LEARN'd
The Listening, Engaging and Acting to Reduce Neighborhood Disparities (LEARN'd) Conference is a collaboration between the University of Alabama at Birmingham and The Ohio State University. This conference is the 3rd iteration of the previously hosted Health Equity Through Diversity Conference that Ohioans had come to know and love. The intent of LEARN'd is to create a dynamic space of collaboration to spawn ideas, embrace partnership, and drive innovation toward health equity.
Conference History
Racial Equity through Action & Learning Summit History
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In 2019 Columbus Public Health held the inaugural Diversity and Health Equity conference at Columbus Public Health. Over 140 community members and practitioners worked alongside each other to learn about healthcare, access to health services, and health literacy. The summit also aimed to inform the public and connect them to resources currently available at Columbus Public Health and in the community.
In 2020, Columbus Public Health’s Center for Public Health Innovation joined forces with The Ohio State University’s College of Public Health under the Academic Health Department partnership and Franklin County Public Health to put on the 2020 Racial Equity through Action and Learning Summit! Over 320 people virtually attended The Racial Equity through Action and Learning: Laying the Groundwork Summit. This was the first in a series to build capacity to advance racial equity and justice.
In 2021, The Racial Equity through Action and Learning: Talking the Talk summit was provided in partnership with The Ohio State University’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusive Excellence Committee for the College of Public Health and the Region V Public Health Training Center. This was the second installment of a three-part training series to build capacity to advance racial equity and justice. Nearly 300 practitioners virtually attended the Summit which was dedicated to language.
In 2022, The Racial Equity through Action and Learning: Walking the Walk summit was provided in partnership with The Ohio State University’s College of Public Health and the Region V Public Health Training Center. This was the third installment of a three-part training series to build capacity to advance racial equity and justice. Over 250 people attended the in-person pre-summit workshop held at the Columbus Metropolitan Main Library and virtual summit dedicated to action.
Health Equity through Diversity Conference
The Health Equity through Diversity conference was born out of the “Health Equity through Diversity” webinar series in 2021 aimed to co-create solutions that both advance health equity and heal medical mistrust in communities through meaningful partnerships and community engagement.
The four-part webinar series was organized by The Ohio State University in partnership with the African American Male Wellness Agency and sponsored by Genentech and Pfizer and recordings can be accessed through the links below:
The webinar series led to a published report looking at community engagement and clinical trial diversity identify multiple barriers to participation in research, including limited access to healthcare, awareness of clinical trials, racism in research and workforce diversity.
The inaugural Health Equity through Diversity Conference: Community-Driven Partnerships to Advance Health Equity: Bridges, Gaps and Solutions was held in August 2022 at The Ohio State University Blackwell Hotel and Conference Center. The conference explored pathways and solutions to advance health equity through challenging the status quo, intentional engagement and trust-building with diverse communities in academia, industry partners, governmental organizations and community members.
The conference centered on four main pathways including research equity, meaningful investment and resources, pipeline programs and policy change to sustain health equity. The conference was attended by over 100 individuals and had 16 national and international experts in health equity presented and engaged with the conference attendees. The conference was deemed a resounding success by all involved and provided the platform for continued engagements to advance health equity.