Webinar: Creating and Sustaining Healthy Communities
Webinar: Creating and Sustaining Healthy Communities
Originally recorded on Tuesday, August 23, 2022 | 11 AM - 12 PM CST
About the webinar
The third and final program of CHI‘s obesity disparity series begins to offer actionable solutions for how communities, organizations, and individuals can work together to reduce obesity rates in black and brown communities. This program builds upon the first two programs in the educational series which explore obesity as a disease and why obesity disproportionately impacts communities of color. This educational program offers policy recommendations and practical steps that can address and ultimately reduce these disparities. This discussion brings together leading healthcare experts, community groups, and health equity champions to discuss the challenges outlined above as well as long-term solutions to reducing obesity disparities impacting communities of color.
Distinguished Speakers
Moderator: Mr. Joseph Gaspero
CEO and Co-Founder, Center for Healthcare Innovation
Joseph Gaspero is the CEO and Co-Founder of CHI. He is a healthcare executive, strategist, and health disparity researcher. He founded CHI in 2009 as an independent, objective, and interdisciplinary research and education institute for reducing health disparities for marginalized communities of color. Joseph leads research and educational initiatives at CHI, including research focused on increasing diversity in clinical trials, building diverse, culturally competent teams, understanding how social determinants of health drive health disparities for BIPOC communities, decreasing medical mistrust, and understanding how chronic conditions disproportionately impact Black and Brown communities. He has been the lead organizer for one of the country’s preeminent health equity and diversity symposia in the U.S. In his role as CEO, he sets and executes CHI’s strategy, devises marketing tactics, leads fundraising efforts, and manages CHI’s Management team. His leadership stems from a wide array of experiences, including founding and operating several non-profit and for-profit organizations, serving in the U.S. Air Force in support of 2 foreign wars. Joseph’s skills include strategy, management, research, marketing, and finance. He has lived in six countries, traveled to over 40 more, and speaks three languages, and he brings a global approach to strategy and problem-solving. Joseph has a B.S. in Finance from the University of Illinois at Chicago. When he’s not immersed in his work at CHI, he spends his time snowboarding backcountry, skydiving, mountain biking, volunteering, engaging in MMA, and rock climbing.
Dr. George Agyapong, MD, MS, B. Pharm
Resident-Physician, Yale New Haven Hospital
First-generation physician-innovator, entrepreneurial scientist, and scrappy problem-solver. Adept at synthesizing pain-points into data-informed insights that create value for people and organizations.
Over 15 years of life and professional experience - including 6 years in military service and leadership (US Army Reserve Combat Medic) and 10 years in bio-pharmaceutical R&D (med devices, biotech, NIH research fellowship in liver diseases), scientific research, and communication. Recent experiences include 8 years of medical training, patient care, and community engagement.
1. Harvard MD with Honors In A Special Field - thesis in capacity building and global health implementation science.
2. Currently training in Internal Medicine at Yale.
3. Translating cross-disciplinary expertise to enhance workforce development, organizational culture, and clinical innovation in liver diseases.
Lonias Gilmore, MPH
Director, Health Equity and Social Justice, Big Cities Health Coalition
Lonias Gilmore, MPH is a mission-driven public health practitioner who believes we can eliminate the power in race, culture, home language, zip code, and socioeconomic status to predict health and well-being. She has more than 10 years of experience building partnerships to improve public health and leading policy, systems, and environmental change to improve health and education outcomes and advance health and racial equity.
Lonias is currently the Director of Health Equity and Social Justice for the Big Cities Health Coalition (BCHC). BCHC is a forum for the leaders of 35 of America’s largest metropolitan health departments to exchange strategies and jointly address issues to promote and protect the health and safety of the more than 61 million people they serve. Prior to joining BCHC, Lonias was a senior public health consultant with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. She provided consultation, technical assistance and thought-partnership to Michigan-based and national government agencies, coalitions, workgroups, statewide partners, and community organizations on strategies to improve health and education outcomes and advance racial equity. She has also been involved in organizational change efforts to increase capacity to advance equity and to increase diversity and inclusion. Notable examples include the national Healthy Kids Healthy Futures Steering Committee, the Governor’s Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities, and the Ingham County Racial Equity Task Force. Lonias received an MPH from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and a bachelor’s degree in biology from Langston University, Oklahoma’s HBCU.
Dr. Allison Miner, EdD, MS, RD
Dietitian and Educator
Dr. Allison Miner is a licensed dietitian and lecturer. She provides medical nutrition therapy at Alexandria INOVA hospital and the Department of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration (TSA, Health Unit). At the TSA she moderates a virtual weekly weight loss support group which is available to its 68,000+ employees. In addition to helping patients/clients improve their diet, she is a lecturer at George Washington University in the Department of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences in the Milken Institute School of Public Health where she teaches graduate courses in food policy and nutrition assessment. On the third Saturday of the month, Dr. Miner has a nutrition segment on the Power Bloc radio show where she discusses issues relevant to the African American urban community. Miner is a member of the International WELL Building Institute, Nourishment Advisory Board which provides a roadmap for creating and certifying spaces that advance human health and well-being. Miner blogs on a variety of health and food topics on her website http://thesmarteater.com. She holds a bachelor’s degree in dietetics and master’s degree in international nutrition from the University of Maryland as well as a doctorate in education from Morgan State University. Her specialty is obesity and cardiovascular diseases, and her interests include urban gardening, using social media for weight loss advice, exercise, and her new grandson. She is very active in her community of Alexandria, Virginia where she serves on the Alexandria Public Health Commission. Miner is presently writing a book on weight loss strategies relevant to African American women.
Dr. Uzoma Okeagu, PharmD, BCPS
Medical Science Liaison, Novo Nordisk
Uzoma Okeagu is a Medical Science Liaison at Novo Nordisk with over 7 years of experience in clinical and pharmaceutical industry settings. As a native of the Metro Detroit area, he completed his undergraduate and graduate training at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Upon graduation, he finished a clinical pharmacy residency at Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago, IL. Following completion of his residency, he remained at Sinai Health as a general medicine clinical pharmacist for several years before pursuing a research pharmacist position at Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. He has been a Medical Liaison in the field of obesity and weight management at Novo Nordisk since 2019, working in the states of Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Some of his strategic focus areas include providing weight management education to health care practitioners and mid-level providers, supporting development of HER pathways for triaging obese patients, engaging with academic training programs regarding current obesity management curriculum, and standardizing obesity management throughout health systems.
Webinar Leaders
CEO and Co-Founder, Center for Healthcare Innovation
Dr. George Agyapong, MD, MS, B. Pharm
Resident-Physician, Yale New Haven Hospital
Director, Health Equity and Social Justice, Big Cities Health Coalition
Dr. Allison Miner, EdD, MS, RD
Dietitian and Educator
Dr. Uzoma Okeagu, PharmD, BCPS
Medical Science Liaison, Novo Nordisk
Joseph Gaspero is the CEO and Co-Founder of CHI. He is a healthcare executive, strategist, and researcher. He co-founded CHI in 2009 to be an independent, objective, and interdisciplinary research and education institute for healthcare. Joseph leads CHI’s research and education initiatives focusing on including patient-driven healthcare, patient engagement, clinical trials, drug pricing, and other pressing healthcare issues. He sets and executes CHI’s strategy, devises marketing tactics, leads fundraising efforts, and manages CHI’s Management team. Joseph is passionate and committed to making healthcare and our world a better place. His leadership stems from a wide array of experiences, including founding and operating several non-profit and for-profit organizations, serving in the U.S. Air Force in support of 2 foreign wars, and deriving expertise from time spent in industries such as healthcare, financial services, and marketing. Joseph’s skills include strategy, management, entrepreneurship, healthcare, clinical trials, diversity & inclusion, life sciences, research, marketing, and finance. He has lived in six countries, traveled to over 30 more, and speaks 3 languages, all which help him view business strategy through the prism of a global, interconnected 21st century. Joseph has a B.S. in Finance from the University of Illinois at Chicago. When he’s not immersed in his work at CHI, he spends his time snowboarding backcountry, skydiving, mountain biking, volunteering, engaging in MMA, and rock climbing.