Professor of Health & Wellness Amy Joy Lanou, who also serves as executive director of the North Carolina Center for Health and Wellness at UNC Asheville and Interim Director of the UNC Gillings School’s MPH Program in Asheville, and Assistant Director of the UNC Gillings School’s MPH Program in Asheville Sarah Thach
When we recognize we are all in this together, we look for ways to work together to get through this public health crisis. We look for solutions instead of scapegoating those who are ill, who have traveled, or who have family living in other parts of the world. Our equity lens inspires compassion and ingenuity as we take care of our neighbors, re-tool our businesses to make much-needed supplies, and discover new ways to come together while maintaining our physical distance. Equity demands we don’t leave anyone behind in the process, not only because it’s the right thing to do but because to leave anyone behind makes us all vulnerable.
This is the work we concern ourselves with every day as public health professionals and educators at the UNC Gillings School’s Masters of Public Health Program in Asheville. Our students are learning how to champion health equity here in Western North Carolina as future public health leaders. They are using their public health training to address COVID-19 in their current jobs, which include managing regional hospitals, expanding access to medical and dental care, promoting health among older adults, and helping low-wealth people get needed medicine. In response to the pandemic, they are also helping WNC counties figure out how to disseminate accurate information, distribute food, and set up safe testing sites.
Read the full article in the Asheville Citizen-Times.
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