Conversation with Dr. Keosha Partlow, Associate Provost for Student Affairs( continued)
MLK wall message COVID-19 sign, Campus that are driven by them.
They have provided access to resources and information for community members. Various health fairs, and marches have been driven by students. That has been terrific. In addition, prior to my role as Associate Provost of Student Affairs, I was the Director of the Urban Health Institute, which is the University’ s research endowment. I have also had the pleasure of seeing firsthand the Social Justice initiatives that our faculty is engaged in on a day-to-day basis. The majority of our research at CDU is rooted in in health disparities, with strong connections to Social Justice.
Our faculty has been at the forefront of these initiatives from research that establishes specific disparities and their existence, to research focused on eliminating and addressing health disparities. We have an amazing community faculty who ensure that community members always have a seat at the table. And that is integral to Social Justice because again, it’ s about fairness. It’ s about equity and ensuring that the community has access to information and are able to engage and help to propel the research forward. And I see our PA students who lead the CDU Social Justice Society.
I was going to ask you about that. Please elaborate on the Social Justice Society.
The Social Justice Society have sponsored various initiatives. They had a reproductive justice march not too long ago that was very successful and really helped to provide space for all of the dialogue and frustration about what’ s going on with regards to reproductive rights nationally. Oftentimes our students hear about various injustices going on and they need a space to discuss, but then they ask‘ okay, now what should we do?’ They are very action oriented. Our students have led the blood drives that we have.
Our public health students have been involved in various Social Justice initiatives; our MD students, their annual Project Santa Claus, and other projects. Our nursing students. So, we certainly see Social Justice initiatives taking place throughout all of the colleges, and our students are amazing. I can honestly say we are not only cultivating the next generation of health professional leaders, but we’ re cultivating the next generation of leaders that also have Social Justice in their DNA.
Do you think this is a matter of learning by doing?
Yes, absolutely. Social Justice is one of the aspects of our CDU Advantage, where at the end of the day, every single student when they leave CDU, we want them to be able to say,‘ I not only know what Social Justice means for my community, but I have seen examples of it and this is what I plan on really taking the lead on in my career.’
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