CHEF Webinar – October 14, 2022
Mental Health at the Intersection of Climate, Race, Culture
Description:
In this webinar, entitled Mental Health at the Intersection of Climate, Race, & Culture, Dr. Tanya Khemet Taiwo, who is a researcher on maternal stress and childhood neurodevelopment, will provide background about psychosocial stress (aka toxic stress) and its association with racism. In addition, she will address adverse childhood experiences (ACE), cumulative exposure, and physiological vulnerability. Our second speaker, Dr. Venise Curry is the Director for the CHEF Fellowship Western Cohort. She will talk about community psychiatry and provide a cultural psychiatric focus on inequities existing in various communities. Dr. Curry will also briefly review the Equity in Mental Health Toolkit.
Speaker Bio – Dr. Tanya Khemet Taiwo
Dr. Tanya Khemet Taiwo is an assistant professor in the Department of Midwifery and Director of the Master of Arts in Maternal-Child Health Systems program at Bastyr University. She has practiced midwifery in community health centers for over 20 years. Dr. Taiwo is an epidemiologist whose research examines the role of maternal prenatal stress on child neurodevelopment, and how these stressors interact with environmental exposures. She serves as co-director of the Community Engagement Core at the UC Davis Environmental Health Sciences Center. She is also a research fellow at The Birth Place Lab at the University of British Columbia, where she collaborates on the Giving Voice to Mothers Study, a community-based participatory research project that examines how race, ethnicity and birthplace affect maternity care in the United States.
Speaker Bio – Dr. Venise Curry
Dr. Venise Curry has harnessed her unique background as a medical doctor and trained psychiatrist to address the intersecting needs of underserved populations in the Western U.S.. The intersection between medicine, environmental and social justice issues are at the core of her advocacy efforts. As a resident of the Central Valley, she has successfully managed local and statewide issue campaigns on education, healthcare access, air quality and land use policies. Dr. Curry has professional associations and board memberships with organizations such as the: National Medical Association- Psychiatry/Behavioral Sciences and Neurology, Blue Ribbon Equity Panel on African American Infant Mortality; First Five Fresno County, African American Infant Mortality Council, and the Perinatal Equity Community Advisory Board.