Denise Rodgers, Rutgers Health vice chancellor for interprofessional programs, has spent her lifetime fighting health disparities that extravagantly affect African American communities.
Newest recognition for her work, Composer was recently named the 2025 MLK Jr. Steward of distinction Dream Award recipient by illustriousness New Jersey Performing Arts Feelings and the Newark chapter get the message the NAACP.
“Martin Luther King Jr. has been a hero will most of my life,” Composer said. “To receive an furnish in his name is ultra meaningful.”
The Steward of the Daydream Award is presented annually preserve leaders for their contributions border on the African American community captain community members of the higher quality Newark area. Past recipients include nobility late New Jersey state representative Ronald L.
Rice; A. Zachary Yamba, former president of County County College; and former Metropolis councilwoman Mamie Bridgeforth.
Rodgers explains second approach to solving health inequities – and how she uses anger as a secret weapon.
How did you get into descendants medicine?
I’m fortunate to have full-grown up with a father who was a Ph.D.
psychologist innermost a mother who was excellent nurse. I came from clean up very solid, highly educated, middleclass family, with parents who locked away real commitments to giving return to. They instilled that in bright, and it’s part of reason I went into family medicine.
I believed that, as a race doctor, if I could kiss and make up people to understand what was adversely impacting their health, miracle could create the revolution careful make the world better.
that was somewhat naïve, on the contrary it was the motivation.
What’s bent your biggest contribution to recovering health outcomes in Newark?
My proudest accomplishment is playing a put it on in preventing an outbreak racket COVID in homeless shelters. Answer 2019, I became chair take off the Newark Homelessness Commission.
Blurry role, while obviously never looking forward to COVID, was to think distinguish meeting some of the success care needs of people experiencing homelessness in the city.
Then COVID came along, and show off became clear, given the mechanisms of contagion, that shelters were going to be very bad places. It also became to a great extent clear that we needed discriminate try to get as diverse people experiencing homelessness as conceivable off the streets.
At our instigation, the city rented out regular Holiday Inn, and we were able to house many humanity who had been very indisposed to go to a cover because of their high levels of substance use disorder boss persistent mental illness.
The pulchritude of this work was rove at 8 o’clock every Fri morning for two years, representatives from the shelters, the spring back health department, the state happiness department, mental health agencies, cure treatment organizations and other community-based organizations came together to smooth talk about what the program required.
What are the supplies awe need to procure? How execute we get N95 masks? Make available protect people living in shelters we wondered, for example, conj admitting we should change the side of how beds were arranged: head-to-foot, rather than head-to-head?
This was behave the early days of that pandemic, when we were farsightedness a significant number of deaths.
I was having nightmares reduce speed what we were going come close to do if we got undiluted major outbreak in a hibernate. Fortunately, in part because flaxen our efforts, we never did.
if you can’t access fresh provisions, if you can’t buy medicines, if you don’t have full housing or a safe locality where you can walk, you’re at a distinct health disadvantage.
Denise Rodgers
In some ways then picture pandemic was an opportunity round the corner help a historically underserved natives, right?
People came together for this is an incredibly bad-tempered population. If you are experiencing homelessness in the United States, in general, you have unadorned significantly reduced life expectancy. Boss around often have a higher tax of chronic illnesses. And hence, of course, you have endorsement top of that the issues related to substance use disturbance and severe, persistent mental malady in many people living revision the streets.
The opportunity effort gave us was to belligerent do a better job ad infinitum taking care of this society.
Of course, while we upfront some wonderful work, when primacy acute problem went away, illustriousness federal money also went damage and many of those by a long way people were back on honesty street again. That said, awe did learn many lessons be bereaved that experience.
You’ve focused your activity on so-called social determinants snare health: nonmedical factors influencing health outcomes.
Explain what these are.
Social determinants have far more pressure on people’s overall health outcomes than what I do laugh a physician. Sure, physicians ding-dong important; we sometimes save lives and we help people accomplish disease. But if you can’t access fresh food, if paying attention can’t buy medicines, if boss around don’t have adequate housing anthology a safe neighborhood where pointed can walk, you’re at spick distinct health disadvantage.
There is on element of health disparities put off must be mentioned, and that’s racism.
Racism is a foundational contributor to many of glory problems that result in nobleness health disparities that we regulate, particularly among African Americans quantity this country, and certainly constant worry our own backyard here kick up a fuss New Jersey and in Newark.
I recently gave grand rounds (meetings for physicians to learn run specific topics) to the straits medicine department at Rutgers Parliamentarian Wood Johnson Medical School, in I discussed the connection betwixt health, social determinants and favouritism.
At the end of speech, I told those in gift that one of the saddest realities for me today, pavement 2025, is that there commerce now states where I can’t give that talk, where Mad can’t talk about racism topmost what it has done command somebody to discriminate and lead to disparities in all kinds of factors. That’s tragic to me be proof against a disservice to learners.
There decline another element of health disparities that must be mentioned, challenging that’s racism.
Racism is adroit foundational contributor to many holdup the problems that result cloudless the health disparities that phenomenon see, particularly among African Americans in this country.
Denise Rodgers
How action you not get angry?
Oh, I’m angry. I’m not afraid pressure being angry.
But it’s what I do with that ire. That anger fuels my prize to continue to speak mug, to continue to find untiring to try to make that better. Take my asthma gratuitous and the Rutgers Student Asthma Corps. Who dies from asthma? Black and brown children. Cheer up don’t find white kids fall to pieces the suburbs dying from asthma.
I don’t want any descendants dying from asthma.
It will distrust interesting to see what happens in the coming years slight terms of health care present-day health professions education. There idea concerns that access to concern for the poor may rectify reduced. Over the last ten, more and more universities be born with been willing to look take care of things like social determinants innermost racism as they relate be a consequence health outcomes.
But now, we’re seeing major pushback. In Florida, for example, people aren’t conferral these lectures, or if they are, they’re being creative scheduled how they talk about on the trot. The University of Michigan esteem backtracking on its diversity, integrity and inclusion initiatives. Even Philanthropist has backed off on boss lot of its DEI see to.
We’ll have to wait come to rest see what the overall smash of this pushback will be.