Health Equity Day

This annual department-wide event, hosted by the Department of Medicine's RYSE Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council, aims to raise awareness and encourage action around the systemic health disparities that exist across racial, ethnic, cultural, and social groups. The event also recognizes interventions and research across the department centered on health equity.

This virtual event brings together stakeholders from all departments, divisions, and ranks, providing a platform to share compelling new findings, facilitate scientific exchange, and identify opportunities for collaboration. The conference includes poster presentations, compelling narratives, a case competition, a keynote address, and an innovation award. All members of the Emory Department of Medicine and SOM community are welcome to attend.

2025 Health Equity Day

Save the date! RYSE, in partnership with the Office of Health Equity at Grady, will be hosting the 5th annual Health Equity Day on May 20, 2025.

For the first time, Health Equity Day will be a hybrid event, engaging communities both virtually via Zoom and in person at the Trauma Auditorium at Grady Hospital. The theme for next year’s event will be Community Partnerships. More information will be announced in the upcoming months, so stay tuned!

Health Equity Day 2024

The 4th annual Health Equity Day, held virtually on May 21, 2024, included poster presentations, a keynote address, and a narrative session. More than 180 members of the DOM and Emory community attended to share compelling new findings, facilitate scientific exchange, and identify opportunities for collaboration. The year's theme is Empowering Emerging Voices and our keynote will be presented by three emerging leaders in their fields, Lashyra Nolen, Jennifer Tsai, MD, MEd, and Darshali Vyas, MD. Click the buttons below to learn more!

Click here to watch the keynote address, poster presentations, and narrative pre-event recordings on the DOM YouTube channel.

2024 Abstract Book

The theme of this year's Health Equity Day is Empowering Emerging Voices and our keynote will be presented by three emerging leaders in their fields, Lashyra Nolen, a 2024 MD/MPP candidate at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Kennedy School, Jennifer Tsai, MD, MEd, an emergency medicine resident at Yale School of Medicine, and Darshali Vyas, MD, a pulmonary and critical care medicine fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital. To learn more about these speakers and the event, view their short bios below.

Lashyra Nolen
is a MD/MPP candidate ‘24, at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Kennedy School. She was on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, served as Harvard's Student Council President ’23, and is the founder of We Got Us.

Jennifer Tsai, MD, MEd
is an emergency medicine resident at Yale School of Medicine and is internationally known as a health equity advocate. She was named 40 Under 40 Leaders in Minority Health by the National Minority Quality Forum.

Darshali Vyas, MD
is a pulmonary and critical care medicine fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she is also currently completing a chief resident year in internal medicine. Her research has focused on challenging the inappropriate use of race in clinical prediction models.

2024 Poster Presentation & Award Winners

RYSE Outstanding Scientific Citation Award
Boghuma Titanji
"Effectiveness of Smallpox Vaccination to Prevent Mpox in Military Personnel”

Clinical Quality Poster Category:
Emily Wright, Shubham Patel, Annie Ferrell, Hope Iyiewuare, Anita Deshpande:
"Improving Time for Operative Repair for Facial Trauma Patients by the Otolaryngology Service at Grady Memorial Hospital"

Community, Advocacy, and Policy Poster Category
Amy Zeidan, Mark Spencer, Nishi KuAmy Zeidan, Mark Spencer, Nishi Kumarmar:
"Policing, Incarceration, and Health: A Novel Curriculum for Medical Students"

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Professional Development Poster Category
Jada Bussey-Jones, Sheryl Heron, Kimberly Manning, Danielle Jones, Monique Rainey
“Increase in promotion actions immediately following a URiM faculty development program”

Education Poster Category
Sarah Samaranayake, Nicolas Quiroga-Gutierrez, Valentina Larrivey, Arie Szomstein, Maria Elena Cunningham, Hallie Stevens, Mary Cate Walsh, Emilia Grill, Susana Alfonso
"Portal de Salud: Interprofessional Education Through a Student-Run Health Screening Clinic"

Research Poster Category
Goeto Dantes, Swathi Raikot, Afrin Jahan, Nikolay Barykov, Jonathan Beus, Hanna Alemayehu, Allison F. Linden
"Childhood Opportunity Index and Pediatric Gastrostomy Tube Outcomes"