Lessons from Ferguson and Beyond: Bias, Health & Justice

Lessons from Ferguson and Beyond lecture

Thursday, April 14, 2016, 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. Central Time

Coffman Theater, Coffman Union

Event Description

Police shootings of young Black men in Ferguson, New York, Baltimore, and elsewhere have sparked a national conversation about race and justice. These shootings and this conversation remind us that racial bias, violence, job inequalities, and housing segregation all contribute to the health and health care disparities that have long plagued African American communities. This talk explored these inequities and these inequalities, and the role that health law – particularly the Affordable Care Act – and grassroots advocacy can play in addressing racial bias in order to reduce health disparities and promote health justice.

Commentator

Prof. Kola Okuyemi, MD, MPH
Director, Program in Health Disparities Research
University of Minnesota

Sponsorship

Support for the Deinard Memorial Lecture Series on Law & Medicine comes from the Deinard family and the law firm of Stinson Leonard Street.

The Deinard Memorial Lecture is co-sponsored by the University of Minnesota's Consortium on Law and Values in Health, Environment & the Life Sciences; Joint Degree Program in Law, Science & Technology; and Center for Bioethics.

Continuing Education Information

Attorneys: 1.5 standard CLE credits are approved. Event ID: 218695.

American Medical Association/PRA: The University of Minnesota is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Physicians: The University of Minnesota designates this live educational activity for a maximum of 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Other Health Care Professionals: Research coordinators, nurse practitioners, nurses, and other health care professionals who participate in this CE activity may submit their Statements of Participation to their appropriate accrediting organizations or state boards for consideration of credit. The participant is responsible for determining whether this activity meets the requirements for acceptable continuing education.

Speaker Biography

Sidney D. Watson, JD, is Jane and Bruce Robert Professor in the Center for Health Law Studies at St. Louis University School of Law. A specialist in health care access for the poor, she has spent her legal career advocating on behalf of low-income people, both as a legal services lawyer and as a law professor. Currently, Professor Watson is advocating for better access to quality, affordable health insurance and health care by serving as policy and legal advisor for a statewide coalition of grassroots consumer health advocates. She has received funding from the Missouri Foundation for Health to support this work and the school’s Grassroots Health Law, Policy and Advocacy course that allows students to do grassroots health policy work on behalf of consumers.

Professor Watson is a frequent speaker to consumer, disabilities rights and children’s groups about the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid and access to care. She has written more than 50 law review and other scholarly articles on racial and ethnic disparities in health care, health reform, Medicaid, and health care for those who are homeless. She is editor of the American Bar Association publication Representing the Poor and Homeless: Innovations in Advocacy (2001). She also authored the book, An Advocate’s Guide to Missouri MC+/Medicaid for People with Disabilities and three editions of the book, A Georgia Advocate’s Guide to Health Care.