1

The 2016 Public Health Ethics Intensive Course: “Healing the Family through Social Justice”

Syllabus

National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care at Tuskegee University

Course Description

The purpose of the Public Health Ethics Intensive Course is to provide an

academically and professionally rigorous course for physicians, dentists, nurses, other

healthcare professionals and medical residents, social workers, graduate students,

undergraduate students, university faculty and other leaders including health

educators, healthcare administrators, and community advocates. The course will

build competency in the theory and practice of various spheres of ethics, including

public health ethics, healthcare ethics, bioethics and research ethics, focusing

specifically on their influence on race/ethnicity/sex/gender and class. Through

various presentations and interactive discussions, the course will explore the

relationship of these spheres of ethics to social justice and the needs of individuals,

groups and communities locally, nationally and globally, especially vulnerable and

susceptible populations. The explorations of these topics will give critical

consideration to their expansive dimensions, including areas related to agro- and

socio-economics, social structures, communications, human relations, health,

healthcare and the humanities. The tensions that exist between these spheres of

ethics and opportunities for collaborative work between them will also be discussed.

These topics are explored utilizing keynote presentations, engaging responses, general

discussions, and other learning venues.

2

Course Objectives

At the end of the course the participants will be able to:

1) Articulate how demographic constructs such as race/ethnicity/ sex/gender and class play a role in bioethics, public health ethics and healthcare ethics by honing skillsets of ethical reasoning.

2) Discuss the ethical challenges and opportunities that influence human subject research, health care delivery, and public health policy and practice.

3) Delineate the complexities inherent in the definition of ethics as ethos, namely the ultimate character of human persons, communities and institutions.

4) Define health as a total human experience, (for example, as understood in the concept of optimal health) and describe ethics and social justice as inherent to the health and wellness of individual persons, communities and institutions.

5) Identify contemporary social justice issues that continue to challenge the optimal health of persons and communities across the globe while describing the signature elements common to various contextual approaches that are seeking to rectify such issues.

Selected Course Readings

Adebamowo, C., O. Bah-Sow, F. Binka, R. Bruzzone, A. Caplan, et al. “Randomized

Controlled Trials for Ebola: Practical and Ethical Issues.” Lancet 384 (9952): 1423-1424

(2014).

Bayer, Ronald, Lawrence O. Gostin, Bruce Jennings and Bonnie Steinbock, eds., Public

Health Ethics: Theory, Policy and Practice. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Berger, Emily K. “The Legal Rights of the Poor and Minority to have Families: Judges as

Family Planners, the Vilification of the Poor, and Destruction of the Black Family”. Rutgers

Race and the Law Review 8(2) (2007).

Blumenthal, Daniel S., Ralph J. DiClemente, Ronald L. Braithwaite, and Selina A. Smith.

Community-Based Participatory Health Research: Issues, Methods, and Translation to Practice. New

York: Springer Publishing Company, 2013.

Caplan, Arthur L. and Alison Bateman-House. “Should Patients in Need be Given Access to

Experimental Drugs?” Expert Opinion in Pharmacotherapy 16 (9): 1275-1279 (2015).

3

Caplan, Arthur L. Publication Review. “The Search for the Legacy of the USPHS Syphilis

Study at Tuskegee.” Ralph V. Katz and Rueben C. Warren, eds. Journal of the National Medical

Association 106 (1) (Summer2014).

Caplan, Arthur L. Book Review Jones, James H. Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis

Experiment. Books Forum: 275-76 (2007).

Caplan, Arthur L. When Evil Intrudes (Twenty Years After: The Legacy of the Tuskegee Syphilis

Study). Hastings Center Report 22 (6): 29-32 (1992).

Daniels, Norman, "Justice and Access to Health Care", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

(Spring 2013 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).

http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2013/entries/justice-healthcareaccess/

Eiser, Arnold R. and Glenn Ellis. “Cultural Competence and the African American

Experience with Health Care: The Case for Specific Content in Cross-Cultural Education.”

Academic Medicine 82(2):176-183 (February 2007).

Fergus, Claudius. “Negotiating Time, Space, and Spirit: a Case Study of Oral Tradition and

the Construction of Lineage Identity in West Africa.” Research in African Literatures 40(1)

(Spring 2009).

Frieden, Thomas R. “The Future of Public Health.” New England Journal of Medicine 373(18):

1748-54 (2015).

Gray, Fred. The Tuskegee Syphilis Study: The Real Story and Beyond. Montgomery, Alabama:

Black Belt Press, 1998.

Harrell, Joan. “Public Health Injustices: ‘Media is the Message.’” Journal of Healthcare Science

and the Humanities 5(1): 62-69 (Spring 2015). http://tuskegeebioethics.org/resources/journal-

of-healthcare-science-humanities/

House, Bateman A., L. Kimberly, B. Redman, N. Dubler, A. Caplan. “Right-to-Try Laws:

Hope, Hype, and Unintended Consequences.” Annals of Internal Medicine 163(10):796-797

(2015). http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2443961

Katz, Ralph, and Rueben C. Warren, eds. The Search for the Legacy of the USPHS Syphilis Study.

Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2011.

Lee, Lisa M. “Public Health Ethics Theory: Review and Path to Convergence.” Journal of

Law, Medicine and Ethics 40(1):85-98 (2012).

4

McIntyre, Moni. “Gaudium et spes at 50: An Old Document for a New Time.” Journal of

Health and Human Experience 1(2):142-159 (Fall 2015).

McIntrye, Moni. “The Black Church and Whiteness.” In Yancey, George. Christology and

Whiteness: What Would Jesus Do? New York, New York: Routledge, 2012.

Morris, Catherine. “A Bitter Pill.” Diverse Issues in Higher Education 33 (1):10-13 (February 11,

2016).

Robertson, Clyde C. Hurricane Katrina through the Eyes of African American College

Students: The Making of a Documentary. The Journal of African American History 93 (3): 392-

401 (Summer 2008).

Robertson, Clyde C. and Joyce E. King. “A Teaching and Learning Methodology for Healing

the Wounds of Distance, Displacement and Loss Caused by Hurricane Katrina.” Journal of

Black Studies 37 (4): 469-481 (March 2007).

Schroeder, Steven A. “We Can Do Better.” New England Journal of Medicine 357(12): 1221-8

(2007).

Taylor, Sue Ann and Arvilla Payne-Jackson. Conserving Place: Prince William Forest Park 1900-

1945. Vol 1. Report to the US Department of Interior, National Park Service, Washington

D.C. 2008.

Townes, Emilie. “‘The Doctor Ain’t Taking No Sticks’: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study.” In

Breaking the Fine Rain of Death: African American Health Issues and a Womanist Ethic of Care.

Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1998.

Walker, Bailus, and Rueben C. Warren, “The Translation of Research to Advance Human

Health: Selected Developments.” Journal of Healthcare, Science and the Humanities. 3(1): 51-60

(2013).

5

Course Schedule Monday, April 11, 2016

6:oo pm - 8:00 pm

Late Breaker

Bioethics Auditorium John A. Kenney Hall

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

8:00 am - 4:30 pm

Registration and Continental Breakfast

Kellogg Conference

Center Auditorium Foyer

9:15 am - 9:25 am

Welcome

President Brian Johnson, Ph.D. Mayor Johnny Ford, Tuskegee,

Alabama Chairman Louis Maxwell, Macon

County Commissioner

Kellogg Conference

Center Auditorium

9:45 am - 10:00 am

Overview

Rueben Warren, D.D.S., M.P.H., Dr.PH, M.Div.

Kellogg Conference

Center Auditorium

10:00 am - 11:00 am

Opening Plenary: IRB and the Syphilis Study

Keynote Presenter

Arthur Caplan, Ph.D.

Responders Ralph Katz , D.M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D. Joan Harrell, D.MIN, M.DIV, M.S.

Moderator

Kellogg Conference

Center Auditorium

11:00 am - 12:30 pm

Opening Plenary Small Group Session

Meeting Room A

12:30 pm - 1:30 pm

Lunch

Ballroom C

6

1:30 pm - 2:30 pm Public Health Policy Impacting on Families and

Community

Keynote Presenter Bailus Walker, Jr., Ph.D., M.P.H.

Responders

Emmanuel A. Taylor, M.Sc., Dr. P.H., MACE

David Anderson, DDS, MDS, MBHP

Moderator

Kellogg Conference

Center Auditorium

2:30 pm - 4:00 pm

Small Group Session

Meeting Room A

4:30 pm - 6:00 pm

Tour

Kellogg Conference Center Lobby

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

7:00 am - 8:00 am

Continental Breakfast

Kellogg Conference

Center Auditorium Foyer

8:00 am - 9:00 am

The Evolution of Family

Keynote Presenter

Illya Davis, M.T.S.

Responders Velma Love, PhD

Arvilla Payne-Jackson, Ph.D.

Moderator

Kellogg Conference

Center Ballroom B

9:00 am - 10:30 am

Small Group Session

Meeting Room A

10:30 am - 11:30 am

Nation to Nation: Family to Family

Keynote Presenter

Kellogg Conference

Center Ballroom B

7

Chukwudi Onwuachi-Saunders, M.D., M.P.H

Responders

Joe B. Jimmeh, Ph.D. Carolyn A. L. McCrary, Th.D.

Moderator

11:30 am - 1:00 pm

Small Group Session

Meeting Room A

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Lunch

2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

The School as an Extension of Family

Keynote Presenter

Jacqueline Brooks, Ed.D., E.S., M.S.

Responders Clyde Robertson, Ph.D. Lillie Head, B.S., M.S.

Moderator

Kellogg Conference

Center Ballroom B

3:00 pm - 4:30 pm

Small Group Session

Meeting Room A

4:30 pm - 6:30 pm

Tour

Kellogg Conference

Center Lobby

Thursday, April 14, 2016

8:00 am - 9:00 am

From Family to Gang to Prison

Keynote Presenter

Crystal James, JD, MPH

Responders Dorothy Baker, LMSW,

Otis Head, Ph.D., M.DIV.

Kellogg Conference

Center Ballroom B

8

Moderator Ms. Tiareah Jakes

9:00 am - 10:30 am

Small Group Session

Meeting Room A

10:30 am - 12:00 pm

Religion, Ethnicity and Identity

Keynote Presenter

Moni McIntyre, Ph.D.

Responders Julian Cook, M.Div. Candidate

Glenn Ellis, CHCE

Moderator

Kellogg Conference

Center Ballroom B

12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

Lunch

Kellogg Conference

Center Ballroom C

9

Ralph V Katz, DMD, MPH, PhD

Ralph V. Katz, DMD, MPH, PhD, (professor and former and founding chair, Department

of Epidemiology & Health Promotion, NYU College of Dentistry), recently spent the spring

semester of 2015 on Sabbatical Leave from NYU as an in-resident scholar at The National

Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care at Tuskegee University working on a

bioethics project at the Center. Having served on the National Legacy Committee which

initiated the formal request for a Presidential apology, he was an invitee to the White House

by President Clinton for the May 1997 Presidential Apology for the US Public Health

Service Syphilis Study, known as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study.

Arthur Caplan, Ph.D.

Currently the Drs. William F. and Virginia Connolly Mitty Professor and founding head of

the Division of Bioethics at New York University Langone Medical Center in New York

City. He is the co-founder and dean of Research of the NYU Sports and Society Program

and the head of the ethics program in the Global Institute for Public Health at NYU. Prior

to coming to NYU he was the Sidney D. Caplan Professor of Bioethics at the University of

Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine in Philadelphia where he created the Center for

Bioethics and the Department of Medical Ethics. Caplan has also taught at the University of

10

Minnesota, where he founded the Center for Biomedical Ethics, the University of

Pittsburgh, and Columbia University. He received his PhD from Columbia University.

Caplan is the author or editor of thirty-two books and over 600 papers in peer reviewed

journals. His most recent book is Replacement Parts: The Ethics of Procuring and Replacing Organs

in Humans (Georgetown University Press, 2015). Caplan is a regular commentator on

bioethics and health care issues for WebMD/Medscape, for WGBH radio in Boston and

WMNF public radio in Tampa. He appears frequently as a guest and commentator on

various other national and international media outlets. He has served on a number of

national and international committees including as the chair, National Cancer Institute

Biobanking Ethics Working Group; the chair of the Advisory Committee to the United

Nations on Human Cloning; the chair of the Advisory Committee to the Department of

Health and Human Services on Blood Safety and Availability; a member of the Presidential

Advisory Committee on Gulf War Illnesses, and numerous others.

Joan Harrell, D.MIN, M.DIV, M.S.

The Rev. Dr. Joan Harrell is an ordained clergywoman, public health communications

ethicist and award winning broadcast journalist and documentary producer. She is a

graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City,

recipient of the Schuman Post Graduate Fellow at the Columbia University Graduate School

of Journalism and completed her doctoral work in public theology at the Chicago

Theological Seminary. Dr. Harrell is associate director of the Community Engagement Core

and visiting scholar at the National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care at

Tuskegee University (National Bioethics Center). She is also the senior associate editor of

The Journal of Healthcare, Science and The Humanities and in technical collaboration with

Blackbox Creative, she is the originator and content developer of the National Bioethics

Center’s Web 2.0 which includes National Bioethics Center’s mobile app and

www.tuskegeebioethics.org

11

Velma E. Love, Ph.D.

Velma E. Love, author of Divining the Self: a Study in Yoruba Myth and Human Consciousness, is a

suicide loss survivor, a mental health advocate and co-founder of the Lee Thompson Young

Foundation, a national non-profit organization dedicated to promoting mental and

emotional wellness. She serves as an adjunct associate professor of Religious Studies at

Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC. Her research interests include the Odù of Ifá Literary

Corpus, Ifá divination, and indigenous African healing practices. She received the M.Div.

from Union Theological Seminary and the Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate University.

Arvilla Payne-Jackson, Ph.D.

Dr. Arvilla Payne-Jackson is a professor at Howard University. Her areas of research are in

medical anthropology, oral history, ethnographic evaluation, service learning, and

12

sociolinguistics. She has conducted fieldwork in the United States, the Caribbean, Latin

America and Africa. Dr. Payne-Jackson has published numerous books and articles. She has

conducted ethnographic evaluation and consulting for federal agencies and community and

non-profit organizations. Two publications of importance are Prince William Forest Park: The

African American Experience. Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Park Service, (2000) and Prince

William Forest Park: Conserving Space and Place. Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Park Service,

(2008), 4 vols.

Chukwudi Onwuachi-Saunders, M.D., M.P.H.

Dr. Chu Chu Saunders is a public health physician with more than 25 years of experience,

carrying out representational functions and providing technical leadership in the

development, implementation, management and evaluation of international and national

public health programs. She is a pediatrician and medical epidemiologist who excels in the

use of epidemiological data for health policy and program design with expertise in

identifying the needs of culturally and economically diverse communities. She has assisted

national governments, NGOs, and private sector organizations develop projects for

implementation at national, regional, state and local levels. She has held senior and mid-level

management positions with the private sector, national, local governments and academic

institutions: senior deployment operations manager – Westover Consultants, assistant

professor – Howard University, program officer – Ford Foundation, senior deputy director

– Dept. of Health, DC Government, deputy health commissioner – Dept. of Public Health,

Philadelphia PA, medical epidemiologist – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

physician – Prudential Health. She is familiar with primary care and public health systems;

has strong leadership, analytical, problem resolution, and excellent written and

communication skills.

13

Bailus Walker, Jr., Ph.D., M.P.H. Bailus Walker, Jr. is professor of environmental and occupational medicine and toxicology at Howard University College of Medicine. He is former professor of environmental health at the School of Public Health, State University of New York in Albany. He has served as dean of the public health faculty at University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center; and former commissioner of Public Health for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and chairman of the Massachusetts Public Health Council. Dr. Walker is a past president for the American Public Health Association, and a distinguished fellow of the Royal Society of Health (London, England). He has published extensively on environmental and occupational risk factors of disease and disability. He is an NIH adviser on environmental and community health aspects of biodefense research and senior science adviser (environmental health) to the National Library of Medicine.

David A. Anderson, DDS, MDS, MBHP

Dr. Anderson received his DDS degree from Howard University, Master of Dental Science -

Prosthodontics from the University of Pittsburgh and the Master of Arts in Bioethics and

Health Policy from Loyola University. He completed general dental practice and

prosthodontic residencies in the Veterans Administration. He maintains an active private

practice and has served as assistant professor of Prosthodontics and director of diversity and

inclusion at the University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine. He is a member of the

American Dental Association’s Council of Ethics, Bylaws and Judicial Affairs.

14

Emmanuel Taylor M.Sc., Dr.P.H.

Dr. Taylor is the health scientist administrator and leader of the Performance and Evaluation

Core in the Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities (CRCHD) at the National Cancer

Institute. He has over 25 years of experience in public health program planning,

implementation, and evaluation at local/community, national and international levels. Prior

to joining CRCHD, Dr. Taylor was president and CEO of Health Information Management

Associates (HIMA), Inc., as well as the chief epidemiologist and director of health

informatics, research and program evaluation at HIMA. He was an associate professor of

Public Health at Morgan State University, and senior epidemiologist for Minority Health at

the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He earned his doctorate in

international health/epidemiology from the Tulane University School of Public Health and

Tropical Medicine, with a specialty in the application of epidemiological methods for

planning and evaluation of public health programs; his M.Sc. in health education and

communications, and his B.S. in pre-med/biology from the University of Southern

Mississippi.

15

Jacqueline Brooks, Ed.D., E.S., M.S.

Jacqueline A. Brooks is a native of Tuskegee, Alabama. Dr. Brooks received her Ed.D., E.S.

and M.S. degrees from Nova Southern University in Leadership and Instructional

Technology and her B.S. degree from Alabama State University in Secondary Education.

Dr. Brooks currently serves as the superintendent of education for Macon County Schools.

She was named one of Macon County’s Top Women of Influence by the South East Small

Business Magazine. She has also been appointed by Governor Bentley to both, the Alabama

State Board of Trustees (a former trustee) and the State of Alabama Department of Archives

and History, Local Government Records Commission. Dr. Brooks is serving as the District

IV president of the Alabama Association of School Boards, and represents District IV as the

2014-15 Superintendent of the Year.

Illya Davis, M.T.S. Illya Eliphis Davis is lecturer in Philosophy and Religion at Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University. Mr. Davis earned his M.T.S degree from Harvard University Divinity School, his B.A. degree in Philosophy at Morehouse College and pursued doctoral studies at The University of Chicago in Philosophy and Religion. Davis has published on the social and political thought of Dr. Benjamin E. Mays and the nature of Black religious thought and practices. He was a UNCF/Andrew Mellon Faculty Fellow in 2011. He has served as the advisor for the Bill and Melinda Gates/Millennium Scholars at Morehouse College.

16

Moni McIntyre, Ph.D. The Rev. Moni McIntyre, Ph.D. is rector of The Church of the Holy Cross, the only

predominately African American parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh. She is

assistant professor in the Sociology Department at Duquesne University. In 2008, Moni

retired from the U.S. Navy with the rank of Captain (0-6). She teaches health care ethics

twice each quarter to senior Navy physicians and dentists at Walter Reed National Military

Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Moni is a silver life member of the NAACP. She has

published three books and several articles in theology, health care ethics, and social justice.

Carolyn A. L. McCrary, Th.D.

17

Dr. McCrary is the Jarena Lee Professor of Pastoral Theology, Care and Counseling at the

Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) and is the coordinator of the Doctor of

Theology Program in Pastoral Counseling at ITC in collaboration with the Atlanta

Theological Association (ATA). Dr. McCrary has a rich and diverse background that has

spanned more than forty years encompassing the fields of Education, Intercultural Studies,

Pastoral Care and Pastoral Counseling, and Pastoral Theology. She is a graduate of Bennett

College (BA/French) and the Interdenominational Theological Center (Th.D. In Pastoral

Counseling). A pioneer in the Academy and the Church, she was ordained as an elder in the

African Methodist Episcopal Church. Dr. McCrary is a fellow in the American Association

of Pastoral Counselors (AAPC) and also a founding member of the Racial Ethnic Movement

(REM) Taskforce (currently, Racial Ethic Multicultural Network) of the Association of

Clinical Pastoral Educators (ACPE). She has also worked as a pastoral care consultant with

preschool children of migrant (Mexican) farm workers in Longmont, Colorado and with

children recovering from starvation and malnourishment at the Faith and Nutrition Centre

in Port Au Prince, Haiti.

18

Lillie Head, B.S., M.S., M.S.

Mrs. Head is the Chair of Voices for Our Fathers Legacy Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy

organization founded by descendants in 2014 to “Remember, Celebrate and Honor the 623 men

who were victims in the USPHS Syphilis Study.” Mrs. Head retired as a physical education and

health teacher after 31 years from the Waterbury, Connecticut Public School System.

During her professional tenure she was a coach, mentor and advisor for her students and

colleagues. She started her own Educational Consultant business in 1998 and worked for

the Waterbury Public School System, Area Cooperative Educational Services and Capitol

Region Educational Council. She is a graduate of the historic Tuskegee Institute where she

received a B.S. Degree in Physical Education. Later she received her Master's Degree in

Physical Education from Southern Connecticut State University from Southern Connecticut

State University and her M.S. degree in Education and Administrative Leadership from the

University of Bridgeport. Mrs. Head has received numerous professional and civic awards

recognizing her leadership, educational initiatives, program management and devoted service

to the Waterbury community.

19

Joe B. Jimmeh is currently an assistant professor in the Department of History and Political

Science and Interim assistant dean for administration of the College of Arts and Sciences,

Tuskegee University. Dr. Jimmeh’s research interests include Liberia, Africa, neoliberal

globalization, and comparative perspectives on public administration and policy. He is the

author of “Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism in Liberia: The Struggle for Territorial Integrity,

Sovereignty and Democracy”, Palgrave Encyclopedia on Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism

(2015); co-authored South Africa: Past, Present and Future (Cognella 2015), and

Contending Perspectives on Neoliberal Globalization (Cognella, 2014). Current

research projects: Liberia: Journey of Social Consciousness and Citizenship (book

manuscript completed), “Economic Development Planning as Social Action: The Case of Liberia”,

Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy and Governance

(forthcoming). Dr. Jimmeh earned his BA in Economics at Cuttington College, his MA in

Political Science at Western Illinois University and MPA, Public Administration, MA and

PhD in International Relations the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs,

Syracuse University.

20

Otis B. Head, PhD, MDiv.

Otis B. Head earned his Master of Divinity at the Interdenominational Theology Center in

Atlanta, Georgia and his Doctor of Philosophy in Christian Counseling from the Restoration

Theological Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia. His professional career includes service as a social

worker, director of Community and Detention Juvenile Centers, warden of Adult

Correctional Facility, program director of a Juvenile Detention Center, director of a Non-

profit Family Ministry and director of Counseling Ministry of a Mega Church. Presently he is

a visiting scholar of the National Center of Bioethics Research & Health at Tuskegee

University as project director of the Tuskegee University & Macon County Bridge Builders

Program. Dr. Head is also contracted with Macon County Board of Education as program

coordinator. Formerly president of the Macon County Minister’s Council; his work is

dedicated to the community of Macon County and their sacred/secular development.

Julian A. Cook, B.A., M.DIV Candidate

Rev. Julian A. Cook is currently Dean’s Fellow and Mary McCleod Bethune Scholar at

Boston University in the School of Theology where he is earning his Master of Divinity. He

21

received his B.A. in Music and Biblical Studies and minored in African American Studies at

Houghton College. He is currently the research assistant and Teaching Fellow to Dr. Walter

Earl Fluker, renouwned social ehticist and scholar on the lives of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

and Howard Thurman. He also serves as graduate assistant at Boston University’s Howard

Thurman Center for Common Ground—a student center committed to promoting

Thurman’s principles of the ‘search for common ground’ and the ‘unity of all people’. Rev.

Cook serves as the president of the Boston University Association of Balck Seminarians. He

is the pastor of the historic St. Mark Congregational Church, United Church of Christ of

Boston, Massachusetts. He is a classically trained baritone vocalist and was named a U.S.

Presidential Scholar of the Arts by President Barak Obama. As a result, he debuted in

concert at the John F. Kenennedy cetner for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

Crystal James, JD, MPH

Attorney James received her Bachelor of Science degree from Clark Atlanta University, her

Master of Public Health from Rollin’s School of Public Health at Emory University, her

Juris Doctorate from University of Houston, and her license to practice law from the State

of Georgia, all by the age of twenty-six. She has been able to not only work within her

science and public health interests, she has also maintained a successful legal practice that

focuses mainly on the areas of civil right issues, which include labor and employment issues,

criminal law, personal injury, as well as domestic relations. With more than sixteen years of

private practice experience and offices in Atlanta, GA and Ocilla GA, Attorney James

continues to seek opportunities to utilize her unique training and background to assist the

clients that she serve and enrich the experience of students seeking careers in public health.

22

Clyde Robertson, Ph.D.

Dr. Clyde C. Robertson is an associate professor of History at Tuskegee University. He

earned a PhD in Africana Studies from Temple University and a MA in Mass

Communications Theory from Howard University. He is the author of several articles

investigating Africana Studies and History, including Administration of Africana Studies at Black

Colleges in African Studies: A Disciplinary Quest for Both Theory and Method. He is also

investigating the impact Hurricane Katrina is having on African Americas. To this end, Dr.

Robertson has authored the article, “Hurricane Katrina through the Eyes of African

American College Students: The Making of a Documentary” in the Journal of African

American History. He has completed the Intensive Bioethics Course at Georgetown

University in Washington, D.C. and his book, Africa Rising: Multidisciplinary Discussions on

Africana Studies and History (Africa World Press).

23

Glenn Ellis, CHCE

Glenn Ellis is an internationally respected health educator and complementary medicine

consultant. Following his pre-Med studies at the University of Pennsylvania, he did graduate

work in Healthcare Ethics at St. Joseph’s University. He is currently completing graduate

MPH studies at the University of Liverpool, with plans to pursue a doctorate in Bioethics.

He has written several books, including, Which Doctor? And Information is the Best Medicine. He

is currently an active member of several Institutional Review Boards and Hospital Ethics

Committees. He has been a contributor to Real Health Magazine, Heart and Soul Magazine, The

Black AIDS Institute Newsletter, as well as The National Medical Association’s Healthy Living

magazine. In additional to his columns which appear weekly in The Philadelphia Tribune,

Ellis is a regular radio guest and commentator on KJLH (Los Angeles), in Philadelphia on

WURD-AM, where he hosts a weekly program, and WDAS-AM/FM, where he provides

weekly commentary. He is President of Strategies for Well-Being, LLC, a health education

and consulting company headquartered in Philadelphia.

24

Dorothy Baker, LMSW

Dorothy L. Baker is currently an ambassador with the Department of Health and Human

Services in Washington, D.C. She is the founder of the James McCauley Home, the Paternal

Grandfather of the Mother of the civil rights movement in America, Mrs. Rosia L. McCauley

Parks. Ms. Baker practiced Clinical Social Work with Mrs. Parks. Ms. Baker practiced

Clinical Social Work for thirty years providing mental health outpatient and inpatient

services to children, families and individuals in state and private mental health service

organizations for more than fifteen years. She has also served as a manager and supervisor

in mental health service administration. She has been a mental health consultant with

Pheobe Putney Hospital in Albany, Georgia and Cambridge Hospital in Cambridge,

Massachusetts. She earned her bachelor’s degree in sociology from Tuskegee Institute and

was awarded a mental health stipend from the National Institute of Health to pursue her

Master’s degree in social work education from Portland State University.