Anita Fernander, PhD
Executive Diversity Officer/Professor
University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center School of Medicine

Learning Objectives:

Extinguish myths & misunderstandings about Critical Race Theory;
Distinguish between the historical underpinnings of “race” as a social/political/economic classification as opposed to “race as biology”;
Apply CRT to historical & contemporary racialized political & social determinants of health to contextualize health inequities among African Americans; and
Charge academic medicine with a duty to reckon with the “ugly side” of medicine.

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Biography:
Dr. Anita Fernander was recently appointed as the Executive Diversity Officer in the School of Medicine in the College of Health Sciences at the University of New Mexico. Prior to joining UNM’s School of Medicine she served as the inaugural Chief Officer for Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (JEDI) at the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine and Interim Department Chair & Professor in the Department of Population Health at Florida Atlantic University (FAU). Dr. Fernander also served on the faculty in the University of Kentucky’s College of Medicine for 19 years. She held key diversity roles at University of Kentucky College of Medicine, where she was founding faculty of the Center for Health Equity Transformation and received the Inaugural Excellence in Diversity Faculty award (2021) and the Inaugural Diversity Champion Award (2018). She has been engaged in leadership, teaching, research, and community engagement to address health inequities, enhance patient advocacy through cultural humility as a de-biasing strategy, and exploring transformational interventions to address historical and contemporary racism embedded in the political and social determinants of health. Her primary area of research has focused on the impact of race-related stress on health inequities among African Americans.

Workshop Description:
Critical Race Theory (CRT) has recently become a target of national attention due to recent Presidential Executive Orders and state and local governmental bodies banning its use in public school settings. However, such attention has only led to critical race theory being misconstrued by the media and misunderstood by the common lay person. Critical Race Theory is a specific pedagogical and theoretical approach to understand how racialized historical contexts influence contemporary society. Clarifying and positioning CRT in a manner within which to understand health inequities experienced by racialized groups in the United States is paramount in order to address the social mission of health professions education, faculty development, and clinical practice. A critical examination of the historical and contemporary issues of race and racism in America provides the necessary context within which to understand the long-standing and persistent existence of health disparities experienced among racial/ethnic populations in the United States. The session will rely on the presenter’s two decades of teaching in academic medicine on the history of medicine among African Americans and provide a primer within which to understand the historical and contemporary political and social influences of race and racism on health. Health professions training institutions have a professional and ethical responsibility to educate its trainees and health professionals on the history of medicine – including its ugly side – and to critically examine how historical and contemporary political and social factors have created racial/ethnic health disparities. Until such reckoning occurs the field of medicine’s ability to achieve health equity for all will continue to be futile.