All Events
Friday
April 3,  2026
Convenings In-Person + Virtual

Race, Reason & Health

Clark-Fox Forum in Hillman Hall, and online

6350 Forsyth Blvd,
St. Louis,
MO 63105

9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. CT

This convening brought together leading scholars, community advocates, and practitioners to explore critical intersections of race and public health.

For a recording of the event, see here.

For a story previewing this event, see here.

Racial health inequities are among the most persistent challenges in American public health, requiring innovative approaches that bridge academic research with community-based solutions. This convening brought together leading scholars, community advocates, and practitioners to explore critical intersections of race and public health. The symposium’s participants — among them, WashU researchers working at the forefront of the field — discussed how to translate scholarship into actionable strategies that address racial health inequities.

This symposium was hosted by the School of Public Health and the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity.

Program agenda

8:15 a.m. — 9 a.m.
Registration and coffee
9 a.m. — 9:10 a.m.
Opening remarks

Speaker

  • Andrew D. Martin, Washington University Chancellor
9:10 a.m. — 9:15 a.m.
Welcome

Speaker

  • Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, the Margaret C. Ryan Dean of the School of Public Health, the Eugene S. and Constance Kahn Distinguished Professor in Public Health and the vice provost for interdisciplinary initiatives at WashU
9:15 a.m. — 10:10 a.m.
Keynote

Presenter

  • Mary T. Bassett, MD, MPH, the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights, and director of the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
10:10 a.m. — 11 a.m.
Panel: Evidence and Ethics

Moderator

  • Sandro Galea

Panelists

  • Marlon M. Bailey, PhD, MFA, MA, professor and associate chair of African and African American studies in WashU Arts & Sciences; professor of women, gender and sexuality studies; faculty affiliate in the Performing Arts Department
  • Bettina Drake, PhD, MPH, the Michael F. Neidorff Professor of Surgery in the Division of Public Health Sciences at WashU Medicine; associate director of community outreach and engagement at Siteman Cancer Center; director of the Confluence Collaborative for Community Engagement at WashU
  • Karen Joynt Maddox, MD, MPH, professor of medicine in the Cardiovascular Division of WashU Medicine; member of the secondary faculty at WashU Public Health; co-director of WashU Public Health’s Policy & Structural Solutions research network; co-director of WashU’s Center for Advancing Health Services, Policy & Economics Research
11 a.m. — 11:30 a.m.
Break
11:30 a.m. — 12:20 p.m.
Panel: Policy and Community

Moderator

  • Dwight McBride, MA, PhD, the Gerald Early Distinguished Professor of African and African American Studies in Arts & Sciences at WashU, professor of English, executive director of Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Equity, senior adviser to the chancellor

Panelists

  • Cierra “CJ” Walker, CEO and founder of the Community Health Worker Coalition in St. Louis; recently awarded The Spark Prize by the Missouri Foundation for Health
  • Rodrigo Reis, MS, PhD, professor at WashU Public Health; director of and an investigator in the People, Health & Place Unit within WashU’s Prevention Research Center
  • Ruqaiijah Yearby, JD, MPH, the Judge Clifford Scott Green Chair in Law at Temple University Beasley School of Law; co-founder of the Institute for Healing Justice & Equity and one of the co-founders of the Collaborative for Anti-Racism & Equity
12:20 p.m. — 12:30 p.m.
Closing remarks

Speaker

  • Dwight McBride
12:30 p.m. — 1:30 p.m.
Networking lunch

Keynote speaker

Mary T. Bassett, MD, MPH

Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights, Harvard School of Public Health

With more than 30 years of experience in public health, Mary Travis Bassett has dedicated her career to advancing health equity. Previously, she directed the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights and served for four years as commissioner of health for New York City.

Originally from New York City, Bassett lived in Zimbabwe for nearly 20 years. Previously, she was the program director for the African Health Initiative and the Child Well-being Program at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. She received her MD from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, and an MPH from the University of Washington, where she was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar.

Speakers and panelists

Sandro Galea, MD, MPH
Moderator
The inaugural dean of WashU School of Public Health, Galea is one of the most cited social scientists in the world. His writing and work are featured regularly in national and global public media. A native of Malta, he has served as a field physician for Doctors Without Borders and also has held academic and leadership positions at Boston University, Columbia University, University of Michigan, and the New York Academy of Medicine.
Marlon Bailey, PhD
Speaker
A former visiting professor at the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (CAPS) at the University of California, San Francisco, Marlon is a Black queer theorist and critical ethnographer whose work focuses on Black LGBTQ cultural formations, sexual health and wellness, and HIV prevention. An author of two books, he won the Alan Bray Memorial Book Prize awarded by the GL/Q Caucus of the Modern Language Association.
Bettina Drake
Bettina Drake, PhD, MPH
Panelist
A cancer epidemiologist, Drake's research has focused on identifying preventive strategies and integrating community engagement approaches to reduce cancer disparities. She leads two NCI centers, and is also the director of the Confluence Collaborative for Community-Engaged Research, Teaching, and Practice.
Karen Joynt Maddox
Karen Joynt Maddox, MD, MPH
Panelist
Dr. Joynt Maddox is a cardiologist and a health services and health policy researcher with expertise in quality and outcomes measurement, value-based and alternative payment models, and health equity. She has authored over 300 peer-reviewed publications, and has received federal and foundation grants focused on issues in health policy. She is the associate editor for health policy at the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Dwight A. McBride
Moderator
The Gerald Early Distinguished Professor of African & African American Studies and a professor of English, McBride is the executive director of WashU's Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity and senior adviser to Chancellor Andrew D. Martin. McBride has written numerous books and edited volumes exploring race, Black studies, sexuality and identity politics.
Rodrigo Siqueira Reis, PhD, MSc
Panelist
Reis' expertise is in physical activity, urban health, built environments, health equity, and climate and planetary health. His research focuses on complex, place-based interventions — such as housing, transportation, and urban design — using mixed methods, implementation science, spatial analysis, and community-based system dynamics. He also leads the People, Health and Place Unit within the Prevention Research Center at WashU.
Ciearra Walker
Panelist
Ciearra "CJ" Walker is the founding CEO of the Community Health Worker Coalition, an organization that melds certification, professional development, economic mobility, and neighborhood-rooted leadership to reimagine what health and social equity look like in practice. A Bill Gates Millennium Scholar and Spark Prize Awardee, she serves as vice president of the Community Health Workers Association of Missouri.
Ruqaiijah Yearby, JD, MPH
Panelist
Yearby, an interdisciplinary law and public health scholar, has developed models to address structural discrimination, including the revised social determinants of health framework. Previously, she worked at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as an assistant regional counsel and served as a law clerk for former Judge Ann Claire Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. She is also a Center for Public Health Law Research at Temple.