Facing Race: A National Conference in St. Louis, MO — November 20-22, 2024

Paula Tran Inzeo

Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health (MATCH) Director | University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute
Paula’s research and practice focus on topics of health equity, collective community action, power building, and health in all policies. She brings a background of deep community engagement and applied research. Most recently, Paula was the Health Promotion State Specialist at UW-Extension, supporting the translation of research to meaningful and tailored practices to promote community well-being, and working with county and state colleagues to advance efforts to promote health. Paula received her BS and MPH from UW-Madison, and is currently a doctoral candidate in the Civil Society and Community Research PhD program in the UW School of Human Ecology.

Presentations from Facing Race 2018

Health for All: Centering Racial Justice, Power, and Organizing

Power imbalances and their manifestation into “isms”, including racism, are at the root of health inequities, but the public health field hasn’t always meaningfully contributed to struggles for racial justice. We will discuss strategies to bring an explicit focus on racism and social justice into health equity work. We will begin by collaboratively deepening our understanding of how racism influences health and the importance of using organizing to advance our vision of a society that supports health for everyone. We will share examples of how using a public health frame with an explicit racial justice focus has contributed to power-building campaigns for worker and immigrant rights, as well as in the context of social conditions that shape health, such as mass incarceration.

Participants will then have an opportunity to think through how health framing and resources can contribute to racial justice organizing work in their own communities at multiple levels of influence spanning the spectrum of interpersonal to structural change work. This includes how organizers can partner with health professionals and vice versa to shift storytelling, research, and data analysis. This interactive workshop aims to bring together both organizers and people working in health and public health policy to strategize about building a collective movement for health equity that centers racial justice, power, and organizing.

Speakers: Sari Bilick, Paula Tran Inzeo, Logan Harris