In the upcoming issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, Redstone Global Center director Bill Dietz joins Dr. Shiriki Kumanyika for a submission to the journal’s series commemorating the 50th anniversary of the National Academy of Medicine. The Dietz and Kumanyika piece focuses on progress and opportunities for addressing the obesity pandemic.
On Thursday, November 5, 2020, several members of the Milken Institute School of Public Health testified before the DC Council in support of a resolution to declare racism as a public health crisis in the District.
The Redstone Global Center for Prevention and Wellness is focused on the identification of effective nutrition and physical activity strategies that improve the prevention and management of obesity and other chronic related diseases. Improving the health of the District of Columbia, with particular attention to health inequities, is a major goal of the Center. We are particularly interested in research and policy that furthers the goals of equity and dismantling racist systems, structures, and practices related to chronic disease prevention.
To fulfill our mission, the Redstone Global Center is committed to becoming an anti-racist organization. In 2020, the center developed an action agenda as a starting point to guide our work. Racism and white supremacy and the trauma they induce are public health issues. We cannot ensure the health and wellbeing of all until white supremacy and the racist structures that support it are dismantled, and equity is achieved for all people and across all sectors, including health, criminal justice, economic opportunity, and education.
On June 30, members of the George Washington University faculty from the School of Public Health and School of Medicine and Health Sciences collaborated to provide testimony before the Committee on Health and the Committee on Business and Economic Development Council of the District of Columbia B23-0777, “New Hospital at St. Elizabeths Act of 2020.” Dr. Bill Dietz, Redstone Global Center Chair at GWSPH, and Dr. Janet Phoenix, Assistant Research Professor at GWSPH, were joined by Dr.