This year's theme, Advocacy for Change: Celebrating Past Successes and Planning for the Future, celebrates how advocacy efforts are instrumental in advancing the health of minorities and people of color. The theme honors activist history and provides a forum through which communities can engage with advocacy efforts moving forward. Public health is the connecting thread in these movements for social change. We make an impact by showing that well-being is indicative of social determinants related to gender, race and ethnicity, wealth and class.

Keynote speakers

21st Annual William T. Small, Jr. Keynote Lecture: Linda Sarsour
8th Annual Victor J. Schoenbach Keynote Lecture: Tyrone B. Hayes

39th Annual Minority Health Conference, 2018

(Click here for recordings from the 39th MHC, February 23, 2018)
(Click here for recordings from the 38th MHC, February 24, 2017)

This year's theme, Reclaiming the Narrative, is based on the recognition that the world is organized by the stories we tell. Stories have the power to influence the way we view ourselves and others and have the power to shape our actions. Given this sometimes unacknowledged influence, we must ask who are the storytellers, and who benefits from these narratives. The answers to these questions can offer an understanding of how we as public health professionals can progress and push public health agendas forward in a meaningful way. This year's theme challenges us to end the perpetuation of damaging rhetoric against marginalized communities. It highlights how resilient communities have fought to speak truth to power and refused to have their voices silenced and how public health practitioners can join such efforts. By reclaiming the narrative, communities and public health practitioners can reconcile the past and present and take agency in the future to promote health for all people.

Keynote speakers

Monica Raye Simpson, 20th Annual William T. Small, Jr. Keynote Lecture
(view the recorded webcast, with discussant Caitlin Williams,
or the full opening session, with welcomes and audience Q-and-A)
Vann R. Newkirk II, MSPH, 6th Annual Victor J. Schoenbach Keynote Lecture
(view the recording)

Registration closed early because the conference was full! But you can view the recording of Monica Raye Simpson's William T. Small, Jr. Keynote Lecture from the webcast or the full opening session (with welcomes and audience Q-and-A). Vann Newkirk's keynote lecture was recorded. (Mr. Newkirk also headlined the Conference on Race, Class, Gender and Ethnicity at the School of Law the following day.)

Co-chairs for the 39th Annual Minority Health Conference:
Melissa Luong, Masters Student, Health Behavior
Shikira Thomas, Doctoral Student, Health Behavior
Planning committee coordinator: Shynah James, Masters Student, Health Behavior

Here are several short videos from one of the breakout sessions: 50 seconds, 2 min., 30 sec.

Pre-conference kick-off event: An Evening with Byron Hurt
In line with the 2018 theme Reclaiming the Narrative, the Minority Health Conference hosted an in-depth look at food injustice and its impact on marginalized communities, with Byron Hurt, an award-winning documentary filmmaker, writer, professor, and recipient of CNN Best Documentary Award at the American Black Film Festival. Hurt's most recent documentary, Soul Food Junkies, took us on a fascinating historical and culinary journey exploring the soul food tradition and its ties to black cultural identity. The film delves into the positive and negative consequences of this culinary tradition. A moderated Q&A with Byron Hurt followed the screening.

Reception - 5:30 PM, Michael Hooker Research Center Atrium
Screening and Q&A Session - 6:00 PM, Joan Heckler Gillings Auditorium (133 Rosenau)

Recordings from the 38th Annual Minority Health Conference, 2017

Systems of Power: Recalling our Past, Restructuring our Future

Presented February 24, 2017
at the William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education
by the Minority Student Caucus of the
UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health