YaleWomen and Yale School of Medicine Present Health Equity Fireside Chat

Research indicates that people often feel more comfortable being cared for by medical practitioners who share their demographic. To achieve greater health equity, we will discuss existing healthcare disparities and possible strategies to enhance healthcare workforce diversity and more sensitive and humble patient care. Our fireside chat features leading Yale physicians / SMEs Andrea Silber (MD), Kim Blenman (PhD, MS), and Barbara Burtness (MD) (moderator). This chat will be hosted by YaleWomen Programs Committee Co-Chair Dr. Akosua Barthwell Evans.

TO REGISTER: https://tinyurl.com/YWHealthEq

About the Moderator

Barbara Burtness, MD

Professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology); Interim Associate Cancer Center Director, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Disease Aligned Research Team Leader, Head and Neck Cancers Program; Co-Leader, Developmental Therapeutics, Yale Cancer Center, Director of the Yale Head and Neck Specialized Program of Research Excellence

Dr. Burtness has promoted advancing equity at the Yale School of Medicine and nationally for many years. She has served on the Executive Committee on the Status of Women in Medicine (SWIM) since 2015, represented SWIM on the Faculty Advisory Council, and served on the Dean’s Climate Working Group. Nationally, Dr. Burtness is the Chair of the Task Force on Advancement for Women for ECOG-ACRIN. In addition, she brings extensive personal experience from the successful mentorship of numerous trainees and faculty throughout her career.

About the Host

Akosua Barthwell Evans, Ph.D., J.D.

Programs Committee Co-Chair, YaleWomen Council; Chief Executive Officer, The Barthwell Group

Dr. Akosua Barthwell Evans is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Barthwell Group, a Certified Woman-Owned MBE. As CEO of The Barthwell Group, the Detroit-based strategic management consulting firm she founded in 2005, she has built and effectively served a client portfolio of Fortune 500 companies, higher education institutions, and the military (U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, U.S. Marine Corps). Dr. Evans was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African-Americans, and to the Yale Alumni Association Board of Governors during the same year. Currently, she is the President of the Yale Club of Michigan, and the Programs Committee Co-Chair of the YaleWomen Council.

About the Speakers

Andrea Silber, MD

Professor of Clinical Medicine (Medical Oncology); Associate CEHE Director, Clinical Research; Assistant Clinical Director for Diversity and Health Equity at Yale Cancer Center

Dr. Silber is the Associate CEHE Director for Clinical Research. She is a medical oncologist who serves as the Medical Director and Physician Champion of the Centers for Disease Control/Connecticut Department of Public Health at Yale New Haven Hospital. She designed the Comprehensive Breast Cancer Outreach and Support Program for Underserved Women, which is a culturally competent program supported by the Breast Cancer Alliance of Greenwich.

A leadership fellow of the Connecticut Health Foundation, Dr. Silber increases clinical trial participation among ethnic minorities and capitalizes on opportunities created by the Affordable Care Act.

Kim Blenman, PhD, MS

Assistant Professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology) and Assistant Professor of Computer Science

Kim RM Blenman is an immunologist and clinical chemist who uses and develops novel software tools to understand the mechanisms responsible for disparities in disease pathogenesis and therapeutic response. She currently is an Assistant Professor in both the Yale School of Medicine Department of Internal Medicine Section of Medical Oncology, the Yale Cancer Center, and at the Yale School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Department of Computer Science.

Her memberships include: the Steering Committee and Council for the Yale University Women Faculty Forum, the Yale School of Medicine Committee on the Status of Women in Medicine (Executive Board), the Executive Committee of the Yale School of Medicine Minority Organization for Recruitment and Expansion, the International Society for the Advancement of Cytometry (ISAC) Data Standards Task Force and the International Immuno-Oncology Biomarker Working Group.