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Dr. Gregory C. Townsend, MD
Associate Dean for Diversity and Medical Education, UVA School of Medicine
Associate Professor of Medicine and Clinical Instructor of Pediatrics
Dr. Townsend, a native of upstate New York, earned his bachelor’s degree at the College of William and Mary, and received his MD from the University of Virginia. After completing a combined residency in internal medicine and pediatrics at West Virginia University, he returned to UVA for a fellowship in infectious diseases, and has been at the University since then. At the time he joined the faculty, he was one of a handful of African-American faculty members in the School of Medicine. He is currently Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health, Department of Medicine.
Dr. Townsend’s primary clinical focus is the care and treatment of individuals with HIV. He is associate director of the UVA Infectious Diseases Clinic, and principal investigator on several federally funded grants aimed at providing better care for patients living with HIV-AIDS. He has won numerous awards as a clinician and educator, and was an inaugural member of UVA School of Medicine’s Academy of Distinguished Educators.
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Dr. Townsend’s interest in diversity has been shaped by his personal experience as an underrepresented minority in academic medicine, and by his clinical interest in the treatment of HIV — a disease that has a disproportionate impact on racial minorities, the poor, and otherwise disenfranchised members of society. He has been a member of the School of Medicine’s Diversity Consortium since its inception. Dr. Townsend shares general responsibility for promoting the educational mission of the School and provides leadership, information, and counsel to students, faculty, and staff to facilitate a positive experience for all as part of a diverse community. He leads the School of Medicine’s Diversity Consortium, and is a member of its Admissions Committee and Diversity Steering Committee. He also sits on the University-wide Diversity Council.
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Speaker: Dr. Dannie Ritchie, MD, MPH
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Dannie Ritchie is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at Brown. She completed her Medical Degree at the University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine, where she developed her interests in issues of medical anthropology and community health. She completed her training in Family Medicine at the Residency Program of Social Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein’s College of Medicine. There she concentrated on racial and ethnic variations in access to health care. She came to Brown to pursue Health Service Research after a number of years in the Indian Health Service, Urgent Care, in a Health Maintenance Organization in Tucson, AZ, and a Fellowship in Faculty Development at Montefiore.
She completed her Master’s in Public Health at Brown in 2003. As the Lead of the Transcultural Community Health Initiative (TCHI), initiated in 2003, where she has lead an interdisciplinary, cross sector group of community members and organizations to address health disparities and promote health equity. She founded Community Health Innovations of Rhode Island in 2011. Some of her policy related work was that she spearheaded the formation of a RI legislation to form a Commission on Health Advocacy and Equity which was passed in June 2011.The law asks for development of measurement on disparities and equity to promote accountability. It also requires public input on the reporting of health disparities to legislators and the executive office. She has a long history of working in the community; working to build the capacities of a number of the community organizations and the Community Health Worker workforce to build the foundation for more frontline public health workers to promote health equity.
WORKSHOPS
“Radio as a Tool for Improving Health Literacy and Advocacy”
Speaker: Pablo Rodriguez, MD
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Dr. Rodriguez has a BS in Biology from the University of Puerto Rico, Doctor in Medicine from The State University of NY in Buffalo and completed his residency in 1985 at Nassau County Medical Center in NY and is currently an Associate Professor of OBGYN at Brown University Medical School. He is President and CEO of Women's Care a multi-specialty group in Southern New England, Chair of the Women and Infants Health Care Alliance and is the former Medical Director of Planned Parenthood of RI. He is the past Chair of the Association of Reproductive Health Professional as and past Chairman of the RI Foundation. He has been a board member of the Guttmacher Institute, National Abortion Federation, NARAL Pro-Choice America and the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health. He is currently host of Nuestra Salud, a daily reproductive health radio talk show in Spanish on Latino Public Radio where he is also Chair of the board and founder. He is also the founder of the RI Latino Political Action Committee and of the Democracy Compact, a voter engagement initiative in RI.
“Up from the Streets: Bringing the Ground Truth into Practice, Policy, and Academia”
Speakers: Craig Kaufmann, MD and Megan Smith, MSW
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Craig Kaufmann is a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University. He completed his adult psychiatry residency at Brown University in 2006 and provides outpatient psychiatric care at the Providence VA Medical Center, where he supervises residents and medical students. In addition, he provides psychiatric treatment at two community programs that serve homeless individuals - ACCESS-RI and Housing First Rhode Island, and began street outreach work with Megan Smith in the summer of 2014. He has an interest in providing care to vulnerable individuals and strongly believes in the importance of exposing students early in their education to such work. One of his proudest achievements was being described by a colleague as "a doctor who seems more like a social worker."
Megan Smith is a social worker who has worked with the homeless community in Rhode Island for ten years. She is currently the Outreach Program Manager with the House of Hope CDC and teaches at the Rhode Island College School of Social Work and the Alpert Medical School. Her daily work includes street outreach, intensive case management, and organizing and advocacy work focused around the decriminalization of homelessness and poverty and the inclusion of homelessness-specific content in undergraduate and graduate curricula. This work is rooted in her deep love for the homeless community and the belief that we as providers must take our lead from those whom we serve.
“Providing Health Care to Refugee Populations”
Speaker: Carol T. Lewis, MD
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Carol Lewis is a general pediatrician at Hasbro Children’s Hospital (HCH). HCH Pediatric Primary Care provides healthcare for 8,000 low income children. It is also the primary care site for pediatric residents and Alpert Medical School students. Dr. Lewis provides direct patient care as well as education and supervision of trainees.
Carol Lewis is Medical Director of HCH Primary Care. She is also founder and director of the HCH Refugee Health Program and co-founder of HCH Fostering Health Program. Both programs provide timely access to primary care for a subgroup of patients who have increased health burden, but also have increased barriers to health care. The programs focus on care coordination and patient centered care.
“Medical Legal Partnerships: Protecting Patients Through Existing Policy”
Speakers: Jeannine Casselman, Esq.
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Attorney Jeannine Casselman is the Program Director for the Rhode Island Medical-Legal Partnership located at Hasbro Children's Hospital. She has been an employee of the Rhode Island Center for Law and Public Policy (RICLAPP) since 2011. Prior to that she served as a VISTA volunteer for RICLAPP. In 2012, she was honored by the Childhood Lead Action Project for her work on Lead Hazard Mitigation Act enforcement. She graduated from Roger Williams University School of Law in 2009 where she focused her academic interests on public interest law. She interned with the Rhode Island Commission for Human Rights, South Coastal Counties Legal Services and the Center for Mediation and Collaboration RI. Before enrolling in law school, Jeannine obtained a Master of Arts in Russian and East European Studies from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor's of Arts in Anthropology and Political Science from the University of Rochester. Born and raised in Rhode Island, Attorney Casselman is committed to serving vulnerable populations and ensuring equal access to legal justice.
“Race and Racism in Medical Pedagogy”
Speakers: Carla Castillo, Radhika Rajan, Amy LaCount, Matthew Perry
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Through their course, “Healthcare for the Underserved”, at Alpert Medical School these students work to facilitate critical examination of the medical practices and institutions that produce, reinforce and perpetuate health disparities. Using this course as an educational medium they also strive to provide fellow students with the tools and language to combat these inequities in their work as medical students and future physicians.
“From Medical School to Residency”
Speakers: Alice Coombs, MD, MPA, FCCP
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Dr. Alice Tolbert Coombs is a critical care specialist and an anesthesiologist who received her medical degree from UCLA. She is the first African American woman President of the New England Medical Association and Past-President of the Massachusetts Medical Society. While serving as Diversity Committee Chair for the latter organization, she developed programs to bridge the gaps between student experiences and real life professional experiences while providing an environment for life application learning. In addition to these programs, Dr. Coombs has spearheaded student focused initiatives through her work with the AMA, which facilitated the formation of a grass root campaign to increase the number of minority and disadvantaged students pursuing medicine. In recognition of her numerous efforts to break diversity barriers in the medical profession, Dr. Coombs recently received the Association of Black Women Physicians’ Lifetime Achievement Award.
“Stepping into Undergraduate Education”
Speaker: Dean Yolanda Rome
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​Yolanda Rome received her B.A. from Yale University in 1994 and her Ed.M. from Harvard University in 1996. She was the recipient of three awards while at Yale, including the F. Wilder Bellamy Prize in 1993. She has worked in a wide range of positions since, including running her own science business, directing a program designed to improve the college acceptance rates of students in Boston, and teaching high school science in Boston.
“Each One Teach One Campaign: Microaggressions Focus Group”
Speakers: Rob Gakwaya
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Robert graduated from UMass Boston with a Bachelor's science in Chemistry before enrolling at UMass Medical School. At UMMS, Rob has been involved with several initiatives to make the campus community more civil. With support of the faculty and the dean of student affairs, Rob and other students put together a 4 hour session for upcoming classes to be trained on Race, Power, Privilege and Cultural Humility on orientation day. Rob in addition to being the Region VII PAL he is one of the MAP coordinators for the UMASS SNMA chapter.
“SNMA 101: Past, Present, and Leadership Opportunities”
Speaker: Lauren Branche
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Lauren Branche obtained her BSc in psychology from Tufts University. She went on to receive her MS in biomedical science from Tufts University School of Medicine. She is currently an MD/MPH dual
degree candidate at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and the Regional Director for the New England Region, Region 7, of the Student National Medical Association (SNMA). Lauren has been involved in SNMA for over 7 years helping to re-establishing the Minority Association of Pre-Medical Students (MAPS) chapter at Tufts as an undergraduate student, and going on to serve as Vice -President and then President of the UConn chapter of SNMA. Lauren is a co-founder and board member of the UConn SNMA Minority Mentorship Community Program.
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In line with her motto “Lift as you climb”, Lauren strives to not only give back to her community but also to mentor other students of color interested in medicine. Prior to attending medical school Lauren worked as a Health Professions Advisor for Tufts University where she created and implemented programs to support under-represented pre-medical students. She continues to advise students from the middle school through the pre-medical level, work to raise awareness of issues concerning marginalized populations, and serve the underserved through her leadership roles within SNMA, the UConn Health Careers Opportunities Programs Department, and as an Urban Service Track Scholar. She has also been honored to speak about the link between systemic racism and health disparities at several national summits including the first annual National Health Disparities Elimination Summit hosted by the Cobb Institute, CICATS, and the Connecticut Black & Puerto Rican Caucus and at the Movement is Life National Caucus on Musculoskeletal Health Disparities.
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Her life’s ambition to promote education, awareness, and empowerment in an effort to break down the socioeconomic, racial, and cultural barriers to equal treatment and she plans to utilize SNMA to push forth that her mission while in medical school.