The Campus Diversity Read, a new initiative of the UMMS Diversity Leaders and UMass Memorial Health Care Diversity and Inclusion Office, will be unveiled at a Grand Rounds sponsored by the UMass Center for Health Equity Intervention Research (CHEIR). With a talk titled “Truth and Reconciliation,” cultural and linguistic competency expert Tawara Goode, MA, will introduce the bestselling book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks as the first Diversity Read selection at UMass Medical School on Friday, June 7.
Ms. Goode is assistant professor of pediatrics at Georgetown University Medical Center, and director of the Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development’s National Center for Cultural Competence. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks explores the collision between ethics, race and medicine through the riveting story of a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells—taken without her knowledge in 1951—became one of the most important tools in medicine while her descendants struggled, uncompensated and unable to afford health insurance.
The Diversity Campus Read will culminate with a Diversity Speaker Series presentation this fall, with more details to follow. All members of the UMMS and UMMHC communities are encouraged to read The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks and attend both events. Those attending the June 7 launch will have the opportunity to win copies of the book.
The launch will take place from noon to 1:30 p.m. in the Albert Sherman Center Cube, with lunch available at 11:30 a.m. Email Fernanda.gama@umassmed.edu to RSVP.
Related linkon UMassMedNow:
UMMS, UMass Boston launch Center for Health Equity Intervention Research
