MEHARRY MEDICAL COLLEGE
CAL TURNER BUILDING
1011 21ST AVE N, NASHVILLE, TN
OCTOBER 15, 2022
8am – 5pm
CONFERENCE
The Invisible Laws and Policies that Create Illness, Inequality, Disenfranchisement and Discontent in America. How Our Laws and Policies Affect the Health, Wellness and Flourishing of a Nation and What We Can Do about It
Breakfast and Registration
7:00-8:00
Introduction and Welcome
Vincent Morelli, Professor, Family & Community Medicine, Meharry Medical College, Founder, StreetSolid Industries
8:00-8:10
PART ONE
Seeing the Invisible
The Laws, Rules and Regulations that Create our World of Illness, Inequality and Discontent
The Invisible Laws and How They Are Impacting the U.S.
The hidden laws that create inequity and disenfranchisement and the cost to us all
Daniel Sharfstein, Dick/Martha Lansden Chair in Law, Professor of History, Vanderbilt Law School
8:10-8:50 (presentation)
Invisible Economic Policies and their Effect on the U.S.
The Invisible Sources of Exclusion, Inequality and Discontent in America -- Arguments for an Inclusive Capitalism (Excerpts from People, Power and Profits: Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent)
Keynote Address: Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize winner, Professor, Columbia University
8:50-9:35 (presentation)
Q & A with Dr. Stiglitz
Moderator: Soumendra Ghosh, Professor of Economics, Tennessee State University
9:35-9:50
Coffee Break
9:50-10:05
PART TWO
The Effects of Invisible Laws and Policies
This section of the conference will highlight the effects that our invisible laws and policies can have and the human, economic and political costs.
Personal Stories of Laws, Policies, Disenfranchisement and Discontent
Personal stories highlighting the effects of unenlightened laws and policies and how they may have contributed to illness, disenfranchisement, and discontent.
Moderator: Tay McGee, Co-Founder, StreetSolid Industries
Miguel Lugo, Homeboy Industries, Community Relations & Head of Security
Lily Gonzalez, Homeboy Industries, Program Coordinator Project Rebound at CSUN
Donald Tyler, Director of Clinical Services, Chicago CRED
Leo Smith, Director of Policy, Chicago CRED
Benjamin Beightol, StreetSolid Industries
Ron Johnson, StreetSolid Industries
10:05-10:35
Social Determinants of Health
The Devastating Effects Our Created Environment Has on Individual and Collective Health
Economics, education, working conditions, social connection, the built environment and health care quality are all part of our man-made environment – all social determinants that are exacting a toll on the disenfranchised and on the nation.
10:35-11:10 (presentation)
Social Determinants of Health and Survival in Humans and Other Animals --
What the Effects of Social Adversity and Resilience in Social Animals Can Teach Us
Noah Snyder-Mackler, Assistant Professor, School of Life Sciences, Center for Evolution and Medicine, Arizona State University
11:10-11:40 (presentation)
The Role of Inequality in the Collapse of Civilizations – What the Past Tells Us About Where We Are and Where We’re Going
Sherri Lawson Clark, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Wake Forest University
11:40-12:10 (presentation)
Catered Lunch 12:10-12:50
PART THREE
Changing the Invisible
Changing the Laws and Policies that Lead to Disenfranchisement and Discontent in America
a. Change from the Streets
What HomeBoy Industries and CRED are doing to combat disenfranchisement and discontent both on the individual and policy levels.
Moderator: Rosemary Nabaweesi
Miguel Lugo, Homeboy Industries, Community Relations & Head of Security.
Lily Gonzalez, Homeboy Industries, Program Coordinator for Project Rebound at CSUN
Donald Tyler, Director of Clinical Services, Chicago CRED
Leo Smith, Director of Policy, Chicago CRED
12:50-1:20 (panel discussion)
b. Change via Business
What business is doing and can do about inclusion, equality and enfranchisement, and why they are doing it.
Moderator: Corbette Doyle, Senior Lecturer, Vanderbilt Peabody College
Edgar Perez, MBA, D&I Consultant HBCU/HSI Strategy Program Leader, Oracle
Brynn Plummer, VP/Director, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Alliance Bernstein
Tonya Hallett, VP, Human Resources, Diversity & Inclusion, Amazon
Chandra Vasser, VP and Chief Officer, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Nissan Americas
1:20-2:15 (panel discussion)
c. Change via Politics –What Needs to Change, Why it Needs to Change, and How Change it in Washington Today
Laws and policies create the environment in which we live. This talk will focus on the need for constant vigilance, updating and maintenance of these laws and policies. It will discuss how change happens (how "the sausage is made") in Washington and how we all might best lend our voices to change. Dr Larry Bartels, Professor and Co-director of Vanderbilt’s Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions
2:15-2:55 (presentation)
Coffee Break 2:55-3:10
d. Change on the International Level and The Role of Children in Change
The story of the convention on the rights of the child and on child participation in the wider struggle for fundamental human rights.
Maria Grahn-Farley, Professor, Leeds Law School
3:10 – 3:45 (presentation)
e. Change via the Word – Muckraking, Journalism, and the World of Misinformation
Dr Anya Schiffrin and Mutale Nkonde discuss global muckraking, the role of journalism in exposing injustice and inciting change, and past and present misinformation, disinformation and media manipulation in underserved communities.
Anya Schiffrin, Columbia University. Director, Technology, Media, and Communications at the School of International and Public Affairs. (presentation) and Mutale Nkonde, CEO, AI for the People & Affiliate, Digital Civil Society Lab at Stanford.
3:45 - 425
f. Change Via Art: Fanning a Spark to Create a Flame. This talk will explore how plays, movies, art and literature throughout history have captured the human spirit, fanned the spark of change and helped move a populace to action.
Moderator: Molly Secours
Artists James Threalkill and Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons.
Writer, Director, Producer, Academy Award winner, Bobby Moresco.
4:25-5:00 (panel discussion)
g: Final Panel Discussion / Q & A
Moderator: Tay McGee and Vincent Morelli
Together on the stage: Sharfstein, Stiglitz, Schiffrin, Grahn-Farley, Nkonde, Business Voices, Homeboy Industries, CRED, StreetSolid, and underserved youth. Moderated questions from speakers to youth and visa versa. Tay McGee closes out the conference by asking youth what they picked up from the speakers and the conference.
5:00 5:20 (Q and A / panel discussion)
Departure and Lingering in the Lobby
5:20 – 5:50