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ISAIAH AND SEIU Healthcare Minnesota (Local 113)
Hold Health Strategic Conversation
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On May 12 and 13^th ISAIAH and SEIU Healthcare Minnesota (Local 113) are hosting two days of strategic conversation with the assistance of some of the nations foremost thinkers on this vision for health and health equity: (see bios at bottom)

• Dr. john powell (Kirwan Institute On Race and Ethnicity),
• Dr.Anthony Iton (Alemeda County Public Health Officer),
• Dr Bobby Milstein, (Center For Disease Control),
• Richard Healey (Director of Grass Roots Policy Project)
• Jan Malcolm (former Minnesota Commissioner of Health)

They will present:

“mounting evidence that demonstrates how work, wealth, neighborhood conditions and lack of access to power and resources can actually get under the skin and disrupt human biology as surely as germs and viruses. But it’s not just the poor who are sick—so are the middle classes. At each descending rung of the socio-economic ladder, people tend to be sicker and die sooner. What’s more, at every level, many communities of color are worse off than their white counterparts. It is becoming clear how social conditions are as vital to our health as diet, smoking and exercise.  As Harvard epidemiologist David Williams points out, investing in our schools, improving housing, integrating neighborhoods, better jobs and wages, giving people more control over their work, these are as much health strategies as smoking, diet and exercise” (partially quoting Stephen Soldz)

On May 12-13^th powell, Iton, Milstein, Malcolm and Healey will lead multiple discussions:

• Strategy meeting of ISAIAH staff/leaders and SEIU Presidents/staff of all locals
• Minnesota Foundations briefing
• Dinner with African American and Latino clergy
• Evening public gathering of several hundred SEIU and ISAIAH leaders, including legislators and other allies
• Meeting of the Health Care For All Coalition that has been funded for three years by the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation.  The Coalition includes Take Action MN, Education Minnesota, Minnesota Nurses, the Children’s Defense Fund, AFSCME, ISAIAH and SEIU.
• A meeting with SEIU, ISAIAH and a major health provider, Allina Hospitals and Clinics
• A meeting for public health professionals

The hope is that these discussions will help us begin identifying how this broader vision for health care could inform the work of ISAIAH and other Gamaliel affiliates in the months and years ahead.

SEIU personnel from Illinois and Missouri will also participate. Juan Soto and Katie Jansen are coming to make connections with the SEIU personnel and to explore how this can impact the work in Illinois and Missouri.

We will report to you what happens and what next steps emerge.

In the mean time, you may be interested in some of the considerable resource material that is available:

    -The Public Broadcasting System series Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?www.unnaturalcauses.org/  newly released by California Newsreel is a tremendous introduction to this material.  There is lots of research material, study guides, etc connected with this production.

    -Just released by MacArthur Foundation Research Network--- Reaching For a Healthier Life: Facts on Socioeconomic Status and Health in the US.  http://www.macses.ucsf.edu/News/NEWS.html (also attached)

    -Bobby Milstein “game” to get at these questions

Our Guests:

john powell, Executive Director of the Kirwan Institute on Race and Ethnicity

Professor john a. powell is an internationally recognized authority in the areas of civil rights, civil liberties, and issues relating to race, ethnicity, poverty and the law. He is the Executive Director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at The Ohio State University. He has written extensively on a number of issues including structural racism, racial justice and regionalism, concentrated poverty and urban sprawl, opportunity-based housing, voting rights, affirmative action in the United States, South Africa and Brazil, racial and ethnic identity, spirituality and social justice, and the needs of citizens in a democratic society.

Dr. Anthony Iton, Alemeda County, California Public Health Officer

He has worked as an HIV disability rights attorney, a health care policy analyst with

Consumers Union West Coast Regional Office, and as a physician and advocate for the

homeless at the San Francisco Public Health Department.  Tony’s primary interest is the

health of disadvantaged populations and the contributions of race, class, wealth,

education, geography, and employment to health status. Dr. Iton collaborated with California Newsreel in the creation of Unnatural Causes; Is Inequality Making Us Sick? Which is currently being shown on public television stations across the country.

Dr. Bobby Milstein, Center for Disease Control, Coordinator of Syndemics Prevention Network

Bobby Milstein works at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where he leads the Syndemics Prevention Network and also coordinates planning/evaluation activities for emerging investigations and policy initiatives.  In 2001 he started the Syndemics Prevention Network; this endeavor explores transformations in public health work that arise in situations where there are multiple interacting epidemics, or "syndemics." The project involves a close analysis of the concepts, methods, and ethics used in public health work, along with a synthesis of techniques from other areas of applied science (e.g., system dynamics, democratic organizing, social navigation).

Richard Healey, Director of Grassroots Policy Project

In the 1970s, Richard was National Director of the New American Movement. Subsequently Richard has served as Director of the Institute for Policy Studies, the Coalition for a New Foreign and Military Policy and Nuclear Times and was a founder of the Study Circle Resource Center. Richard received his Ph.D. in mathematics from UCLA and a Masters in Public Health from Harvard.

Jan Malcolm, CEO Courage Center, Fmr. Commissioner of Health 1999-2003.  Ms. Malcolm led a staff of 1300 and oversaw an annual budget of approximately $400 million. Highlights included establishing new strategic directions for the agency, passage of major budget initiatives in tobacco prevention and elimination of health disparities and implementation of cutting-edge strategies in those areas, and strengthening relationships between MDH and local public health agencies. Ms. Malcom chaired the cabinet level Health Policy Council and the Governor’s Joint Task Force on Health Care Costs and Quality. She served on the Executive Committee of the National Association of State and Territorial Health Officers, was active in the National Academy of State Health Policy, and was a member of the Institute of Medicine’s committee on enhancing the federal government’s role in health care quality improvement.  Previously, she was vice president for public affairs at Allina Health System and a senior vice president of government programs and public policy at HealthPartners.