Webinar: Ensuring Representation in Healthcare: Increasing Racial Diversity among Healthcare Professionals
Tuesday, June 22, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM CST
About the webinar
This webinar will highlight the importance of ensuring healthcare providers are representative of United States demographics. Most qualitative studies suggest that BIPOC respondents prefer a provider of a similar “racial, ethnic and/or cultural background, and/or thought some diseases were better treated by a provider of the same racial, ethnic, and/or cultural background.” This conversation will underpin the importance of patient-clinician racial concordance as a way to improve communication, shared decision-making, patient comprehension, and overall health outcomes and quality. The conversation will discuss ways to increase and retain underrepresented populations in nursing, medical, and dental training programs. Finally, the conversation will highlight strategies to increase overall BIPOC representation in the workforce. Strategies discussed will include financial/academic support, ensuring board diversity, cultural competency training, and employee resource groups for BIPOC and other underrepresented populations in the workforce.
Distinguished Speakers
Ms. Simintha Esson, MA
Chief Strategy Officer at the Heart Rhythm Society
Simintha Esson, Chief Strategy Officer at the Heart Rhythm Society, is responsible for the strategic oversight of Membership, Data, Journals, Digital Health, Global Relations, and Strategic Partnerships.
With more than 15 years in the nonprofit industry, Ms. Esson has an extraordinary record of developing and leading enterprise-wide fundraising strategies. Building new product lines, creating robust multichannel marketing campaigns, all while implementing policies and procedures that improve efficiency. Driven by her tenacious “can do” attitude and a passion for technology, she is often remarked as an innovator in her field.
Most recently, she was recognized in Association Ventures Playbook for helping to develop and lead the digital transformation that resulted in an enterprise-wide virtual learning ecosystem, during her tenure as Chief Development Officer at the Council of Chief State School Officers. She also worked closely with the Council Leadership and Board of Directors to develop the organization’s first strategic funding plan.
Previously, she has held executive and leadership roles at the Infectious Disease Society of America, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, and the American Diabetes Association.
Under her leadership, organizations have been able to amplify their efforts to improve educational and health outcomes. She has also forged partnerships with executive leaders at but not limited to AbbVie, Abbott Laboratories, Advocate Medical Group, Aetna, AT&T, Amazon Web Services, AstraZeneca, Albertsons Companies Inc., Baxter International Inc., BlueCross and BlueShield, CVS, Chicago Bears, Chicago Bulls, Chicago White Sox, Chicago Fire, Cigna Health Springs, Clorox, Pearson, Cogina, Gilead Sciences, Google, Educational Testing Services, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, McDonald’s, Microsoft, McGuireWoods, Macy’s, Merck & Co., Novo Nordisk, Northern Trust, PNC Bank, Sidley Austin LLP., Sunlight Financial, Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated, Takeda Pharmaceutical, Sears, Pfizer, Inc., Walgreens, Vision Works, Voya Financial, Verizon, etc.
Ms. Esson is on the Board of Directors for Loyola University’s Black Alumni, and the Center of Healthcare Innovation. She is a former member of the Chicago Executives Club and the former Vice President of the Auxiliary Board for UCAN Chicago. Ms. Esson has an MA in Social Justice and a BS from Loyola University.
Dr. LaShawn McIver, MD, MPH
Director, Office of Minority Health at Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
Dr. LaShawn McIver joined CMS as the Director of the Office of Minority Health in August 2020. She is a proven public health leader with experience in driving successful health initiatives and public policy efforts aimed at promoting health equity, improving health outcomes, increasing access to care, and promoting health system reform.
Before joining CMS, Dr. McIver led Government Affairs & Advocacy (GA&A) efforts at the American Diabetes Association (ADA) as its Vice President of Public Policy & Strategic Alliances and later as its Senior Vice President of all GA&A. During her 9-year tenure with the ADA, she provided strategic direction and oversight of the ADA’s advocacy activities which focused on increasing federal and state funding for diabetes research and programs; eliminating diabetes disparities; diabetes prevention; and improving the availability of accessible, adequate, and affordable health care. She has also served as the inaugural HIV/AIDS fellow for the Congressional Black Caucus’ Center for Policy Analysis and Research and as a program director at the Baltimore City Health Department.
Dr. McIver earned a Medical Degree in International Health & Medicine through the Medical School for International Health in Collaboration with Columbia University’s Medical Center and a master’s degree of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Dr. Pilar Ortega, MD
Founder & Immediate-Past President, Medical Organization for Latino Advancement
Founder & President, National Association of Medical Spanish
Dr. Pilar Ortega is an Emergency Physician and an Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago Departments of Emergency Medicine and Medical Education, where she directs and teaches the Medical Spanish program for the College of Medicine’s Hispanic Center of Excellence. Her roles in medical education and research focus on preparing medical students, physicians, and health systems to care for linguistically diverse patient populations.
Dr. Ortega is Co-founder and Immediate-Past President for the Medical Organization for Latino Advancement (MOLA), the Founder and Director of the National Association of Medical Spanish (la Asociación Nacional de Español Médico), and a member of Illinois Unidos, a statewide initiative that aims to present one united voice in stopping the growth of COVID-19 in our communities while addressing related public health issues and the devastating economic impact of COVID-19.
Some of Dr. Ortega’s recognitions have included her selection as part of the 2017 Crain’s Chicago Business 40 under 40 and as a recipient of Spain’s Royal National Academy of Medicine’s 2018 Award for Health Information, Communication and Dissemination. Dr. Ortega is a nationally and internationally recognized author, speaker, and researcher on the topics of language in health and medical Spanish education.
Dr. Chad Womack, Ph.D.
Senior director of STEM Initiatives and the HBCU Innovation, Commercialization and Entrepreneurship (ICE) at UNCF
Dr. Chad Womack is the senior director of STEM Initiatives and the HBCU Innovation, Commercialization and Entrepreneurship (ICE) at UNCF. Prior to joining UNCF, Dr. Womack co-founded The America21 Project and DC Innovates, both innovation-based community and economic development nonprofit organizations dedicated to empowering metro-centers and underserved communities through STEM education, tech-entrepreneurship and access to capital. In addition, Dr. Womack led the White House-based HBCU Startup and Innovation Initiative, which resulted in the launch of the HBCU Innovation, Commercialization and Entrepreneurship initiative at UNCF.
At UNCF, Dr. Womack’s work portfolio includes the Fund II Foundation STEM Scholars Program—a $50 million and 10-year commitment to support 500 academically talented African American high school students pursuing STEM as majors in college and careers in the technology industry; the EE Just Life Sciences Institute, which includes the Bristol-Myers Squibb-sponsored EE Just Life Sciences Postgraduate Fellowship Program; the UNCF HBCU Innovation, Commercialization and Entrepreneurship (ICE) Initiative; the UNCF HBCU Innovation Summit and the HBCU Center of Excellence in Computing and Computer Science, which includes a partnership with Google.
Dr. Womack was previously a member of the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Agency, National Advisory Council for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the DC Mayor’s Innovation and Technology Inclusion Council. Dr. Womack completed several postdoctoral research fellowships at the National Institutes of Health in the National Institutes for Allergy and Infectious Diseases Vaccine Research Center, and at the Harvard AIDS Institute and the Harvard School of Public Health in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases. Dr. Womack earned his doctoral degree in biomedical sciences from the Morehouse School of Medicine and is a proud graduate of Morehouse College where he majored in biology with minors in chemistry and applied physics.
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Webinar: Ensuring Representation in Healthcare: Increasing Racial Diversity among Healthcare Professionals