FYI

Please help us spread the word about this event you and your colleagues 
may find of interest. Please forward widely to your various list serves. 
Thank you in advance.

Jamie D. Brooks, Esq.
Project Director on Race, Health and Human Rights
Generations Ahead
510-625-0819 x 309
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_www.genetics-and-society.org_ <http://www.genetics-and-society.org>

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Please join Generations Ahead and the Center for American Progress for a 
special presentation:
*Geneticizing Disease: Implications for Racial Health Disparities *
*April 22, 2008 10:30-12:00 at the **_Greenlining Institute_* 
<http://greenlining.org/>* in Berkeley, California*
*Moderator:*/
/*Jamie D. Brooks*, Project Director on Race, Health and Human Rights, 
Generations Ahead
*Panelists:*
*Meredith L. King,* Health Policy Analyst, Center for American Progress
*Mildred Thompson,* Senior Director and Director of the PolicyLink 
Center for Health and Place
*Dorothy Roberts,* Kirkland and Ellis Professor, Northwestern University 
Law School. Currently a fellow at Stanford University's Research 
Institute of Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity focusing on "Race 
Consciousness in Law, Politics, and Biotechnology."

Today's dialogue in medical journals and the mainstream press on health 
disparities in American society increasingly focuses on individuals' 
genetic predispositions to disease. More and more, race is interjected 
into this dialogue as scientists link genes of certain racial groups to 
medical conditions while pharmaceutical companies increasingly seek to 
medicate those conditions. Unfortunately, during this process the focus 
on reducing and preventing racial health disparities -- which in large 
part can be attributed to social determinants -- becomes obscured.

The Center for American Progress and Generations Ahead will explore 
these trends and their implications for addressing racial health 
disparities by hosting a public dialogue. Meredith King, co-author of 
"Geneticizing Disease: Implications for Racial Health Disparities," 
which will be released at the event, will provide an overview of the 
issue and the paper's findings. Law professor Dorothy will follow with a 
legal and racial perspective on the implications of "geneticizing" 
disease. And in closing, Mildred Thompson will discuss the known 
non-medical determinants of health, such as environment, insurance 
status, and other socio-economic factors. Jamie D. Brooks, co-author of 
the paper, will moderate the discussion to follow.

*Location*
*The Greenlining Institute
*1918 University Avenue Berkeley, CA 94704
Greenlining Institute Directions: The offices are located on University 
Avenue between Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Milvia just 3 blocks 
west of the U.C. Berkeley campus. The office is 3 short blocks from the 
Downtown Berkeley Bart Station.

Parking: There are metered parking places along University Avenue. 
Parking is also available in the Promenade Parking Garage, 1936 Addison 
Street, directly behind our building.

Biographies
*Meredith King* serves as the Health Policy Analyst at the Center for 
American Progress. As a member of the health team, King collaborates 
with staff and senior fellows in advancing a broad range of health 
issues, including universal health care. Her primary focus of research 
is on minority health and racial and ethnic health disparities. Prior to 
joining the Center, King worked at the Health Assistance Partnership of 
Families USA, serving as the Medicaid Research Analyst. In that job, she 
worked with a network of Medicaid ombudsmen and consumer health 
assistance programs by supplying them the latest research regarding 
Medicaid policy in their respective states. King obtained a Bachelor of 
Arts Degree in Public Policy and American History from Washington and 
Lee University in 2003. In May 2005, she completed a Masters of Public 
Policy with a concentration in Social Policy from American University.

*Dorothy Roberts* joined Northwestern's faculty in fall 1998 with a 
joint appointment as a faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy 
Research. She is a frequent speaker and prolific scholar on issues 
related to race, gender, and the law and has published more than 60 
articles and essays in books and scholarly journals, including Harvard 
Law Review, Yale Law Journal, and Stanford Law Review, authored 2 
award-winning books, and co-edited 5 casebooks and anthologies. She 
received fellowships and grants from the National Science Foundation, 
Searle Fund, Fulbright Scholars Program, and Harvard University Program 
in Ethics and the Professions, and as a visiting professor was the 
recipient of the Outstanding First-Year Course Professor Award for 
1997-98. She is currently conducting research on the effects of child 
welfare agency involvement in African-American neighborhoods and on 
race-based biotechnologies.

*Mildred Thompson,** Senior Director and Director of the PolicyLink 
Center for Health and Place*, holds a master's degree in social work 
from New York University and has over 20 years experience in the health 
field. She has been responsible for PolicyLink initiatives that offer 
solutions to problems rooted in the connection between health and 
neighborhood factors. These include initiatives that engage community 
leaders and residents in achieving policies that reduce environmental 
triggers of childhood asthma, increase opportunities for local access to 
healthy food, and improve community opportunities for physical activity.

*Jamie D. Brooks* is the project director on race, health, and justice 
for the Center for Genetics and Society and has been working to secure 
universal health access for a number of years. Before joining the Center 
for Genetics and Society she was a staff attorney for the Nation Health 
Law Program (NHeLP) where she focused on reproductive rights and justice 
for all women, implementing human rights principles into the firm's 
advocacy, environmental justice issues, and language access issues. 
Prior to working for NHeLP, she served as a law clerk in the District of 
Columbia Superior Court and legal and policy clerk to the National Asian 
and Pacific American Women's Forum. She received her J.D. from 
Washington College of Law at American University in 2003 and her B.A. 
from Rice University in 2000.


-- 
Jody Platt Garcia
Assistant Director
Life Sciences & Society Program
University of Michigan School of Public Health
109 Observatory, #4605
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029
(734) 647-4571
734-998-6837 (fax)
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