142: Racism Is A Public Health Crisis with Dr. Faith Crittenden

Faith Crittenden, MD MPH is a recently-graduated pediatric resident with her Doctorate of Medicine from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. While a student, she was an active member of the Student National Medical Association (SNMA) and the American Medical Association (AMA). In 2016, she was appointed as the national liaison for SNMA to AMA — Medical Student Section. She has helped the progression of organized medicine in many ways — most recently is a co-author on several historic policies passed through the AMA House of Delegates, such as: Racism is a Public Health Threat, Racial Essentialism, and Combating Police Brutality. This year, she also added Combating Natural Hair and Cultural Headwear Discrimination in Medical Professionalism to this list. Faith was also the Deputy Editor for the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine March 2021 preventative medicine issue. This TedX alumna has also landed coverage around the country through op-eds and articles featured in Health Affairs, Hartford Courant, CT Mirror, Yale Daily, and In-training.org. Faith knows that in order to change the culture of medicine, we must evaluate and critique the health policies of the past, present, and future. In April 2020, she launched a podcast called Coloring Health Policy which focuses on how health policy impacts minority communities, both domestically and internationally. Faith holds a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry, Minor in molecular cell biology with Honors from the University of Connecticut, and Masters of Public Health in Health Policy from Yale University.

Tune in as Faith shares:

• how she has confronted trauma-informed services in healthcare, and how her early experience shaped her interest in medicine
• the importance of prioritizing mental health care
• about her historic role in having racism declared a public health crisis by the AMA
• how hard she and her team worked to have this policy passed by the AMA
• her hope that more BIPOC train as physicians in the future — and that these recent policy declarations can help pave the way
• how to get involved in activism locally, to support ongoing work in racial justice and healing
• the role of Black men in healthcare reform in America
• where her advocacy work is headed next: to addressing natural hair and cultural headwear discrimination 

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