2020 Kimball Lecture Conversation
September 29, 2020
During the 2020 Forum, Foundation CEO Richard Baron, MD and Dr. Williams engaged in a conversation. Dr. Williams commented that the students he has taught at elite universities knew very little about embedded racial disparities in American life, and described research findings that the population subgroup most likely to underestimate existing degrees of inequity in wealth and education were highly educated whites who “believe in a just world.”
Dr. Baron invited Dr. Williams to offer advice to the health care leaders in attendance. Dr. Williams called for individual physicians to demonstrate creativity in addressing inequity, citing examples of physicians writing “prescriptions” for food or helping create medical-legal partnerships that worked with patients on issues such as unhealthy living conditions. He also discussed the importance of advocating for health care institutions to use their community benefit dollars to advance equity and pointed to the Healthcare Anchor Network, a collaboration of health care systems seeking to help build more inclusive and sustainable local communities.
Creating a Trustworthy Community
