Jannah Bierens Presented on Racial Equity and Equality

By Artina Dozier-Gage

A cornerstone of the Schweitzer Fellowship program here at Authority Health is to provide the Fellows with opportunities to learn about the historical plight of not just underserved communities and populations, but also unjustlyserved populations with the goal of making the Fellows more culturally sensitive and compassionate caregivers and future community leaders.

To meet this important objective Authority Health invites various thought leaders and community activists whose focus is community health and human services or social justice to provide insight on such communities/populations.

On the occasion of the Schweitzer Fellows Mid-Year Seminar, Jannah Bierens, the proclaimed “Truthteller” and Founder of PHREEEDOM, a social justice consulting firm that helps foster and facilitate dialogue to confront and help rid society of oppression, was invited to share her wide breadth of knowledge in the area of the African-American experience, from the time that African slaves were first shipped to America in 1619. One driving point in Bieren’s lecture was to impart a certain understanding of how the history and legacy is directly connected and intertwined to the issues that negatively impact the population today.

Following Biernens presentation the Fellows took part in a question-answer session that helped to provide more insight in establishing best practices and incorporating more nuanced ways to go about working with populations that have traditionally been underserved and/or oppressed.

Artina Dozier-Gage is the Public Affairs and Social Media Manager at Authority Health