Learn. Connect. Act.

Social Determinants of Equity

 

We held our 10th Annual We Can Do Better Conference on January 17, 2019 from 8:00am – 4:30pm at the Portland Art Museum’s Kridel Grand Ballroom in Portland, OR.

Do you ever wish the health transformation debate was actually about health? That it was going to positively impact you, and the people you care most about? Our annual conference does just that, brings the focus back to what is most important — improving our health, better experiences when we get care, and doing it at a cost we can afford. We will examine what a good health care system should deliver, a “map” to determine if the path we’re on is moving us towards a better health care system, one that includes affordable and available care, but has a broader goal of improving health.

Our conference brings together critical thinkers in health and health care to identify the barriers to improving health and how we can address them. It delivers pertinent information to help us understand Oregon’s health transformation process, and where the community’s voice is needed to move that process forward.

Our vision – that only by working together can we create a system for all Oregonians that results in better health care and health. During our 2019 Conference we will:

  • Present a framework we can use to improve our health care system
  • Offer updates on federal and state health policy.
  • Identify the priority areas for action to improve health and provide better care.
  • Create powerful health caucuses that come from the community instead of a political party.
This year’s speakers included:

Camara Jones, MD, MPH, PhD

KEYNOTE SPEAKER  Sponsored by PacificSource

Dr. Jones is a family physician and epidemiologist whose work focuses on the impacts of racism on the health and well-being of the nation. She seeks to broaden the national health debate to include not only universal access to high quality health care, but also attention to the social determinants of health (including poverty) and the social determinants of equity (including racism).

Watch her Keynote Address

Frank Franklin, PhD, JD, MPH

LUNCH KEYNOTE SPEAKER  Sponsored by Kaiser Permanente NW

Dr. Frank Franklin is an epidemiologist with applied experience in injury and forensic epidemiology. He is trained in injury epidemiology and injury prevention from Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, Center for Injury Research and Policy, where he received his PhD. Franklin received his MPH in epidemiology and international health from the Morehouse School of Medicine, and a BS in biology from Morgan State University. Franklin also hold a Juris Doctor from the Kline School of Law, Drexel University, and currently serves as the principal epidemiologist and director of Community Epidemiology Services with  the Public Health Division of the Multnomah County Health Department.

Watch his Keynote Address                                                                                              

 

                                                         AGENDA

8:00 – 9:00am        Registration and networking, coffee and light breakfast

9:00 – 9:15am         Welcome: Amy Fellows, Executive Director of WCDB

9:15 – 10:45am       Keynote: Social Determinants of Equity                                                                                                                                                 Dr. Camara Jones, Morehouse School of Medicine                                                                                                                             Introduction: Dan Stevens, Pacific Source

10:45 – 11:00am     Morning Networking Break

11:00 – 12:15pm      Equity and Systems Change Panel   Watch it here                                                                                                                            Moderator: Leann Johnson- OHA Office of Equity and Inclusion                                                                                                          Panelists:                                                                                                                                                                                                          Mandy Davis- Trauma Informed Oregon                                                                                                                                                  Ben Duncan- Multnomah County Equity Program                                                                                                                                  Royal Harris- Multnomah County Health Department                                                                                                                          Lindsey Watchman- Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center

12:15 – 12:45pm     Networking Lunch

12:45 – 1:30pm       Lunch Keynote: Race, Poverty and Health: Creating Systems Change                                                                                         Dr. Frank Franklin, Multnomah County Health Department                                                                                                         Introduction: Vena Ford, Kaiser Permanente Northwest

1:30 – 1:40pm         Break

1:40 – 2:45pm         Allies for a Healthier Oregon (AHO) 2019 Policy Themes   Watch it here                                                                                      Moderator: Kirsten Isaacson- SEIU 49                                                                                                                                                        Panelists:                                                                                                                                                                                                          Chris Bouneff- National Alliance of the Mentally Ill Oregon                                                                                                                  Jana Gastellum- Oregon Environmental Council                                                                                                                                    Lynn Knox- Oregon Food Bank

2:45 – 3:00pm         Break

3:00- 4:00pm          Community Organizing for Equity   Watch it here                                                                                                                           Moderator: Karen Shimada- Oregon Oral Health Coalition                                                                                                                   Panelists:                                                                                                                                                                                                           Edna Nyamu- Oregon Community Health Workers Association                                                                                                           Erin Schulten- Klamath County Department of Health                                                                                                                         Annie Valtierra-Sanchez- Southern Oregon Health Equity Coalition

4:00 – 4:15pm       Call to action, closing remarks                                                                                                                                                                     Dr. Camara Jones 

LOCATION: The Portland Art Museum event venue is located at 1119 SW Park Avenue, Portland, OR 97205. Our conference will be held in the Mark Building on the corner of SW Park and Main. The front doors are located on Park; please take the lobby elevator or the stairs to the Kridel Grand Ballroom on the 3rd floor. There is VERY limited paid street and lot parking. Public transportation is encouraged, and there’s a Portland Streetcar stop on the opposite side of the Museum (on SW 10th), a multi-line Tri-Met stop on 10th & Jefferson, and the Max is also approximately 3 blocks at SW 6th & Madison.

We Can Do Better views health as a product of many factors. Using our website, social media, and community forums, we share creative ways that communities approach health – through affordable and nutritious food, safe biking and pedestrian walkways, housing, equity issues and yes, improving the medical system.

We Can Do Better is not your typical non-profit, and each year we host a not-so-typical conference as illustrated by a comment from a 2013 conference participant, “I usually leave this sort of thing feeling pretty depressed about the hopelessness of it all. On the drive home from this conference, I was full of ideas of things that I could do. That sounds kind of trite when I say it, but I am looking at some things in a whole new way. Now all I need is to take that from thought into action.”

To get a flavor of our conference, please see our page about last year’s event. Contact us if you want to help plan, volunteer the day of or contribute to our scholarship fund so everyone who wants to attend can Learn, Connect and Act.        

Thank You to our Sponsors:

Pacific Source

Trillium Community Health Logo

TriMet Logo

Multnomah County Logo

Seeding Justice

CAP

Dual Diagnosis Anonymous

Pivot Point