UVM's 2019 MLK Celebration and Learning Series included a Health Equity Lecture at the College of Medicine featuring Herman A. Taylor, Jr., M.D., director, Cardiovascular Research Institute, at the Morehouse School of Medicine, on January 23.
The University of Vermont's 2019 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration and Learning Series launched with an MLK Birthday Party on January 17, and included a keynote by former NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Jealous on January 22, and a Health Equity Lecture featuring Herman A. Taylor, Jr., M.D., professor of medicine and director, Cardiovascular Research Institute, at the Morehouse School of Medicine, on January 23.
Taylor's presentation, which took place in the Sullivan Classroom in the Larner Medical Education Center, was titled "Risk, Race & Resilience: Three Dimensions of Health Disparities." Taylor said that "Race-based health disparities are real, pervasive and persistent. The last 30 years have been an important era of establishing the severity and extent of these disparities, and while group comparisons may be useful to examine they may also contribute to a monolithic ally negative view of black health. Many times, black resilience is overlooked and its study may offer fresh insights.”
Taylor serves as the director and an endowed professor of the Cardiovascular Research Institute (CVRI) at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Ga., which is focused on examining ways to eliminate cardiovascular health disparities in Georgia while serving as a model to the nation. A nationally-recognized cardiologist leader with broad experience and success in key areas, including invasive practice/research. Over the last decade he has focused predominantly on preventive cardiology and leadership of the landmark Jackson Heart Study (JHS) and ancillary observational research projects. Dr. Taylor was appointed in 1999 as the Principal Investigator and Director of the Jackson Heart Study, the largest epidemiological study of African Americans and cardiovascular disease of its kind ever undertaken.Since assuming that role he has held three simultaneous positions with the institutions funded by the NIH to administer the Study: Professor of Medicine and an attending cardiologist (and the inaugural holder of the Aaron Shirley Endowed Chair for the Study of Health Disparities) at University of Mississippi Medical Center; Visiting Professor of Biology in the Division of Natural Sciences at Tougaloo College; and, Clinical Professor of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at Jackson State University.
View full details about all of the events in the MLK Celebration & Learning Events Series here.