of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Disability Rights, chairperson of the ABA Civil Rights and Social Justice Section’s Disability Rights Committee, and representative of the Disability Justice Committee to the National Lawyers Guild’s National Executive Committee. They also serve on the board of directors of the Alliance for Citizen Directed Supports, and on advisory boards for organizations including the Transgender Law Center, The Kelsey, Borealis Philanthropy, the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy, the Nonbinary and Intersex Recognition Project, and the Vera Institute for Justice. They regularly provide consulting, training, and workshops to nonprofit organizations, services agencies, colleges and universities, and other programs and companies interested in radical access and inclusion.
Lydia founded the Fund for Community Reparations for Autistic People of Color’s Interdependence, Survival, and Empowerment. They are currently creating their own tarot deck, Disability Justice Wisdom Tarot. Lydia is Adjunct Lecturer in Disability Studies at Georgetown University and Adjunct Professorial Lecturer in American Studies at American University’s Department of Critical Race, Gender, and Culture Studies. Previously, they taught at Tufts University as a Visiting Lecturer for the Experimental College. Often, their most important work has no title, job description, or funding, and probably never will.
Britney Wilson is a civil rights lawyer, writer, and advocate from Brooklyn, N.Y. She recently joined the faculty of New York Law School (NYLS) as an Associate Professor of Law and the Director of the new Civil Rights and Disability Justice Clinic, which will launch in Fall 2021. Prior to NYLS, Britney was a staff attorney at the National Center for Law and Economic Justice (NCLEJ) where she litigated disability rights, excessive fines and fees, and discriminatory policing cases. Before NCLEJ, Britney litigated discriminatory policing, abusive immigration detention practices, and economic justice cases as a Bertha Justice Fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR). Prior to CCR, Britney was a Marvin M. Karpatkin Fellow in the Racial Justice Program at the American Civil Liberties Union where she litigated a range of racial justice issues from the school-to-prison pipeline and the criminalization of poverty to fair housing and inclusion in higher education. Born with Cerebral Palsy, Britney has written and spoken extensively about disability, and the intersection of race and disability, for various media outlets, including The Nation Magazine, Longreads, and This American Life.
Marco Damiani has served as the Chief Executive Officer of AHRC New York City since 2017, working with its 5,000 mission-driven staff members to build upon the extraordinary 70-plus year legacy of AHRC NYC’s commitment to social justice for children and adults with disabilities. Marco joined AHRC New York City with a varied and progressive career in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD), behavioral health and general healthcare, as a clinician, consultant, and agency executive. His career began at FEGS as a direct support professional and clinician, shortly after the implementation of the landmark Willowbrook Consent Decree and progressed through the years with positions in New York State government to his position as Executive Vice-President at YAI Network where he led a broad and expansive portfolio of health, dental and behavioral healthcare, and large community-based family support, information and referral programs and research/program evaluation, to Executive Vice President at Cerebral Palsy Associations of NYS, to his most previous position as CEO of Metro Community Health Centers, a network of 6 Federally-Qualified Health Centers in NYC devoted to supporting patients of all abilities.
In addition to positions in executive leadership, Marco has served as Chair of the Manhattan Developmental Disabilities Council, Chairman of the Alliance for Integrated Care of New York, the first Medicare Accountable Care Organization in the nation focused on individuals with I/DD, a Board member of both the Inter-Agency Council of I/DD Agencies, New York Disability Advocates, and Care Design NY, an I/DD Health Home. He is a Mayoral Appointee of the NYC Community Services Board I/DD subcommittee and an Appointee to the New York University College of Dentistry Dean’s Strategic Advisory Council. In addition and in recognition of Marco’s contributions, leadership and advocacy, he was awarded the Kriser Medal, the highest honor from NYU College of Dentistry, the Arc of the US National Conference of Executives Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award and the Certificate of Special US Congressional Recognition for outstanding and invaluable service to the community.
Marco earned a B.S. in Psychology from Manhattan College, a Master’s Degree in Developmental Psychology from Columbia University, and pursued doctoral studies in Educational Psychology at New York University. He attributes his success to the extraordinary collective work and shared vision of his many colleagues over the years, their enduring commitment to promoting social justice for people with disabilities and his never-ending quest to being more than just a so-so guitar player.
Marvin Krislov became the eighth President of Pace University on August 1, 2017. He is deeply committed to Pace’s mission of Opportunitas—providing all students, regardless of economic background, access to the transformative power of education. He is guiding Pace through its New York City Master Plan to overhaul our downtown campus, and he’s working to bolster Pace’s status as the nation’s leading four-year private college for driving economic mobility. Prior to Krislov’s appointment at Pace, he served for 10 years as the president of Oberlin College, where he led collaborative, consensus-driven efforts to make the college more rigorous, diverse, inclusive, and accessible to students from every socioeconomic background. Prior to Oberlin, he was vice president and general counsel at the University of Michigan, where he led the legal defense of the University’s admission policies that resulted in the 2003 Supreme Court decision recognizing the importance of student body diversity. Krislov earned a bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, at Yale University in 1982, and was named a Rhodes Scholar. He earned master’s degrees at Oxford University and Yale, and a juris doctor degree at Yale Law School in 1988. Prior to entering academic life, Krislov served as acting solicitor and then deputy solicitor of national operations in the US Department of Labor. He previously served as associate counsel in the Office of Counsel to the President under President Bill Clinton.
As Deputy Mayor for Strategic Policy Initiatives, Deputy Mayor J. Phillip Thompson is responsible for spearheading a diverse collection of priority initiatives. This expansive portfolio includes Democracy NYC, the Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprises Program, the Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development, the Office of the Census, and the Young Men’s Initiative. Additionally, his agency portfolio includes the Department of Youth and Community Development; the Department of Small Business Services; the Commission on Human Rights; the Department of Veterans’ Services; the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs; the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities; and the NYC Public Engagement Unit.
Prior to joining the de Blasio administration, Thompson was an Associate Professor of Urban Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of Double Trouble: Black Mayors, Black Communities and the Struggle for Deep Democracy published in 2006 by Oxford University Press. He has also written and worked extensively on community health planning, race and community development, and the politics of black economic advancement.
Thompson also has an extensive background in New York City Government. He previously served in the Dinkins Administration as the Deputy General Manager for Operations and Development, and before that served in the Manhattan Borough President’s Office.
He received a B.A. in Sociology from Harvard University in 1977, a Masters in Urban Planning from Hunter College in 1986, and a PhD from the City University of New York Graduate Center in 1990.
Tawara Goode is an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C. She has been on the faculty of the Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development (GUCCHD), for over 30 years and has served in many capacities. She has degrees in early childhood education, and education and human development. Professor Goode has extensive experience as a principal investigator for federal and private sector grants and contracts. She is the director of the National Center for Cultural Competence (NCCC) at GUCCHD. She is the new Director of the GUCCHD’s University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities and focuses on national level efforts to advance and sustain cultural and linguistic competence in this field.
The NCCC has been in existence for the past 23 years during which Professor Goode was the director for 22 years. The mission of the NCCC is to increase the capacity of health care and mental health care programs to design, implement, and evaluate culturally and linguistically competent service delivery systems to address growing diversity, persistent disparities, and to promote health and mental health equity. Professor Goode is recognized as a thought leader in the area of cultural and linguistic competence and building the NCCC into a nationally and internationally recognized and award-winning program. She had a primary role in developing curricula, assessment instruments, professional development series, and other resources that support cultural and linguistic competence.
Professor Goode is actively involved in the development and implementation of programs and initiatives in the area of cultural and linguistic competence at local, national, and international levels. These efforts address the needs of diverse audiences including health and mental health care, public health, social services, community/advocacy organizations, professional societies/organizations, and institution of higher education. Professor Goode has conducted research on cultural and linguistic competence and its role in addressing health and health care disparities including: 1) a collaborative effort to create validated instruments to measure cultural and linguistic competence in health care settings; 2) a multi-site project to examine health disparities for populations at the intersection of race, ethnicity, and disability; and 3) a community-engaged study to examine if barriers to participation in research by racial and ethnic groups (other than non-Hispanic White) can be reduced by “truth and reconciliation” community forums designed to acknowledge past injustices and exploitation committed by researchers and research institutions and to foster reconciliation. Professor Goode is a member of the Community Engagement Module of the Georgetown-Howard Universities Center for Clinical Translational Science.
In addition to the GUCEDD, Professor Goode administers three grants from the Administration on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities including the Leadership Institute for Cultural Diversity and Cultural and Linguistic Competence, Community of Practice on Cultural and Linguistic Competence, and Embedding Cultural and Linguistic Competence: A Guide for UCEDD Curricula and Training Activities. Each of these grants focuses on: 1) increasing the number and capacity of leaders to advance and sustain cultural and linguistic competence to respond to the growing cultural diversity among people with developmental disabilities; and 2) developing curricula and professional development for current and future professionals that will teach, provide services and supports, and conduct research with and on behalf of people with developmental disabilities, their families, and the communities in which they live.
Professor Goode’s publications include peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, monographs, policy papers, guides and instruments that support cultural and linguistic competence in a variety of human service and academic settings. She has and continues to serve on numerous boards, commissions and advisory groups at the local, regional, and national levels that are concerned with the health, mental health, and well-being of culturally and linguistically diverse populations and communities in the U.S. its territories, and in tribal communities.
As Commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, Victor Calise has been an advocate for people with disabilities in both the Bloomberg and de Blasio Administrations. Responsible for ensuring that New York City is the most accessible city in the world, Calise advises the Mayor and agency partners on accessibility issues, spearheads public-private partnerships, and chairs the Accessibility Committee of the City’s Building Code.
Commissioner Calise began his City service working with the Capital Projects Division of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation where he led efforts to make one of the largest and most complex parks systems in the world accessible by ensuring compliance with the construction standards, managing facilities, and developing training materials. Prior to working in New York City government, he was a disability advocate in the non-profit sector.
Calise has facilitated relationships with businesses in a myriad of sectors including technology, finance, government, and healthcare. His leadership led to the creation of the NYC: ATWORK employment initiative—the first public-private partnership that directly connects jobseekers with disabilities and businesses. The Commissioner also consistently engages with innovators in digital accessibility, communications, and autonomous vehicle development in order to ensure that accessibility remains a priority in technological advancements.
A recognized expert on disability, the Commissioner regularly consults with high-level stakeholders regarding accessibility. He is frequently invited to national and international conferences and has given numerous keynote speeches. Passionate about the human rights of people with disabilities, Commissioner Calise supports the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and works with international partners to ensure that people with disabilities are mainstreamed into society.
The Commissioner received a B.S. in Sports Management from St. John’s University and an M.A. in Urban Affairs from Queens College, CUNY. Calise—an avid athlete—competed in the 1998 Paralympic Games in Nagano, Japan as a member of the first U.S. national sled hockey team. A native New Yorker, he lives on the Upper West Side with his wife and two daughters.
Dr. Michelle Morse is Founding Co-Director of EqualHealth and Assistant Program Director for the Internal Medicine Residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Morse co-founded EqualHealth (www.equalhealth.org), an organization that aims to inspire and support the development of Haiti’s next generation of healthcare leaders through transforming medical and nursing education and creating opportunities for Haitian health professionals to thrive. She works to strengthen medical education globally, expand the teaching of social medicine in the US and abroad, and to support health systems strengthening through EqualHealth. In 2015 Dr. Morse worked with several partners to found the Social Medicine Consortium, a global coalition of over 700 people representing over 50 universities and organizations in twelve countries, which seeks to use activism and disruptive pedagogy rooted in the practice and teaching of social medicine to address the miseducation of health professionals on the root causes of illness. In 2018, Dr. Morse was named as a Soros Equality Fellow and will be working on a global Campaign Against Racism during the fellowship.
Dr. Morse is an internal medicine hospitalist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) through the Division of Global Health Equity, an instructor on the faculty at Harvard Medical School, and an affiliate of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine. She served as Deputy Chief Medical Officer for Partners in Health (PIH) from 2013 to 2016. She also served as an advisor to the Medical Director of Mirebalais Hospital, a newly built public academic medical center established through a partnership between the government of Haiti and PIH. Previously, she served as Director of Medical Education at Mirebalais Hospital, where she started the hospital’s first three residency programs.
As a Howard Hiatt Global Health Equity resident in Internal Medicine at BWH from 2008-2012, Dr. Morse worked in Haiti, Rwanda, and Botswana. She focused her international work in Haiti where she helped to coordinate Partners In Health’s (PIH) earthquake relief efforts, was a first-responder for the cholera epidemic, and worked on women’s health and quality improvement projects.
Dr. Morse earned her B.S. in French in 2003 from the University of Virginia, her M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 2008, and her MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health in May 2012.
Dr. Fabienne Laraque is an internal medicine and preventive medicine physician with formal training in epidemiology and public health, and training as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer at the CDC. She was at the NYC Health Department for almost 20 years in diverse leadership positions, including leading the Maternal and Infant Health Program, Tuberculosis Surveillance, HIV Care, Treatment and Housing, and as the Director of the Viral Hepatitis Program, responsible for hepatitis C and adult hepatitis B activities. In her various positions, Dr. Laraque has led the development and implementation of a number of innovative research and interventions, including an evidence-supported comprehensive care coordination program for persons with HIV infection. This intervention was adapted by her team for a CMS Innovation Award on care coordination for HCV patients, Project INSPIRE.
Dr. Laraque became the Medical Director of the NYC Department of Homeless Services (DHS) in September 2016. Under her leadership, DHS became a state-certified opioid overdose prevention program, providing naloxone administration training to DHS sites and conducting overdose surveillance. In addition, Dr. Laraque created a team of clinical, public health and evaluation specialists who are restructuring and standardizing healthcare, behavioral health systems and food and nutrition at DHS. Her team is strengthening clinical work at DHS and bringing public health and related programmatic research to the department and has been instrumental in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, from guidance development, to contact investigations, and implementation of onsite COVID-19 testing and vaccination.
Andrew (Andy) Imparato became the Executive Director of Disability Rights California (DRC) on February 3, 2020. Andy joins DRC after a high impact 26-year career in Washington, DC working inside and outside government in significant leadership positions, including 17 years as the chief executive of two national disability organizations, the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD) and the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD).
Andy’s experience also includes serving as Senior Counsel and Disability Policy Director for Chairman Tom Harkin on the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions; General Counsel and Director of Policy for the National Council on Disability; and as an attorney at the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He graduated with distinction from Stanford Law School in 1990 and was a summa cum laude graduate of Yale College. He grew up in Los Angeles, California, is married to historian Elizabeth M. Nix, Ph.D., and has two sons, Gareth and Nicholas, who both live in Southern California. Andy’s perspective is informed by his lived experience with bipolar disorder.
Andy is committed to “championing and modeling diversity, equity and inclusion and defining a future for disability rights advocacy that extends the reach and impact of the disability rights movement in California, the United States and globally.”
Virginia Barber Rioja obtained her Ph.D. in clinical forensic psychology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York. She is currently the Co-Chief of Service for Mental Health at NYC Health + Hospitals/Correctional Health Services, which oversees mental health treatment in the NYC jail system. She is also an adjunct associate professor in the Psychology Department of New York University where she teaches in the graduate program. She has over 15 years of experience working in correctional and forensic contexts. She worked as an attending psychologist in the forensic inpatient unit of Bellevue Hospital Center, as the clinical director of several mental health courts, diversion and reentry programs in NYC, and as a consultant for the juvenile correctional facilities in Puerto Rico. With the goal of bringing knowledge of forensic psychology to applied audiences and policymakers, Dr. Barber Rioja has provided a great deal of teaching to probation and parole officers, police officers, defense attorneys, prosecutors and judges. She has published and presented workshops nationally and internationally on the topics of criminal justice diversion, mental health courts, clinically informed case management, forensic mental health assessment, implementation of risk assessment instruments in special jurisdiction courts, and psychological evaluations in the context of immigration proceedings. Dr. Barber Rioja maintains a private forensic practice involving immigration, state and federal court cases. She is a board member of the Asociación Iberoamericana de Justicia Terapéutica (Iberoamerican Association of Therapeutic Jurisprudence) and a former member of the American Psychological Association’s Committee on Legal Issues (COLI).
Sheryl White-Scott, MD, FACP is a medical consultant at AHRC New York City and medical specialist for the Metro Developmental Disabilities Services in New York City. AHRC New York City is a nonprofit, family-governed organization dedicated to enhancing the lives of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families. The Metro Developmental Disabilities Services Office of the New York State Office for People with Developmental Disabilities is the state government office responsible for helping people with developmental disabilities live richer and healthier lives in Manhattan and The Bronx.
Sheryl is board certified in internal medicine with additional fellowship training in developmental disabilities. She is an assistant clinical professor of medicine in the Department of Internal Medicine at New York Medical College.
Sheryl is a member of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and a fellow in the American College of Physicians. She is past president of the American Association of University Affiliated Programs (now Association of University Centers for Disabilities), past chair of the Health Promotion Committee and past chair of the Multicultural Special Interest Group of the American Association on Mental Retardation (now the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities). Her recent recognition in the field of developmental disabilities includes reappointment to the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities and the 2014 Dybwad Humanitarian Award from AAIDD.
A native Texan and licensed psychiatrist, Dr. Octavio N. Martinez, Jr. is the fifth Executive Director to lead the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health since its creation in 1940 at The University of Texas at Austin, where he oversees the vision, mission, goals, strategic planning and day-to-day operations of the foundation. Dr. Martinez holds an appointment of Senior Associate Vice President within the university’s Division of Diversity and Community Engagement; he is also a clinical professor in the university’s School of Social Work; and holds an adjunct professor appointment at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry. His academic interests include minority health, health disparities and workforce issues.
In addition to his administrative and academic duties, he currently serves on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s, Health and Medicine Division’s (HMD’s) Standing Committee on Medical and Public Health Research during Large-Scale Emergency Events and on HMD’s Roundtable on the Promotion of Health Equity and the Elimination of Health Disparities. He has formerly served on the IOM’s Committee on the Governance and Financing of Graduate Medical Education (2014) and on the Committee on the Mental Health Workforce for Geriatric Populations (2012). From 2002 to 2006 he served as a Special Emphasis Panel Member for the National Institutes of Health, National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities. Dr. Martinez also serves on the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services to the Secretary of Health. He is a member of the board of directors for Trust for America’s Health (TFAH), a member of the editorial board for the Home Health Care Services Quarterly Journal, and a member of The University of Texas – University Charter School Advisory Board. Dr. Martinez is a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a member of The American College of Psychiatrists, a member of The College of Behavioral Health Leadership, the National Hispanic Medical Association, the American Public Health Association, and the Texas Society for Psychiatric Physicians.
In 2017, Dr. Martinez was named a Distinguished Alumnus by his high school: Stephen F. Austin High School in Austin, Texas. He is a recipient of the 2015 Psychiatric Excellence Award from the Texas Society of Psychiatric Physicians. He also received the National Alliance on Mental Illness Texas 2015 Mental Health Professional of the Year Award and was inducted into The Philosophical Society of Texas in 2015. He was awarded a Shining Lights Award for Excellence in Hispanic Mental Health Advocacy and Leadership in 2012 by the National Resource Center for Hispanic Mental Health and he is a recipient of the 2008 Adolph Meyer, M.D. Research Award in recognition of contributions in minority health and efforts to improve the mental health of all citizens regardless of socioeconomic status by The Center for Health Care Services. Dr. Martinez is licensed to practice medicine in Texas and North Carolina.
Prior to joining the foundation in 2008, Dr. Martinez was a clinical psychiatrist at Albemarle Mental Health Center and an affiliate associate professor at the Brody School of Medicine in North Carolina. He was part of a team that created a 23-Hour Crisis Unit at Albemarle Hospital in Elizabeth City, North Carolina to serve a 10 county catchment area that includes the Outer Banks. Before that he was an assistant professor and psychiatrist at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and a Faculty Associate with the Center for Medical Humanities and Ethics. In San Antonio he served as Director of Psychiatric Consultation/Liaison Services for University Hospital and the Audie L. Murphy Veterans Administration Hospital. He also was Co-Director of Behavioral Sciences for the UTHSCSA medical school, and developed two community psychiatric clinics for underserved areas of San Antonio.
Before entering medical school, Dr. Martinez worked in commercial real estate, banking, and finance. As a commercial real estate banker in Austin, Texas, he managed business parks, office buildings, and large tracts of commercial real estate. He has a master’s degree in public health from Harvard University’s School of Public Health, a doctor’s degree in medicine from Baylor College of Medicine, and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in business administration with a concentration in finance from The University of Texas at Austin. He was Chief Resident during his psychiatric training at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and is an alumnus of The Commonwealth Fund/Harvard University Fellowship in Minority Health Policy at Harvard Medical School.
Jennifer Natera has served AHRC New York City for eleven years as a Residential Services Manager. In the early weeks of the pandemic, Jennifer witnessed firsthand the early signs of the year that was to come. As manager of AHRC New York City’s Armstrong residence where both staff and vulnerable residents succumbed to COVID-19 before the city truly understood much about the virus, she was a role model and actively led staff, people supported, and their families with grace, intelligence, and heart through the darkest of days. AHRC New York City is a nonprofit, family-governed organization dedicated to supporting and enhancing the lives of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. She is currently a student of the CUNY School of Professional Studies pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology.
Dr. ‘Simbo Ige is the Assistant Commissioner for the Bureau of Health Equity Capacity Building at the New York City’s Department of Health. In this role she works to increase capacity and readiness of community partners, and other institutions to address health inequities across New York City. She also serves as the Branch Director for COVID-19 Community and Partner Engagement for the agency’s COVID-19 resurgence and vaccination program. Through the vaccine community engagement work, she works to ensure equity in accessibility and uptake of vaccines by all New Yorkers.
Irfan Hasan directs The New York Community Trust’s health, behavioral health, and biomedical research grantmaking program and oversees a $12 million donor-designated grants for grantees across the country. He co-chaired the human services grantmaking committee of The Trust’s $110 million multi-funder NYC COVID-19 Response and Impact Fund, which made $43 million in emergency grants to human service nonprofits. After September 11, 2001, Irfan helped develop The Trust’s September 11th Fund’s $75 million emergency health and mental health grants program. Before The Trust, Irfan led vocational programming at Greater Boston Rehabilitation Services (now part of Viability) to help people with disabilities, chronic diseases, and other barriers to employment.
Irfan serves on the board of BoardStrong, is a co-chair for Philanthropy New York’s Health Working Group and American Public Health Association’s Public Health Funder Network, is an elected fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, and a member of the International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership.
Previously, he has served as a Mayoral appointee to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Community Service Board; a member of the Board of Directors of the Disability Funders Network, including Board Chair; a member of Grantmakers in Health’s Behavioral Health Funders Network; a co- chair of the United States Student Selection Committee for the United World Colleges; and has presented and designed sessions for Council on Foundations, Grantmakers in Health, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, American Public Health Association, National Council for Behavioral Health, and American Planning Association conferences.
Irfan earned a B.Sc. in sociology from Northeastern University and an MPA from the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University.
Devi Thomas is a cause branding and purpose marketer who is working with Salesforce.org to tell the social impact story of Salesforce and bring the .org brand to life through integrated, and consistent brand marketing and messaging. Devi has led corporate citizenship brands at the UN Foundation and Cone Communications, among other brands where she specialized in CSR and cause-related branding.
Rick Guidotti, an award-winning photographer, worked in NYC, Milan, Paris and London for a variety of high-profile clients including Yves St Laurent, Revlon and L’Oreal. His work has been published in newspapers, magazines and journals as diverse as GQ, People, the American Journal of Medical Genetics, The Lancet, Spirituality and Health, the Washington Post, Atlantic Monthly and LIFE Magazine.
Rick founded POSITIVE EXPOSURE after a chance encounter in 1997 with a young lady living with albinism at a bus stop in New York City. As an artist, Rick was taken by her extraordinary beauty. In a quest for a better understanding of albinism, Rick sought out medical textbooks, where he was affronted by the dehumanizing images depicting disease, lacking all humanity. It was this experience which forced Rick to turn his lens from the more traditional ideas of beauty, to the beauty and richness of human diversity.
Rick has since spent more than twenty years collaborating internationally with advocacy organizations/NGOs, medical schools, universities and other educational institutions to effect a sea-change in societal attitudes towards individuals living with genetic, physical, behavioral or intellectual difference.
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