Monthly Archives: May 2021

PR.com2021-05-04

Bainbridge Island, WA, May 04, 2021 --(PR.com)-- If 100 girls from fifth grade through college joined forces to make a difference in their communities by giving voice to other girls, what could they accomplish? The Power of 100 Girls, fiscally-sponsored by Hack+, is recruiting inspiring and dedicated girls and young women to join its Founders Circle to support girls overlooked in a traditional grant or scholarship system.

To become a Founders Circle member, girls must commit to raising and/or donating 100 dollars annually, then meet quarterly to review applications and select girls, women, and related organizations to support. They will also provide leadership for The Power of 100 Girls organization as ambassadors for the initiative through recruitment, sponsorship and growth opportunities for the new nonprofit.

Founders Circle members are independent thinkers who are passionate about helping girls and young women who are, for various reasons, overlooked or unable to pursue the help they need to succeed, says Merrill Keating, 16-year old founder of The Power of 100 Girls and a freshman at the University of Washington. As an introvert myself, I have noticed so many girls miss out on scholarships and awards because society favors extroversion. Without access to a good support system and connections, many of these girls can fall through the cracks. When I observed so many engaged and passionate girls struggle to launch their causes or projects, I decided to attract 100 of them so we could make a difference in the future of other girls and young women like them. By harnessing the power of girls at an early age, Founders Circle girls become investors and entrepreneurial catalysts who uplift, empower, and help shape the destinies of others.

The Founders Circle membership will be made up of girls who are dedicated to being allies and keeping a fair and open mind. More than a community service opportunity, participation in The Power of 100 Girls is a chance to learn and grow together in an authentic and collaborative environment while pledging to do good and pay it forward. 100 percent of the minimum 100-dollar annual investment will become part of the scholarship fund, and the organization hopes to recruit sponsors and partners to help offset the administrative costs and expenses associated with starting and running the organization. My hope is that an intentional Founders Circle of inspired young change makers will make the open-hearted decisions to make a difference, she said. Rather than waiting for funding from an external source, we can boldly and purposefully create a world of our choosing.

Visit powerof100girls.org for more information.

Contact Information:The Power of 100 Girls via Hack+Merrill Keating415-938-8088 ext. 700Contact via Emailhttps://www.powerof100girls.org

Read the full story here: https://www.pr.com/press-release/835850

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The Power of 100 Girls Seeks Inspiring Youth to Make a Difference in Their Communities - IT News Online

Lisa Barker is the new executive director of the School of Educations Office of Professional Learning and Community Engagement (PLACE), Dean Diana Hess announced.

I am thrilled that Lisa will lead PLACE, says Hess. She is an innovative leader with deep expertise and the ability to ensure that the work of faculty and staff in the School has a real impact on many communities near and far.

PLACE represents the Wisconsin Idea in action as it helps ensure that the knowledge fostered within the School of Education reaches beyond the boundaries of campus to have a local, state, national, and global impact. Using the expertise of faculty, staff, and community stakeholders, PLACE supports and develops transformational professional and community learning programs for a diverse audience of participants across the arts, health, and education fields. Both credit and non-credit offerings allow individuals to develop skills while building community among like-minded colleagues.

In her role leading the office, Barker is responsible for providing direction for the administrative operations and advancing the program goals and objectives of PLACE. Barker also becomes part of the School of Educations leadership team as a member of Senior Staff.

I am thrilled by this opportunity to envision the future of PLACE, says Barker. I am inspired by the talent of the PLACE team, and by the School of Educations interdisciplinarity and intentional centering of equity, diversity, and inclusion. We are excited to continue building bold, beautiful programs that bridge faculty and staff ideas with community needs in education, health, and the arts.

Barker is no stranger to PLACE, having served as the offices education director since April of 2020. In this role, she has worked on translating educational research into professional and community learning opportunities.

Barker earned a Ph.D. from Stanford University in curriculum and teacher education, and is interested in how the principles and practices of improvisational theatre can inform the work of educators.

Prior to arriving at UWMadison, she taught English education at Stanford, the State University of New York at New Paltz, and Towson University. She also served as director of education for Adventure Stage Chicago and was manager of the City University of New Yorks Creative Arts Teams Paul A. Kaplan Center for Educational Drama, where she helped launch the first masters degree in applied theatre in the United States.

Barker started her career in education as an English, reading, and drama teacher at James Lick High School in San Jose, California.

Excerpt from:

Barker named executive director of PLACE - School of Education - University of Wisconsin-Madison

May 03, 2021 -While health equity has been a top priority among leaders in the industry for several years, the equitable distribution of resources became even more critical during COVID-19.

From testing to care access, organizations had to develop strategies to ensure they were reaching populations most at risk during the pandemic. With the availability of vaccines, entities had to refine and enhance their health equity efforts to adequately protect all patient groups against the virus.

For leaders at Hennepin Healthcare, a health system in Minneapolis, this meant employing knowledge gained earlier in the pandemic.

We realized pretty quickly that its one thing to know your patient populations and have a certain amount of vaccine, but equitable distribution of the vaccine is a different ball game, Deepti Pandita, MD, chief health innovation officer at Hennepin Healthcare, told HealthITAnalytics.

Our experience with COVID testing taught us that outreach strategies need to be tailored to the individual one outreach method is not going to work for all patients. For example, if we have outbreaks of COVID in certain populations, we need to get trusted community leaders to do the testing rather than wait for them to come to the healthcare system. So, we aimed to apply the same lessons to our distribution strategy.

READ MORE: Data Visualization Tool Allows Users to Track COVID-19 Spread

A big part of tailoring those outreach strategies involved gathering patient data.

We knew that we needed to be deliberate and intentional in choosing where to target the vaccines. But we also knew that we had to comply with the requirement of getting enough vaccines allocated in time, said Nneka Sederstrom, PhD, MPH, chief equity officer at Hennepin.

We used our technology to strategically target the zip codes that we knew we needed to reach before expanding to other areas, like having our interpreters and clinicians reaching out to patients to try and get them in.

The health system used the EHR to capture social determinants information and identify patients with transportation barriers, unstable housing, limited English proficiency, and other elements that could impact their ability to get the vaccine or their susceptibility to the virus.

Leaders then combined that information with data visualization tools based on zip code to identify neighborhoods that needed more attention.

READ MORE: Ensuring Health Data Collection Protects Patient Privacy, Equity

Without data, we wouldn't know where to start, Pandita said.

When we heard the vaccines were coming, we identified which of our patient populations needed vaccinations, created registries, and then developed outreach strategies that could be tailored to those patients. We considered which ones had online portal access, which ones had telephone numbers listed, which ones had emails listed, and their preferred language. Our operational people could then get to work on designing outreach strategies and setting up vaccination sites.

Incorporating all of this information into a visualization tool is key for demonstrating why targeting strategies are necessary, Sederstrom explained.

Without the data, it can be really hard to make the case for why equity needs to win out, she said.

People often push back on equity efforts because theyre worried or concerned that these strategies mean preferring one group over another. The reality is that if the goal is to decrease spread, decrease impact, and decrease mortality, then we've got to use the data to prove where those pockets are.

READ MORE: Using Social Determinants to Promote Health Equity During a Crisis

Additionally, data visualization tools can help healthcare executives understand whats working, and what needs to improve.

We also have to see the data to know how were doing. We can see if were closing in on a gap, and how that will impact next steps. Its not just a one-and-done process, Pandita added.

With social determinants information, leaders can ensure theyre meeting patients where they are.

We've used zip codes to do targeted community outreach to connect with religious organizations, community groups, and others within those zip codes to try and set up community-based vaccine clinic opportunities. That way, we can target the populations were missing, Sederstrom said.

Although its important to get vaccines to enough people as quickly as possible, Pandita stressed that equity efforts cant get lost in the shuffle.

Because we are in a pandemic, speed is important. But speed and equity often clash with each other. So, while one stream is the speed part of the vaccination process, the other stream is equity. And you need to keep an eye on both streams as you go forward, she said.

Leaders also shouldnt look at equity efforts as harmful to other patient populations.

We're not sacrificing others when we focus on equity, said Sederstrom.

The people who have access and resources will be able to get vaccinated at a steady stream anyway. Being deliberate and intentional in finding the people who need the most help is part of what we need to do.

For other organizations designing vaccine distribution strategies or any health equity strategy personalization and trust go a long way.

One outreach strategy is never enough. You need to tailor the strategy and understand the population youre serving, Pandita said.

The other part of that is building trust. Just because someone is seeking care in your healthcare system doesnt mean they have enough trust in the system to come to you for the vaccine. That has been a learning experience. You have to engage trusted community partners to educate patients, and actually go into the community to understand the needs and barriers.

It will also help to understand the reasons behind patients uncertainty in the first place.

Hesitancy does not mean refusal. It just means that we need to figure out why there's hesitation and take steps to address it, said Sederstrom.

People may interpret hesitation as outright distrust of the system, and they may think that's too big a barrier for them to try and address. But we need to learn more about why theres hesitation, what we are missing in our communication, and what struggles these communities are facing.

Even after COVID-19 is behind the healthcare system, the combination of social determinants data and visualization technologies could help inform health equity efforts.

Our methodology could serve as a template not only for other safety net systems, but all healthcare systems, said Pandita.

These strategies should drive public policy and advocacy around vaccination for any future pandemics, because diseases dont differentiate between who has resources and who doesnt. These situations automatically disadvantage those who don't have the means and resources, and we have to be very cognizant and very methodical about keeping that front and center in our strategies.

The lessons learned about health equity during the pandemic should influence care delivery going forward.

We cant be scared to have the hard conversations that need to be had, and look at the truths that the data shows us. The knowledge that there are inequities within our systems, within our communities, and within our patient outcomes is real. And we have to be honest and open about it, and be intentional in addressing it, Sederstrom concluded.

In the times when the pandemic is on hold, or in between pandemics, that's the time to do the work to rectify inequities. That way, when the next one comes around, we don't have to have the same conversations.

Continue reading here:

Leveraging Data Visualization Tools to Promote Health Equity - HealthITAnalytics.com

President Price, Provost Kornbluth, deans, and faculty: Thank you for inviting meand including me in this venerable class.

To all the Duke community alumni, friends, faculty, family, whether youre tuning in from Durham or across the world: Welcome!

And most importantly thankfully, blissfully let me extend a big, in-the-flesh congratulations to our guests of honor: The Class of 2021!

What a day! What a year! What an accomplishment! Congratulations!

D-D-M-F!

You know, this is the first time Ive been in front of a live audience, hearing live applause, since last February. 14 months ago. For a needy performer, this is a very big deal. It feels nice.

But this is not my first time on your beautiful campus. Way back in 2004, I performed at LDOC with someone named Kanye West. (Anyone heard of him?)

In those days, I would play piano and sing the hooks for Kanye, and hope people would notice me.

Then later that year, we released my first album, Get Liftedand Im realizing today that maybe its thanks to Duke that my career took off.

And Im thrilled its brought me full circle, back to speak with you on this most momentous day.

Seriously, this is a special milestone. And if you dont feel it yet well, thats okay, too. When I was prepping for my own graduation way back in 1999, I remember feeling pretty indifferent.

Back then, I was too cool to care about a silly ceremony. Id already done the work. Id made the friends. Id turned in my papers and passed the tests.

What was the point of all the pomp and circumstance?

But, during the actual ceremony, I realized: Being together is the point. Being joyous is the point. Celebrating is the point.

We have so few moments to enjoy these rites of passage to just revel in our accomplishments with the people we love.

Today is one of those moments. And, of course, after a year when we couldnt gather at all, it takes on a special meaning.

Lets just acknowledge the elephant in the stadium: On your way to Wallace Wade, your class lost a lot.

Some lost job offers. Some lost loved ones. And all of you lost a whole year of those little moments that make college so special the in-between moments.

Those late nights in Perkins, sitting across the table from your delirious friends.

Those talks in the common room or spontaneous lunch dates. Those weeks camping out in the freezing cold for tickets to a sports game, because apparently thats a thing we do here.

Those nights dancing around burning benches after you win a sports game because, apparently, thats a thing we also do here?

All this loss is no joke.

I keep thinking about your senior performances. Losing those would have been tragic for me. All you band members and a capella singers and dancers and improv aficionados, I feel your pain.

Youve lost something you cant get back. I wont sugarcoat that. It sucks.

But from what youve lost from all of this vast, incalculable loss youve gained something, too.

The fact that youre here today, graduates of one of the worlds best universities, means that youve had to approach life with a certain competitiveness.

I know because I did it, too.

I skipped grades to get ahead. Worked hard to graduate second in my high school class. Went to Penn. Got a job at Boston Consulting Group.

That path required this constant drive to push harder, reach higher, do better to try to be perfect, or close to it. Im sure it sounds familiar.

But over the past year, you were forced to pause... to see yourselves not in competition with one another, but in community with each other. Anyone getting sick was a risk to everyone.

We all had to slow down. Social distance. Cover our faces. Stop filling our days with maximum productivity, and simply keep each other safe. Keep each other alive. Care for one another.

And this perspective you gained will serve us all. Because while that competitive drive that got you here can be an incredible gift, it can get in the way too.

We all know that for Duke to win, UNC must... I think we say G-T-H?

But that competitiveness can be a slippery slope to thinking: For me to get ahead in life, for me to succeed, someone else is going to have to lose out. Someone else is going to have to suffer.

You let that competitiveness take over your thinking, and you might start seeing life as a zero-sum game.

This kind of thinking has poisoned our democracy from the beginning.

One of the most important books I read this year was The Sum of Us, by Heather McGhee. In it, McGhee lays out exactly how much that zero-sum game has cost us.

Americas story has always been marred by efforts to exclude, to dominate, to subjugate to keep certain groups of people with no voice, no power, and no opportunity. Workers. Women. Indigenous people. Black people. Immigrants. The LGBTQ community

All because of a fear that if those people did better, people at the top would lose out.

The miracle of our story is that, as we expanded opportunity, in our best moments, we proved that those fears were unfounded.

When more people made more money, rich business owners didnt suffer. They got more customers! Prosperity increased for everyone.

When people whod been excluded finally got their voices heard, it didnt mean everyone else had to sit down and shut up. Our national conversations got better, truer, smarter and so did our public policies.

Our nation is at its best when we realize that we all do better when we all do better.

Yet, today, were still fighting against the old zero-sum thinking thats been holding us back since the beginning.

We see it in efforts to deny people their right to vote. We see it in the shameful attacks on trans rights.

Our nation is at its best when we realize that we all do better when we all do better. Yet, today, were still fighting against the old zero-sum thinking thats been holding us back since the beginning.

We see it around the world. In places like China, Hungary, Russia, India, Myanmar across the globe, nativism, sectarianism, exploitation, and authoritarianism are gaining ground.

We see it in efforts to hoard economic opportunity, too. Today, the 26 wealthiest people on the planet own as much as the 3.5 billion poorest.

And powerful people are spending lots of money lobbying to keep it that way.

And, of course, we see it in our policing and carceral systems: In the simple fact that so many people heard Black Lives Matter and assumed it meant that other lives couldnt matter, too. Thats zero-sum thinking if Ive ever seen it.

Now, I know some of you may be thinking: Why is he bringing us down on our graduation day?

And you wouldnt be the first to say something like that.

As North Carolina native Nina Simone once said, It is an artists duty to reflect the times in which we live. And you know what I think? It is also a bankers duty. Its a lawyers duty, a doctors duty, a teachers duty, an engineers duty, an entrepreneurs duty, a plumbers duty, a nurses duty. A moms and dads duty.

Ive been hearing calls to shut up and sing for my entire career. (Shut up and sing)

Well, as North Carolina native Nina Simone once said, It is an artists duty to reflect the times in which we live.

And you know what I think?

It is also a bankers duty. Its a lawyers duty, a doctors duty, a teachers duty, an engineers duty, an entrepreneurs duty, a plumbers duty, a nurses duty. A moms and dads duty.

Class of 2021, Duke has poured all kinds of tools and resources and experiences into you.

I am asking you today to use them on behalf of our democracy. To remember just how interdependent each of us is on each other. To build communities that are healthier and safer for everyone--where everyone can live up to their full potential.

But how do we do that in practice?

Its a tough question.

When I was in high school, I entered a Black History Month essay contest, sponsored by McDonalds. Yes, McDonalds. The prompt was: How will you make Black history?

With a 15-year-olds confidence, I declared I would become a famous musician:

This, in turn, I wrote (and Im quoting myself here), will put me in a position of great influence, which I will utilize in order to be an advocate for the advancement of Blacks in America.

But how does one do that? The problems are entrenched and interconnected. There is no clear path to follow. I kept thinking: where do I even start?

During the decade since Ive become heavily involved in this fight, Ive stumbled on three answers that Ill share with you today.

First, while your schooling may be over at least for some of you the learning doesnt stop today.

It cant.

Growing up, I spent a lot of time at the library reading about Dr. King and other civil rights heroesFrederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Ida B. Wells. I wasnt into comic books so much. These were my superheroes.

But even as someone steeped in the civil rights movement all my life, if you would have asked me about criminal justice when I was sitting where you all are today, I probably would have framed it as a personal responsibility issue. I think thats pretty common for those of us whove spent our lives striving for perfection. I thought that the problem was with individuals, not the system.I had family members and friends who were locked up. They messed up, and I found a way not to.

But then I learned about our countrys mass-incarceration complex: How the United States has just 5 percent of the worlds population, but 25 percent of its prisoners. How one in three Black men will serve prison time during their lifetimes. How more Black men are under corrective control today than were enslaved on the eve of the Civil War.

How much of this over-incarceration is a direct result of intentional policies that targeted people of color?

Take the war on drugs.

Our leaders said theyd wage war on drugs, but crises of substance abuse and drug addiction didnt go anywhere. Instead, this war destroyed communities. It tore apart families.

All of us have borne the brunt of that, but especially black and brown communities.

We already suffered from housing and school segregation, massive wealth disparities, chronic underinvestment. Then, these communities were specifically targeted for enforcement. Even though black, white and brown people use drugs at roughly similar rates.

And now, what should have been a public and mental health issue has turned into an excuse to disappear millions of people from their families and communities.

The more I read about all of this trauma and tragedy, the more I understood the systemic issues, the more passionate I got about doing something to change it.

So I started Free America, a campaign to reform our deeply unjust, criminal-justice system.

And the first thing we did was listen.

I met with people currently incarcerated. I met with their families. I met with survivors of crime. I met with district attorneys, corrections officers, state legislators, and civil rights activists. These folks knew a lot more than I did. I had to listen to them with an open mind and a humble spiritand then focus on amplifying their voices.

Only then could we effectively support crucial reformslike initiatives to decriminalize drugs, find alternatives to incarceration and restore voting rights to formerly incarcerated people.

Its been some of the most gratifying work of my life.But it never would have happened if I simply considered myself already educated on these issues, and stopped my learning there.

So thats lesson number one. Heres number two:

I think its natural to think you should start by tackling the biggest problem you see in the biggest possible way.

They say, go big or go home, right?

But in my experience, some of the most important work you can do starts at home, whatever that means for you.

So often, we focus on major national issues. And dont get me wrong, national issues matter.

But municipal, county, and school-board elections determine the everyday realities of our lives: Who lives where? Who goes to school where? Do we all feel safe walking down the street?

George Floyds murder mobilized a national and even global movement for change. But the truth is, most of the tangible reforms we need to reimagine public safety will come from local elected officialsthe mayors and city councils setting budgets, the prosecutors deciding how justice will be served.

And thats not just true for criminal justice reform.

Local non-profits and organizers know their communitiesand know what they need in order to fight hunger and homelessness and violence in their local area.

I know some of you are about to move to a new community, each with its own unique historical context and social fabric. And just as many of you moved to Durham four years ago and adopted this city as your own, I hope youll learn about your new homes past, present, and future. Find its changemakers and boundary-breakers. And bring your own unique gifts to the table, to engage in the real, tangible bettering of your community.

There is wisdom, strength, and power in community. Youve learned that here at Duke. But dont forget it as you find and build community elsewhere.

Continued here:

John Legend: Leading With Love to Build Healthier and Safer Communities - Duke Today

MCLEAN, VA Terry McAuliffe today released his bold newBuilding a Flourishing Rural Economyplan to prioritize rural communities in Virginia as he rebuilds a stronger, more equitable post-COVID economy. As governor, Terry will bring economic opportunity to rural communities across the Commonwealth and get every Virginian online by the end of his term. He will also partner with President Bidens administration to create Virginias first intentional rural economic development hub through a new pilot project, driving long-term, sustainable economic growth in critical areas of the Commonwealth. Terry will also establish Virginias rural communities as energy innovation capitals of the East Coast, invest in crumbling school infrastructure and support Virginia farmers.

Rural Virginias natural resources, environment, and over one million residents, are vital to the Commonwealth and its economy. They are home to Virginiaslargest industryagriculture and forestry providing 440,000 jobs and over $90 billion a year in economic impacts. Unfortunately, the once-flourishing manufacturing and industrial hubs in Virginias rural communities have been hit hard over the past several decades as manufacturing industries have left and the Great Recession eliminated jobs that have never returned. Virginians living in rural communities experience lower wages and a lack of infrastructure like broadband that people need to pursue economic opportunity. Virginias rural health care infrastructure is chronically underfunded, and only 8% of Virginias physicians practice in rural areas. The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated these inequities, reversing progress made on fighting the opioid epidemic that had already disproportionately impacted rural Virginians.

As governor, Terry will ensure that rural communities are key to Virginias equitable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Terrys plan for rural economic development includes building Virginias first-ever intentional economic development hub, deploying high-impact investments to spans of up to 4 neighboring localities in a region. Local voices, as part of a regional public-private consortium, will steer funding to revitalize local main streets, facilitate business development or expansion, and support affordable childcare and workforce needs. The initiative will attract new industries, anchor regional development, create tourism, and generate jobs and sustainable economic growth.

Farmers, especially small, family farmers, are at the center of Terrys new plan. One of Terrys first acts as governor in 2014 was to sign a law creating more economic opportunities and cutting red tape for family farms. He boosted consumer access to locally produced food and gave farmers access to new markets, ushering in cooperative sales partnerships between small farms and enabling much more agritourism. Terrys ambitious new plan would cut even more red tape for small farmers, support farmers investments in smart farming technology, and partner with community colleges on farming technology training. Terry will also fight to end rural food insecurity through his food security plan,Ensuring that Virginians Have Access to Regular, Nutritious Meals.

In rural Virginia, when we talk about broadband, education, health care, and the economy all these issues are interconnected. Nowadays its nearly impossible to get a job or an education without internet access, which is why we need a holistic approach in our post-COVID recovery that is big and bold, saidTerry McAuliffe. As governor, were going to have rural Virginia lead the way on universal broadband, clean energy jobs, and 21st century farming technologies. But thats still not enough. We need to make rural health care and education equitable by reinvesting in those systems alongside telehealth, virtual education, and career training. Its time to take Virginias rural economy to the next level, and we will get it done.

Terry will be able to get this done because he has the record of achievements for rural Virginia. As Virginias 72nd Governor, Terry worked to expand health care access and rural opportunities. He paved the way for Medicaid expansion and prioritized bringing good-paying jobs in these regions, and hell do it again as Virginias next governor. Terry made agriculture and forestryVirginias top private sector industrieskey components of his economic development plan. This focus on agriculture and forestry substantially grew exports of agricultural and forestry products to over $3 billion for the first time in Virginias history. And despite inheriting a record budget deficit and facing the effects of the Great Recession and sequestration, Terry created 200,000 good paying jobs, reduced unemployment from 5.7% to 3.3%, and raised personal income by 14% during his administration.

Terry has also proposed more than a dozen bold plans to create a more equitable post-COVID Virginia. Terrys plans will strengthenVirginiaseducation systemand dramatically increase teacher pay, help secure Virginias economicrecovery from COVID-19,reform our criminal justice systemto create a more equitable Virginia,ensure Virginians have accessto regular nutritious meals, address thebroken, predatory system of prescription drug pricing,boldly confront the gun violence epidemic,make Virginia the best state in the nation for Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Healthcare (STEM-H)and computer science education,tackle the housing crisisin the Commonwealth andinvest in Virginias workforce to create a more equitable post-COVID economy, ensure Virginians have access tohigh-quality, affordable health carewill build a more equitable Commonwealth, andtackle climate change and secure Virginias clean energyfuture by 2035,lift up Black Virginiansas the Commonwealth rebuilds equitably from the COVID-19 pandemic,further advanceLGBTQ+ rights.

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Terry McAuliffe Releases Building A Flourishing Rural Economy Plan to Get Every Virginian Online and Make Historic Investments in Rural Jobs,...

As chief of the Division of General Obstetrics and Gynecology for Penn Medicine, Dr. Florencia Greer Polite has spent many satisfying work days delivering babies and taking care of her female patients. But it was something out of her regular routine that recently became a defining moment in her career.

When the COVID-19 vaccine rollout began at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Polite was worried about the lack of compliance, especially among minority staffers. As a Black woman, she understood vaccine hesitancy; as a physician, she felt compelled to do something about it.

What was literally keeping me up at night were these issues of hesitancy, Polite said. I made the personal decision to get vaccinated on the first day at Penn Medicine, despite my own personal hesitancy. Im not an early adopter of anything, but I felt like this was an opportunity for me to get vaccinated, to be public about what that experience was like, and to hopefully educate my family, my friends, and my community and my patients.

Polite took her advocacy a step further, helping to create Operation CAVEAT at the hospital an acronym that stands for Covid Acceptance Vaccine Education and Adoption Taskforce. She spoke recently to Wharton management professors Stephanie Creary and Aline Gatignon about the initiative and the broader issue of equity in COVID-19 testing and vaccine distribution. David Casey, chief diversity officer and senior vice president of workforce strategies at CVS Health, also joined the conversation, which was part of Crearys Leading Diversity@Work podcast series. (Listen to the podcast above.)

Part of Caseys job includes figuring out how his company can reach minority populations to help them get access to health care, including COVID-19 testing and vaccines. Since the pandemic began in early 2020, numerous studies have documented the disproportionate toll that it is taking on Black, Hispanic and Native American communities.

What was literally keeping me up at night were these issues of hesitancy. Dr. Florencia Greer Polite

Weve all heard the saying that your ZIP code matters more than your genetic code when it comes to health care, Casey said. You can literally go less than a mile, and the health care experiences of the individuals in that part of the community can be vastly different than they are just a mile down the road.

Polite agreed, noting that health care disparities are about racism not race. Theres nothing inherently different about a Black or Latinx patient that makes them more likely to die of COVID, but there are a number of systemic factors that affect that mortality or that death rate, she said.

A Three-headed Beast

Polite said she thinks about COVID-19 as a three-headed beast for communities of color. First, there is the increased mortality of minority populations due to COVID-19. Many working-class Black and Hispanic people have jobs with high exposure to the public and no personal protective equipment, and they may live in multigenerational homes all factors that increase the risk of contracting and dying from the disease.

The second head is vaccine access. Broadly, thats about how states are getting the doses to cities, towns, villages, and hamlets. More specifically, how are authorities and health care leaders making sure that the most vulnerable people get the injections with as few barriers as possible?

The third head of the beast is vaccine hesitancy, which Polite pinpointed as a problem stemming from Americas legacy of systemic racism and inequality.

We got [to this point] over 400 years. Were not going to turn around in two weeks or a month, she said. Its going to take a lot of very intentional small steps over a long time. But we have many, many, many people to bring along who, quite frankly, are often in leadership positions, which might make this a more challenging burden to overcome.

Through Operation CAVEAT, Polite and her colleagues tackled these issues in three steps:

These steps, along with others designed to give employees easy, on-site access to the vaccines, helped the hospital make a measurable improvement in vaccine compliance, Polite said.

Trusted Faces and Trusted Places

The hospitals experience in reaching minority employees was a microcosm of the work Casey does to reach out to minority communities across the U.S. Even with 10,000 stores, Casey said that CVS Health knew it couldnt get the job done alone. Thats why the company has continuing partnerships with nonprofits, community centers, free and charitable clinics, faith-based organizations, civic leaders just about anyone that can help spread the health care message to those who need it most.

Borrowing a phrase he heard from local partners, Casey said that to deliver vaccines effectively into Black and brown communities, You have to have trusted faces and trusted places.

Weve all heard the saying that your ZIP code matters more than your genetic code when it comes to health care. David Casey

Where are the places people typically go, that theyre used to going, that they may still be going to during COVID? he said. Is it a community free clinic? Is it their church? Is it the grocery store? Where is it that people are going, and how can we offer vaccines there, as opposed to our store? We wanted to take health care to the community, not just where people live, but how they live.

Casey and Polite urged others who are in leadership positions to find and evaluate the racial disparities within their organizations, create a collaborative plan with realistic solutions, deploy the plan, then measure the outcomes. Recognize the difference between equity and equality, and never stop talking about it even when it makes people uncomfortable.

Casey recalled posting some numbers on his LinkedIn page early in the pandemic that documented the disproportionately high death rate among Blacks and Hispanics. He immediately got push-back from a few people who criticized him for talking about race. Yet no one challenged the conversation when data showed how the disease was ravaging the elderly.

As soon as we saw dataon the Black and African American community, then part of the narrative became, Well, why are we talking about race? Where did that hesitation come from? Where did that push-back come from? Casey said. Making sure that equity is being thought about at the outset, not as an afterthought, is a challenge. It was a challenge for us in the beginning, and its a challenge for all of us involved in health care to think about going forward.

Food for My Soul

Through the Mercy/Penn Medicine & The Community Vaccine Collaborative, Polite volunteered to administer COVID-19 vaccines. She remembers vaccinating 80 people in one day, and 70 of them were Black. The experience was gratifying in ways she did not expect, even for a doctor used to helping people. Hesitancy and advocacy work is exhausting, she said, but this was icing on the cake.

At the end of the day, it was like food for my soul, she said. It was one of the best days. I came home, and my kids were like, You were super tired when you went, and you look way less tired now.

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Creating Equity in COVID-19 Testing and Vaccine Distribution - Knowledge@Wharton - Knowledge@Wharton

The rush to get the COVID-19 vaccine has slowed, leading some to worry if Minnesota can reach herd immunity at this rate. Obstacles to broader distribution of the vaccine remain, and some people are hesitant to receive it in the first place. Inequities in vaccination across different communities have also persisted.

How are public health experts working to reach underserved groups of people and geographies with the COVID-19 vaccine? What are their strategies for making vaccines more accessible? What conversations are they having with people who are reluctant to get the vaccine?

We saw a really rapid increase in vaccinations for the last month or so, and now were seeing a slowing of that increase, and that gives me some concern, Carrie Henning-Smith, the deputy director of the Rural Health Research Center at the University of Minnesota, told MPR News host Angela Davis.

That slowing may be the result of structural issues like access to vaccine sites and transportation, conflicts with work and scheduling complications. Henning-Smith said public health officials are working to answer the question: What can we do to alleviate those barriers for people so that everyone can become fully vaccinated?

Nneka Sederstrom, the chief health equity officer for Hennepin Healthcare, said that to overcome such barriers, theres value in proceeding with a sense of purpose: We have moved from focusing so much on speed to now being more intentional with equity.

Sederstroms outreach work has not only made the COVID-19 vaccine more available to underserved communities but also helped convince some reluctant people to get their shots.

Weve seen a lot of hesitancy fall away, actually, when weve been really deliberate and intentional in partnering with specific community organizations or community leaders, Sederstrom said.

Ultimately, according to Henning-Smith and Sederstrom, to protect everyone from COVID-19, its essential to connect with everyone who is hesitant to receive the vaccine.

We have a lot of work to do to ensure that everyone sees their role in helping us move toward herd immunity, and that everyone sees this as a collective responsibility, Henning-Smith said.

MPR News senior reporter Catharine Richert also stopped by the show to provide an update on the latest COVID-19 headlines, including new concerns around an increase in infections among children.

The bottom line when it comes to COVID-19 in Minnesota? It is still here, Richert said.

Guests:

Carrie Henning-Smith is the deputy director of the Rural Health Research Center at the University of Minnesota.

Nneka Sederstrom is the chief health equity officer for Hennepin Healthcare.

Catharine Richert is a senior reporter with MPR News and has been covering COVID-19.

Use the audio player above to listen to the program.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.

Correction (April 28, 2021): An earlier version of this post misidentified Carrie Henning-Smith's professional title. The post has been updated.

You make MPR News possible. Individual donations are behind the clarity in coverage from our reporters across the state, stories that connect us, and conversations that provide perspectives. Help ensure MPR remains a resource that brings Minnesotans together.

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Where does Minnesota stand in the hunt for herd immunity? - Minnesota Public Radio News

Mari Katsumura leads an ambitious Michelin-starred restaurant, Ygen, in Chicagos culinary mecca of the West Loop. Kazuki Tanaka bakes reliably homespun Japanese pastries at the three-decade stalwart Bakery Crescent in northwest suburban Arlington Heights. Pink-haired Anna Wu sells cupcakes out of her A.Sweets Girl truck and has vied for success on TV food competition shows.

Despite their vastly different careers, locations, price points, and baking styles, all three will share their pastries together with fifteen other Asian American pastry chefs based in Chicagoland in gorgeous Bakers Boxes that are available for pre-order online on Tock beginning 11:00 am on May 5. Two different boxes containing nine unique pastries each are available. Pick up is on Saturday, May 29 at another completely different food establishment: the pizzeria Paulie Gees Logan Square, which will contribute its own treat to the boxes.

Chicago is the third iteration of the Bakers Box, following New York and Los Angeles, with plans to continue in Boston in June, Philadelphia in July, and a new city each successive month. Its a project by With Warm Welcome, a community organization founded in 2019 that seeks to amplify Asian American faces and voices in the culinary community by telling their stories through podcasts, events, and ideas like the Bakers Box.

I noticed that there was this upcoming next generation of Asian Americans who were taking the cuisine that they grew up with and finding a way to express it in a contemporary voice, says With Warm Welcomes founder Arnold Byun, who has worked at some of New York Citys most esteemed fine dining restaurantsmostly under white head chefs. At the time, I felt that there wasnt a platform or community that celebrated that, and thats why I started With Warm Welcome.

The Bakers Box was in part an attempt to spotlight some chefs whom Byun felt received even less recognition than their peers: Asian American women pastry chefs. Pastry teams are always honestly overlooked, under-appreciated, under-represented in fine dining restaurants, he explained in a recent podcast. Pastry chefs who are Asian women receive even less attention, he contends, so he and a pastry student, Stephanie Loo, decided to organize a bake sale in New York City that would highlight Asian American womens talents during Womens History Month in March.

As they quickly put together the first Bakers Box, there was a spate of high-profile hate crimes against Asian Americans in the United States. We felt we should do something about it, and we felt that doing something with pastry and sweets, especially in times like this, would bring so much more positivity to the world and to our communities, says Byun.

(Other chefs also lent their talents to address Asian American hate crimes: Beverly Kim of Chicagos Parachute led a campaign in April called #DoughSomething that raised funds for Asian Americans Advancing Justice. It included several chefs who are taking part in the Chicago Bakers Box.)

To that end, the Bakers Box also includes a charitable component. Ten percent of the proceeds from the Chicago sales will go to One Book One World, which is seeking to raise money during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in May to bring more books about Asian American history to Chicago area schools.

One of the Los Angeles Bakers Boxes. Photo: Ben Hon

That mission of bringing Asian American stories to more people fits in perfectly with the ethos of With Warm Welcome and the Bakers Box, which is really about the person behind that pastry, Byun explained in the podcast. Storytelling is really the genesis, he says. While each box comes with a stylishly illustrated card listing all the pastries and the chefs who made them, their establishment or shop is noticeably absent. That information can be found alongside ingredient lists and profiles of each chef by scanning a QR code.

Quite honestly, I want people to do a little bit of homework, Byun says, laughing. The whole reasoning behind the work we do is to create more awareness and curiosity about places, like, Why is this place named this? Whats the story here? Who are the owners?

The pastries are meant to tell a personal story about the chef who made them, whether its through a favorite ingredient or a signature item that made their name. In the Chicago Bakers Box the Vietnamese Canadian chef Jeanette Tran-Deanwho most recently ran a pop-up that explored the commonalities between Vietnamese and Guatemalan foodis contributing a Nanaimo bar, a Canadian dessert, but flavoring it with ube, a purple yam that is ubiquitous in Filipino treats. Nikita Dhingra, who offers Indian meals on Instagram under the name Plattered by Niki, is making a dessert typically eaten during the South Asian holidays of Diwali and Holi.

I was very intentional in building this box, says Anna Desai, who chose the participants for the Chicago Bakers Box, which broadened to include a few male bakers as well. I wanted to make sure that there was representation thats reflective of our city, so that we had East Asian, Southeast Asian, South Asian, as well as being reflective of all of the offerings that we have here in the city as well as the suburbs. I also wanted to have a breadth of emerging talent to established talent.

So Chinatowns Chiu Quon, the oldest Chinese bakery in Chicago, is included, as is Kasama, a newish Filipino restaurant that has quickly earned a reputation for its pastries. Theres Northern Thai (Pink Salt) and Malaysian (Kedai Tapao), as well as a Japanese-inspired confectioner (Sugoi Sweets) and a granola company (Stellar Granola).

I think whats so special about the Bakers Box is that were highlighting the people, Desai says. We want to celebrate them and their work, because when you walk into any bakery or restaurant, the focus is always on the food and not necessarily the people.

And theres always a story behind the food.

Originally posted here:

Spotlighting Asian American Bakers and Their Stories Through a Unique Box of Pastries - WTTW News

I recently appeared in a video made by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The video, where I talk about climate science communication, is part of a series on Countering Science Misinformation. While recording it, I realized that, while misinformation is the most common type of falsehood in science around us, disinformation is also a common presence, and unlike misinformation, it can have much more serious and deliberate consequences.

Misinformation is false information that is spread, regardless of whether there is intent to mislead. Whereas a lot of misinformation is intentional, in many instances it may be accidental, because the person or channel relaying the information may actually believe it to be true.

According to the Univ. of Southern California, people may misunderstand what they are reading or watching, even when its from legitimate sources. People not only seek information according to their own biases (based on their values, beliefs, environment, political inclination) but they also misunderstand what they read when they scan news on social media. They state that the spread of fake news and misinformationincluding the misunderstanding of real newsacross social media communities is a big problem.

A 2019 paper found that, as people scan news to choose what to read (and do not know the accuracy of the news they are offered), in an effort to reduce their uncertainty about a subject they tend to choose those that align with their beliefs. The more choices they are offered, the stronger the polarization and the slower the actual learning. The authors actually conclude that, to combat misinformation, it is better to reduce the amount of information to which people are exposed at a time than to censor content. Of course, the underlying conclusion is that there is such a thing as too much information on many platforms, and the overabundance of it contributes to the spread of misinformation.

While looking for information that aligns with their beliefs, people also come across disinformation. Disinformation is deliberately misleading or biased information; manipulated narrative or facts; propaganda. The Oxford Reference defines disinformation as A form of propaganda involving the dissemination of false information with the deliberate intent to deceive or mislead. So, propagandaand specifically inaccurate information supplied by governmentsis part of the definition of disinformation. Its main difference from misinformation is that it is known to be untrue by the person or group conveying it.

A lot of what we see today from special interest groups (such as oil companies) and many elected officials is disinformation, many times in the form of organized campaigns. In the regulatory sphere, some companies and trade associations use tactics such as actively burying scientific evidence, manipulating facts, playing up uncertainty, and obscuring the facts in an effort to shirk regulatory scrutiny on products or activities that are found to be harmful, simply because the facts do not serve somebodys interests, values, or bottom line.

Another recent example is from the media, which knowingly carried falsehoods relating to meat consumption, only because it did appeal to their viewerships values so, disinformation can be used both ways. In contrast, misinformation is often unknowingly spread by the general public, and even some elected officials, because they believe their sources of information.

UCS has been bringing to light and actively fighting against these disinformation campaigns. Our Disinformation Playbook is a helpful resource for starting to recognize the tactics being used by special interest groups. We also work with various other organizations such as the Citizens Platform on Climate Change, a partnership with UNESCO. One of its goals is to fight disinformation globally, and I also talk about disinformation dangers, practices and tactics there.

The main channels through which fossil fuel companies, political special interests and other bad actors purvey misinformation and disinformation are news outlets and social media. They must do more to prevent the viral spread of false content on the internet. Further, according to the Brookings Institution, there should be initiatives to encourage news literacy. People need to learn how to evaluate digital news sources rather than assume everything on social media or digital news sites is true. Many people do not read a whole article but just see the headlines, which can be misleading also. There are some useful resources to help people recognize misinformation online, such as this one.

The news outlets people seek are generally the ones that are used by their peers, by people with whom they share values and beliefs. That is a well-known concept in social sciences, called confirmation bias when people seek information that confirms their pre-existing ideas or beliefs. This bias is pervasive and comes in many forms. People look for news that plays to their biases, but they can also misunderstand real, good quality, unbiased information, scientists say.

Misinformation and disinformation are definitely a major problem, especially when it comes to the communication of scientific results. Science is behind a lot of things that keep us safe and healthy in our everyday lives, and to get it wrong, or deliberately say wrong things, is incredibly irresponsible, particularly for policymakers. Misleading data or commentary related to science can have serious negative impacts for people, the economy, society, and government.

The spread of mis- and disinformation related to COVID-19 resulted in people refusing to take preventative measures to protect themselves, and in some cases, treating their symptoms using unsafe and even deadly methods. Brookings says that the spread of disinformation is dangerous because of its ability to affect public opinion and electoral discourse based on falsehoods, as we regularly saw in U.S. presidential elections and in the storming of the Capitol on January 6th. Disinformation in the electoral process is a critical concern both in the U.S. and abroad.

Government decisions in particular should always be informed by the best available data and analyses, not by special interests and related disinformation. The wellbeing of people should be the guiding principle. Unfortunately, we have seen a lot of disinformation and dismissal of science in decision making in the United States and other countries. Attacks on science were not uncommon during the last administration, and we at the Union of Concerned Scientists have actively engaged in bringing science to its rightful place in policymaking and social justice.

Disinformation and misinformation are an ethical and moral issue, and one of justice. By misleading people or plainly not giving them the actual information, industry actors and politicians deny them the most basic right, which is the right to the truth, and to live healthy lives.

Add to it the inequities of climate change impacts, where disadvantaged and disenfranchised communities bear most of the burden, and the situation is concerning. We all need to actively work to stop the spread of disinformation in our networks. Click here to learn more about how to stop the disinformation playbook.

Posted in: Science Communication, Scientific Integrity Tags: attacks on science, climate-change, disinformation, science-based decision making

Support from UCS members make work like this possible. Will you join us? Help UCS advance independent science for a healthy environment and a safer world.

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Don't Let Them Fool You: Disinformation Is Not an Accident. - Union of Concerned Scientists

The electrification of transportation, heating and other end uses necessary for the United States to meet its decarbonizationgoals will require the country to double its electricity load by 2050,panelists said Thursday at a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission technical conference. With that additional load will come opportunities, responsibilities and challenges, they said.

The panelists frequently acknowledged the need to consider issues of equity, affordability and environmental justice throughout the energy transition. "If we don't address those issues, what are we doing? We're not accomplishing anything," said FERCChairman Richard Glick.

They also raised cybersecurity concerns. It will be a constant battle to secure the grid, said Carlos Casablanca, managing director of distribution planning and analysis at American Electric Power Service Corp. But he added that AEP"does not believe that these risks are brought upon by electrification efforts alone, as these risks already exist in our industry and we actively manage them."

With the United States now aiming to eliminate economywide carbon emissions within 30 years, federal regulators announced the technical conference as a chance to initiate a dialogue "on how to prepare for an increasingly electrified future."

Commissioners also took the opportunity to voice some of their own concerns.

Commissioner Neil Chatterjee acknowledged that FERC is "not really in the driver's seat on electrification,"but the commission has to understand how it will impact the wholesale markets it does oversee. State and federal policymakers are unleashing new electricity demand, and "we must make sure at every turn we send clear and consistent signals to the industry and investment community," he said.

"Mixed signals will delay the development at a time when we should be looking toward the grid of the future," Chatterjee said. But he added that reliability and the creation of efficiency through competition must remain FERC's focus.

Commissioner Allison Clements said she is focused on ensuring customer benefits do not get lost in the cracks between different regulatory jurisdictions. She wants regulators to consider "how we should think about costs and benefits of new investment across the systems," she said, from transmission development to utility meters.

"Our regulatory structures don't easily provide for optimization of benefits that all of those investments bring and the related savings for customers," said Clements. "Without that optimization, customers are left in less than optimal positions."

Just how much electricity load will increase between now and 2050 is uncertain, but many estimates indicate doubling is possible.

Jeff Dennis, managing director and general counsel of Advanced Energy Economy,pointed to a Brattle Group study which found that New England loads were likely to double across that time.

"Electrification will result in significant increases in electricity demand and the generation capacity needed to meet that demand," Dennis said, though "the pace of electrification and amount of energy required for building heating and other uses may vary by region."

Washington will need to "roughly double its electricity supplies," said Glenn Blackmon, manager of the Energy Policy Office in that state's Department of Commerce.

"Our hope is to draw those resources from multiple locations and energy sources across the West, capturing the advantages that different areas of our country have in producing electricity from renewable energy," Blackmon said. "This approach will not only minimize costs but also improve the reliability of our electricity portfolio."

The Electrification Futures Study, developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and other research partners,concluded that "meeting electrified loads requires a doubling of generation capacity in all regions by 2050,"Ella Zhou, senior modeling engineer at the lab, told the FERC conference.

The study shows that electrification has the potential to change how utilities operate,Zhou said. Most utilities now see peak electricity demand in the summer, for cooling, but that could shift as more heating loads are powered by the grid. "Participation in the planning and operations of the power system is crucial," she said.

As more energy loads are shifted to electricity, it is "incredibly important" to remember that low-income groups spend a greater portion of their income on energy and have a higher "energy burden," said Rob Chapman, senior vice president of energy delivery and customer solutions at the Electric Power Research Institute.

"Obviously electrification has the opportunity from an air quality and health perspective to help support those communities," Chapman said. "The flip of that is, we have to consciously think about the affordability aspect and realize many disadvantaged communities are not going to have the capital to invest in emerging technologies."

Energy efficiency efforts can help address some the energy burden inequities, Chapman said. And environmental justice efforts must also look at the impact of transit corridors and public transit on disadvantaged communities, he said.

"As we seek to ensure that underserved communities have access to clean energy, we must be intentional and specific in identifying solutions and programs and involve communities in determining their path forward," said Katherine Hamilton, co-chair of the World Economic Forums Global Future Council on Clean Electrification.

Hamilton said the solution to "transition these communities that have been harmed by fossil fuels" includes reducing barriers to entry for energy technologies and markets. That could mean making resource interconnections cheaper, allowing aggregation of resources and co-optimization of efficiency efforts, such as installing heat pumps at the same time other upgrades are made.

All of these efforts include "making sure we lower the barriers to entry and make sure cost-effective, cheaper and more resilient solutions are available to customers who normally couldn't afford them,"Hamilton said.

The electrification of demand and the growing interconnectedness of the grid has created new opportunities for disruption by hackers, the panelists acknowledged. But the industry remains confident this is a risk it can manage.

"As more electric systems 'go digital'or some non-electric products become electric, it is expected that the internet of things will only continue to grow, increasing the potential number of points for cyber intrusion," Casablanca said. "Continued cyber security technology development, collaboration, education and investment across all sectors of industry will be required to continuously mitigate this known risk."

But Casablanca also said the industry is already managing the risk daily,so electrification does not change the fundamental issue.

The industry must address cyber risks in a proactive and forward-looking way, said Chapman, because bad actors are only getting more sophisticated.

"I would suggest right now we have very good efforts underway, in terms of managing cybersecurity, but of course the bad actors always seem to be one step ahead of where we are going as an industry,"Chapman said. "That risk only increases, from a resiliency and reliability perspective, as we drive more of our consumers to use electricity as an end use fuel of choice."

Continued here:

Equity, security and load: FERC conference considers the challenges and potential of electrification - Utility Dive