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NEWS ALERT
Harvard Medical School Office of Public Affairs
Harvard Medical School's Office for Diversity and Community Partnership
Social Justice Event Honors Massachusetts Department of Public Health Commissioner John M. Auerbach
BOSTON, Mass. (April 15, 2008)—John M. Auerbach, Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, received The Ruth M. Batson Social Justice Award on the morning of April 15, 2008 at Harvard Medical School’s Reflection in Action: Building Healthy Communities™ (RIA) celebration. In front of an audience of hundreds of schoolchildren, the program’s founder, Dr. Joan Y. Reede, Dean for Diversity and Community Partnership at Harvard Medical School, presented the award to Commissioner Auerbach.
The Ruth M. Batson Social Justice Award is given annually to individuals whose actions exemplify a commitment to social justice, civic engagement, the building of community, and the furthering of equity. Cambridge Health Alliance, a community partner and a Harvard Medical School teaching affiliate, helped to create this award. The festivities were held at the Joseph B. Martin Conference Center, Harvard Medical School (HMS), Boston.
By linking the arts with science in a competitive, yet celebratory event, each year Reflection in Action: Building Healthy Communities™ gives 6th-9th graders in Boston and Cambridge a novel and exciting incentive to learn about science and health issues of particular concern to urban families and individuals.
Students draw on their creativity in the visual, written, and performing arts to grapple with health and societal issues that are of particular concern to struggling urban families. Their original rap songs, paintings, poetry, essays, one-act plays, and other artistic forms of expression focus on personal empowerment, access and awareness, and good health habits.
RIA links improvement in individual and community health to engagement in civic action by providing students with the opportunity to participate in city-wide competitions -- these contests culminate in the spring during an all-day celebration of science, creativity, and health at HMS. In the morning, winners in each category (visual, written, and performing arts) are announced and the first-place winners perform their winning entries before a large audience of students, teachers, parents, community members, and Harvard officials.
This year several competition entries spoke of the death of Steven Odum, a popular student of the Timilty Middle School in Dorchester. Students expressed their concern about the psychological impact of loss and violence in poignant written compositions. Dr. Reede noted that judges in this year’s RIA competition often became emotional while reading the entries.
“This year is a particularly important year to offer students thoughtful projects supported by curriculum, their teachers, families, and friends,” Dr. Reede said. “The RIA program has often been a venue in which youth have a chance to not only learn about heart and lung diseases, mental illness, the impact of drugs and violence, but also to find the venue a helpful coping tool, as well as a positive project on which to concentrate.”
Dennis D. Keefe, CEO of Cambridge Health Alliance and Commissioner of Public Health for the City of Cambridge, is an advocate for Dean Reede’s programs. “Dean Reede has inspired many disadvantaged youths to become engaged in health and science through her innovative programs,” Keefe said. “Youths from the City of Cambridge have been participating in her programs for several years, and we welcome continued collaborations to inspire youth to make informed and positive choices about their health and their actions.”
Dr. Jeffrey Flier, Dean of Harvard Medical School, agrees. “Collaborations between Harvard Medical School, affiliated hospitals, schools, and government officials are essential for continuity and support across settings engaged in remedying healthcare disparities and helping inner-city youths,” he said. “We are fortunate that Dean Reede’s programs have such a positive impact on our communities. And I congratulate Commissioner Auerbach, a well-deserved recipient of this year’s Ruth M. Batson Social Justice Award.”
Ruth M. Batson was one of Boston’s best-known figures in education, healthcare, and civil rights. Her outstanding career began with the NAACP Boston Branch. Her most renowned accomplishment occurred in the early 1960s when she led the challenge to the Boston Public School system for educational equality for African American students in Boston and founded Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO).
The first Ruth M. Batson Social Justice Award was given last year to her daughter, Susan Batson, who was on hand this year to celebrate Commissioner Auerbach. She was joined by Claude-Alix Jacob, of Cambridge Health Alliance, who is the Chief Public Health Officer for the City of Cambridge and director of the Cambridge Public Health Department.
Written by Alison Harris and Judith Montminy
PHOTOS BY JEFF THIEBAUTH
top left: Students from the Jackson/Mann K-8 School in Allston performed an original song and dance to emphasize the importance of making healthful choices.
middle right (l to r): Claude-Alix Jacob, Cambridge Health Alliance, Chief Public Health Officer for the City of Cambridge; Dr. Nancy Oriol, HMS Dean for Students; Susan Batson, first recipient and daughter of Ruth M. Batson; John M. Auerbach, Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and recipient of the 2008 Ruth M. Batson Social Justice Award; Dr. Joan Reede, HMS Dean for Diversity & Community Partnership; Sheila Nutt, Director of Educational Outreach, HMS Diversity & Community Partnership.
CONTACT:
Alison Harris
aharris@cha.harvard.edu
781-424-3293
Judith Montminy
public_affairs@hms.harvard.edu
617-432-0442
Event Participants & Background Information
John M. Auerbach, MBA, Commissioner, Massachusetts Department of Public Health - John Auerbach was appointed Massachusetts’s Commissioner of Public Health in April, 2007 by Governor Deval Patrick and Secretary of Health and Human Services, Dr. Judyann Bigby. As Commissioner he heads a Department with 3,100 employees that includes four public health hospitals, the State Laboratory, several regulatory bodies, and numerous programmatic units addressing chronic and infectious disease, substance abuse, environmental health, tobacco control, children and adolescent health and emergency preparedness. He is the Chair of the Public Health Council, the State’s health policy board, and a member of the Governor’s Anti-Crime Council. Prior to his appointment as Commissioner, Auerbach had been the Executive Director of the Boston Public Health Commission for 9 years. He oversaw the City’s Emergency Medical Services Department, several substance abuse treatment facilities and the second largest homeless services program in New England. Under his leadership, the Commission implemented the strongest tobacco control regulations in the nation and developed new initiatives on cancer, heart disease, asthma, obesity, emergency preparedness as well as a broad-based and comprehensive campaign to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities.
Joan Y. Reede, MD, MPH, MS, Dean for Diversity and Community Partnership at Harvard Medical School - Appointed as the first Dean for Diversity and Community Partnership in January 2002, Joan Y. Reede is responsible for the development and management of a comprehensive program that provides leadership, guidance, and support to promote the increased recruitment, retention and advancement of under-represented minority faculty at Harvard Medical School. This charge includes oversight of all diversity activities at HMS as they relate to faculty, trainees, students, and staff. Dr. Reede is director of the Minority Faculty Development Program and faculty director of Community Outreach Programs at Harvard Medical School. In addition, she holds the appointments of associate professor of medicine at HMS, associate professor of society, human development and health at the Harvard School of Public Health, and assistant in health policy at Massachusetts General Hospital. Prior to coming to HMS in 1989, Dr. Reede served as the medical director for a Boston community health center and for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Youth Services. Dr. Reede has worked as a pediatrician in community and academic health centers, juvenile prisons, and public schools.
Reflection in Action: Building Healthy Communities™ is a novel and exciting way to encourage learning about science and health. Boston and Cambridge 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th graders participate in city-wide competitions about health issues that are of particular concern to urban families and individuals. RIA links improvement in individual and community health to engagement in civic action through visual, written, and performing arts, students identify pressing health care needs that are often overlooked and provide a proactive approach to healthy living that focuses on personal empowerment, access and awareness, and good health habits. The two generations of Batsons now tied permanently to RIA are the perfect role models for the youths that RIA recruits. This year, RIA’s fifth, over 290 submissions in several categories from 371 youths including the performing arts, visual arts, and written entries were reviewed by a team of local “celebrity” judges from: American Heart Association, Associated Early Care and Education, Inc., Baystate Banner, Berklee College of Music, Boston Center for Youth and Families, Boston College, Boston Public Health Commission, Boston Public Schools, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Cambridge Health Alliance, Cambridge TV, Causemedia, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, The Family Van, Harvard Medical School Office of Public Affairs, Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard University Office of Government and Community Affairs, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Science, Museum of National Center of Afro-American Artists, The Nora Theater Company, Pando Associates, Phillips Brooks House at Harvard University, Smith College, S.P.A.C.E. an Artistic Community, Inc., Tailored Communications, and Tufts University. Since its conception RIA has reached more than 1,000 students in more than 20 different public and private schools in Boston and Cambridge. RIA contest entry materials are made available to schools, after-school programs and community agencies in the fall. Students are encouraged to be creative as they develop an understanding of how their actions can help build healthy communities.
Ruth M. Batson was one of Boston’s best-known figures in education, healthcare, and civil rights. Her outstanding career began with the NAACP Boston Branch. Her most renowned accomplishment occurred in the early 1960s when she led the challenge to the Boston Public School system for educational equality for African American students in Boston and founded Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO). Ruth M. Batson was a strong believer in the fact that sick children could not adequately learn and therefore was a vocal advocate of medical education for students of color. Born in Roxbury, she spent most of her life in the service of education and healthcare and engaged in a host of organizational, legislative, and legal activities. Batson broke many barriers throughout her career. She was the first black woman on the Democratic National Committee and the first woman elected president of NAACP’s New England Regional Conference, a role in which she served from 1957 to 1960. Upon her retirement from the Boston University School of Medicine Division of Psychiatry, she was a tenured professor of psychiatry. She was a member of the board of visitors of Boston University’s School of Medicine; trustee, Boston City Hospital; member, Corporation of the Massachusetts General Hospital and former member of its board of trustees; and board member of Roxbury Community College Foundation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Batson
The Ruth M. Batson Social Justice Award was sculpted by Dr. Fay Stevenson-Smith. The Ruth M. Batson Social Justice Award is a sculpture of Ruth. It was sculpted by Dr. Fay Stevenson-Smith, who began sculpting in 1988 while managing a solo practice in Obstetrics and Gynecology in Fairfield County in Connecticut. Dr. Stevenson-Smith retired from medical practice in the year 2000. Her subsequent trips to West Africa inspired new subject matter for her work. Currently Dr. Stevenson-Smith is enjoying the opportunity to focus on her sculpture and finding venues to share her works with the public. She has exhibited at the National Black Fine Arts Show in New York City, the annual African American History Exhibition at the Rich Forum in Stamford, Connecticut, and other numerous venues.
Susan Batson began her lifelong excursion into the art of acting at Adele Thane's Boston Children's Theater. She graduated from Emerson College's Theater Arts Program, is a member of the Actor's Studio, and is a recipient of a New York Drama Critics Award, an LA Drama Critics Award, and an Obie. She has consulted with writer/director Spike Lee on several of his films and was a producer of the hugely successful Broadway revival and television production of A Raisin in the Sun (2007) (TV), starring Sean Combs. Actor, writer, director, producer, teacher, and coach, Susan Batson works on film sets all over the world, and in her New York- and Hollywood- based Black Nexxus acting studios, Susan Batson has enjoyed the privilege of working with Nicole Kidman, Juliette Binoche, Tom Cruise, Jennifer Lopez, Chris Rock, Jamie Foxx, Sean 'P. Diddy' Combs, Liv Tyler, Jennifer Connelly, and countless other actors. Susan Batson is the author of the book "Truth: Personas, Needs, and Flaws In The Art of Building Actors and Creating Characters" and has been profiled in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Variety, the Hollywood Reporter, and Backstage. In the spirit of equal opportunity and advancement through education that her mother personified, Black Nexxus remains open 365 days a year, and Susan Batson remains available to her legion of loyal clients twenty-four hours a day. http://blacknexxusinc.com/
Claude-Alix Jacob, Chief Public Health Officer for the City of Cambridge.
Claude-Alix Jacob joined the Cambridge Public Health Department in April 2007. Most recently, Mr. Jacob served as the Deputy Director of the Office of Health Promotion at the Illinois Department of Public Health. In this position, he oversaw health promotion activities related to chronic disease prevention, oral health education, children’s health, and injury prevention. Previously, Mr. Jacob served as the Chief of the Bureau of Disease Prevention and Control at the Baltimore City Health Department and as the Director of Community Affairs at the Sinai Community Institute in Chicago. He has participated on a number of advisory boards, and is the current national chair of the Black Caucus of Health Workers of the American Public Health Association. Mr. Jacob received an undergraduate degree in sociology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health.
Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) is an innovative, award-winning health system that provides high quality care in Cambridge, Somerville, Everett, Revere, and the surrounding Metro-North communities in Massachusetts. It is a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School and includes three hospitals, more than 20 primary care practices, the Cambridge Public Health Department, and the Network Health plan. With this unique model, CHA is able to offer the finest health services, a diverse working environment, and a premier training experience for those interested in community-based medicine.
Harvard Medical School has more than 7,500 full-time faculty working in 11 academic departments located at the School's Boston campus or in one of 47 hospital-based clinical departments at 18 Harvard-affiliated teaching hospitals and research institutes. Those affiliates include Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Cambridge Health Alliance, Children's Hospital Boston, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Forsyth Institute, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Hebrew SeniorLife, Joslin Diabetes Center, Judge Baker Children's Center, Immune Disease Institute, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Massachusetts General Hospital, McLean Hospital, Mount Auburn Hospital, Schepens Eye Research Institute, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, and VA Boston Healthcare System.