The Eighth Annual Jean Mills Health Symposium, entitled Enhancing Community Health in North Carolina:  Looking in the Mirror, will be held on Friday, February 3, 2012, at the Greenville Hilton in Greenville, North Carolina. Sponsored by the College of Allied Health Sciences in collaboration with the East Carolina University Medical and Health Sciences Foundation, Pitt Memorial Foundation and Eastern AHEC, the Symposium will describe the history of health disparities interventions and research in eastern North Carolina and critically reflect on the progress in increasing access to care and reducing disparities for minority populations and the effectiveness of the interventions.

The Health Policy Institute's Dr. Brian Smedley will be providing the keynote address at the Symposium.

For more information, please see this symposium brochure.

The second Summit on Quality In Home Visiting Programs will be held on February 15 and 16 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC. Sponsored by the Pew Center on the States, Every Child Succeeds, and the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, the Summit will offer a forum to learn about the latest developments in the field and to strategize about how to ensure that home visiting investments are supporting evidence-based models backed by strong policies and embedded in early childhood systems.

Dr. Jermane Bond of the Joint Center's Health Policy Institute will be presenting at a breakout panel entitled Home Visiting for Families and Fathers on February 15 at 3:45 PM.

For more information on this event, please visit the Summit's homepage.

An overview of the Joint Center's PLACE MATTERS program.

Maya Rockeymore interviews Brian Smedley and discusses healthcare reform and issues of healthcare disparities among racial and ethnic minority populations. View the video at GlobalPolicy.TV.

The National Academy of Social Insurance will hold its 24th annual conference, entitled Social Insurance in a Market Economy: Obstacles and Opportunities, on January 26 and 27, 2012, at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. This gathering will explore how a strong, competitive economy requires strong, innovative social insurance programs – and vice versa.

Dr. Brian Smedley of the Joint Center's Health Policy Institute will take part in a session entitled Health Care: The Quest for Higher Quality at More Affordable Cost at 1 PM on Thursday, January 26. On Friday, January 27, the Civic Engagement and Governance Institute's Dr. Wilhelmina Leigh will speak at a session entitled Changing the Conversation: Messaging Social Security.

For more information on the conference, please visit the National Academy of Social Insurance.

As part of the University of Michigan's 25th Annual Martin Luther King Day Symposium, Dr. Brian Smedley of the Joint Center's Health Policy Institute will make a Health Sciences Program presentation. The presentation, entitled Building Stronger Communities for Better Health: The Geography of Equity and Human Rights, will be given on Monday, January 16, 2012 in the Dow Auditorium of the University of Michigan Medical Center.

For more information on Dr. Smedley's presentation and the rest of the MLK Symposium, please visit the University of Michigan website.

The Center for Health Equity at the University of Maryland's School of Public Health is holding a Collegium of Scholars entitled Building Stronger Communities for Better Health: Moving From Science to Policy and Practice on Wednesday, December 14 from 12 PM to 1:30 PM.

The Joint Center's Dr. Brian Smedley will be the featured speaker at this event.

For more information, visit the Maryland Center for Health Equity.

Brian D. Smedley, Vice President and Director of the Health Policy Institute of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, DC, will speak on"Building Stronger Communities for Better Health: Moving from Science to Policy and Practice" December 8th at UCONN’s Low Learning Center 4-5pm.

Dr. Smedley currently oversees all of the operations of the  Health Policy Institute, which was started in 2002 with funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The Institute has a dual focus: to explore disparities in health and to generate policy recommendations on longstanding health equity concerns. Before that he was Research Director and co-founder of a communications, research and policy organization, The Opportunity Agenda where he led the organization's effort to center equity in state and national health reform discussions and to build the national will to expand opportunity for all. In addition, Dr. Smedley is also a co-editor, along with Alan Jenkins, of a book, All Things Being Equal: Instigating Opportunity in an Inequitable Time.

Read more at examiner.com.

The Collegium of Scholars at the University of Maryland Center for Health Equity engages scholars in the exchange of meaningful discussions regarding the complexities and impact of race, racism, ethnicity, gender, class, and discrimination on health and wellness.  They are sponsiring a presentation and interactive discussion regarding Building Strong Communities for Better Health: Moving from Science to Policy and Practice.  The discussion features Dr. Brian Smedley, Vice President and Director of the Joint Center Health Policy Institute.

Click here for more information.

Achievement is declining among all young males, regardless of race or ethnicity. With that said, the risk factors for underachievement are most pronounced among minority males. By 2020 the combined minority population in grades K-12 will exceed the white population. By 2050 Hispanics will comprise a majority of the US population. Yet today among males, only 28% of African Americans, 24% of Native Americans and Pacific Islanders and 16% of Hispanic Americans have at least an associate degree.

In response to these trends, The Boys Initiative has launched Minority Male Youth 2050. The mission of the project is to facilitate a cooperative endeavor among organizations and stakeholders in male minority youth. The purpose of the endeavor is to 1) exchange and collect information on solution-focused research, demonstration projects and strategies that enhance minority male achievement; 2) develop and support recommendations for research, best practices and "what works"; and 3) facilitate pilot projects and advocacy efforts that focus on solutions.

Detailed information about the project can be found at the project page on The Boys Initiative's website.

"The members of our project steering committee are among our nation's leaders in the field of minority male youth. They understand the obstacles that our minority male youth face today, and have dedicated their careers to finding solutions to this pressing problem." said Dennis Barbour, CEO of The Boys Initiative. "We are honored that they will be guiding this effort."

Members of the steering committee are as follows:

Jermane Bond, Ph.D. Health Policy Institute, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies Washington, DC jbond@jointcenter.org...

Read the full article at Market Watch