HEART, the Health Equity & Anti-Racism Team, was formed in June 2020. After George Floyd was killed, the importance for having a group like HEART became even more clear to its co-leaders. Valerie Rucker, PT, DPT and Jennifer Ibe Aiken, PT, DPT formed HEART to support the movement for black lives and black communities by addressing and bringing awareness to health inequities and social determinants of health.
Purpose and Mission:
- We will utilize our roles as health care providers to influence community members as well as APTA DC members
- We will work towards addressing health equity issues as a larger body through APTA DC
- We will partner with community organizations to further our goals of health equity
- We will work towards these goals with an anti-racism lens
Meetings
HEART meetings occur virtually the first Tuesday of each month from 6-7PM EST via Zoom. Please email heart@aptadc.org for the Zoom link.
Please sign up here if you would like to start receiving HEART specific emails.
Please email co-founders Jennifer Ibe Aiken and Valerie Rucker at heart@aptadc.org if you have any questions or feedback. We look forward to meeting you!
Further Reading:
- Woodruff Lecture Offers Paths to Improve Diversity: The inaugural lecture stresses the need for action now through changes to education, research, and practice.
- Practicing What We Preach: Rethinking Acceptance into DPT Programs
- Study: ‘Academic Capitalism,’ Lack of Faculty of Color Is a Challenge for Diversity in DPT Programs