Dr. Renee Canady of the Ingham County Health Department and Michigan State University faculty will present the address "Continuing the Conversation of Global Health: An Examination of National Health Inequalities" on Thursday, Nov. 6, at 4 p.m. at Hope College on the first floor of the rotunda of the Martha Miller Center for Global Communication.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
The address is being presented through the college's Multicultural Enrichment Series as a follow up to the Critical Issues Symposium, which was held at Hope on Tuesday-Wednesday, Sept. 30-Oct. 1, and examined "Global Health: From Catastrophe to Cure." As a continuation of the symposium topic, the address will explore various aspects of health disparities, including those that exist in the U.S. between whites and racial/ethnic minorities.
A discussion, organized by the college's Poverty Medicine Focus Group and focused on the issue of health disparities as it relates to the Holland community, will follow from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Fried-Hemenway Auditorium of the Martha Miller Center for Global Communication. Participants are anticipated to include local physicians, other community members and pre-med students at the college.
Canady is deputy health officer for Public Health Services at the Ingham County Health Department, overseeing several divisions, including Public Health Nursing, Disease Control, Social Justice and Health Access, Planning and Health Assessment, and Neighborhood Engagement. She is an adjunct assistant professor in the College of Nursing at Michigan State University, where she held a regular faculty appointment prior to joining the health department.
She is a medical sociologist by training, and her research interests include health disparities, cultural competency, and the social context of mental and physical illness in women. She has published and presented broadly on the topics, including numerous lectures and workshops on diversity, race relations, and cultural competency in her community, as well as across the state and nation.
Canady is the former director of Adolescent Health Services for the Ingham County Health Department, and has held positions in HIV education and prevention at the state and county level. She is also a former fellow of the National Institutes of Mental Health and American Sociology Association.
She is an active volunteer in her community, and has served on numerous non-profit boards, such as Ele's Place, Lansing Area AIDS Network, the American Red Cross and the Sparrow Hospital Home Care Board. She earned her doctorate in medical sociology at Michigan State University, a master's in public administration from Western Michigan University and a bachelor's degree in public health from the UNC-Chapel Hill.
Canady's address is sponsored by the Chrysler Corporation. Campus sponsors include the college's Office of Multicultural Education as well as the Acting on AIDS, Black Student Union and Poverty Medicine Focus Group student organizations.
The Martha Miller Center is located at 257 Columbia Ave., at the corner of Columbia Avenue and 10th Street.