Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins & Senator Mayer Host Black History Month Discussion on Healthcare Disparities in the Black Community

(Yonkers, NY) – For Black History Month, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Senator Shelley Mayer are hosting a Facebook Live conversation with medical experts on healthcare disparity in the Black community on Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. Lawmakers encourage residents to watch the free event called “Reaching Health Equity” to learn about the history of health inequality, how disparities impact health outcomes today and how we overcome them.

The Senators will be joined by Nurse Susan Moscou, an Associate Professor at Mercy College, Dr. Mill Etienne, Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Inclusion at New York Medical College, and health justice advocate, Dr. Chris T. Pernell. Experts and lawmakers will address the challenges ahead due to disparities, including vaccine hesitancy, education and awareness, as well as, look at how we increase diversity in the medical field.

Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said, “For Black History Month, I wanted to focus on something timely, which was greatly impacted by our history. Healthcare disparity didn’t start with COVID-19, but it has reached a fever pitch. Education about how we got here and where we go from here will be critically important in saving lives, Black lives. I look forward to the conversation and thank my co-host Senator Mayer and the excellent guests who will be joining us.”

Senator Shelley B. Mayer said, “I am pleased to co-host this important event in commemoration of Black History Month with my friend and colleague Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins. Health disparities in the Black community are part of the systemic injustices that perpetuate inequality and have devastating consequences that are a matter of life & death for community members. I look forward to hearing from the panelists & experts and having the discussion inform what steps we must take to break down disparities in the healthcare system."

“Reaching Health Equity” can also be viewed on Zoom at: https://bit.ly/3s62gXN.

About the panelists:

Susan Moscou, MPH, PhD, FNP, is an Associate Professor at Mercy College Nursing School of Health. Dr. Moscou received her PhD in health policy at Brandeis University and her MS in Nursing from Yale University. Dr. Moscou’s research interests focus on the role of race and ethnicity in clinical care. 

Dr. Mill Etienne, MPH is the Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Inclusion and Associate Professor of Neurology at New York Medical College. Dr. Etienne holds a Master’s of Public Health in epidemiology with a specialty in health disparities. In 2010, he was deployed on the USNS Comfort as part of Operation United Response after a catastrophic earthquake in Haiti. 

Dr. Chris T. Pernell, M.D., MPH, is a senior hospital executive in Newark, New Jersey. In her public health practice, she concentrates on health justice, community-based advocacy, and population-wide health promotion and disease prevention. Dr. Pernell led the hospital’s first-ever health equity and inclusion strategy across multiple business units.