Educational Resources
The Center of Excellence for Sexual Health in the Satcher Health Leadership Institute
2008-2009 Inaugural Community Leadership Scholars
(From Left to Right)
Ariele Le Grand, M.Sc.
Mariotta Gary-Smith, M.P.H.
Bethany Stevens, J.D., M.A.
Jennifer Skyler, Ph.D., M.S.Ed.
Onyekachi Sunny Onyeabor, M.B.B.S., M.P.H.
"Today, the need for leaders is too great to leave their emergence to chance."
- Institute of Medicine Report, 1988 To learn more about the the Satcher Health Leadership Institute, you may preview or download the documents below: "Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane."
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King's statement unfortunately remains accurate nearly 40 years later. We are facing a crisis in public health.
"In order to eliminate disparitites in health, we need leaders who care enough, know enough, will do enough and are persistent enough."
- David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D. Executive Summary. The United States is experiencing a public health crisis of epidemic proportions. It is a well documented crisis which includes issues of access, cost, and quality.
Today, health policy leadership on both a national and global scale is lacking. This problem is compounded by the acute lack of leadership development among minoritites, the very groups that are the most affected by disparate health challenges and outcomes.
In addition to addressing a paucity of leadership in health policy and medicine, there is a critical need to improve healthcare quality and access in general. This need is particularly acute for minoritites, poor people and other disadvantage groups. For example, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, African American, American Indian, and Puerto Rican infants have higher death rates than white infants. In 2000, the black-to-white ratio in infant mortality was 2.5 (up from 2.4 in 1988). This widening disparity between black and white infants is a trend that has persisted over the past two decades.
Health promotion and disease prevention are very effective in addressing health disparities. However, most reports indicate that less than 3% of our nation's health budget is allocated to population-based prevention. As the cost of health care skyrockets, our country remains focused on costly medical treatments as opposed to prevention.
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