HHS Announces Appointees to Committee on Minority Health
HHS Secretary Donna Shalala on Dec. 28 announced the appointment of 12 members to the secretary's new Advisory Committee on Minority Health. The committee, created by the Health Professions Education Partnerships Act of 1998, will advise the HHS secretary on methods of improving "the health of racial and ethnic minority populations." The HHS Office of Minority Health aims to "eliminate racial and ethnic disparities by the year 2010," and currently focuses on six areas: infant mortality, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer screening and management, HIV//AIDS, and childhood and adult immunization. Louis Stokes -- a lawyer, former member of Congress from Ohio and former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus -- will head the committee, which meets four times a year. The committee is comprised of three representatives each from the black/African-American; American Indian and Alaska Native; Asian American and Pacific Islander; and Hispanic/Latino communities. In addition to Stokes, the new appointees are:
- Dr. Isamu Abraham, public health official, Department of Public Health, Saipan, Commonwelath of the Northern Mariana Islands;
- Mr. Salvador Balcorta, social worker and CEO, Centro de Salud Familiar La Fe, Inc., El Paso, Texas;
- Dr. Henry Chung, physician, Chinatown Health Clinic, New York, N.Y.;
- Dr. Estevan Flores, sociologist and journalist, Latino/a Research and Policy Center, Denver, Colo.;
- Dr. Theodore Mala, physician and public health expert, Office of Village Initiatives, Southcentral Foundation, Anchorage, Alaska;
- Dr. Clyde Oden, optometrist and health services executive, Watts Health Foundation, Inglewood, Calif.;
- Dr. Joan Reede, physician and educator, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass.;
- Dr. Yvette Roubideaux, physician, president of the Association of American Indian Physicians, Tucson, Ariz.;
- Ms. Delight Satter, senior public health researcher and policy manager, UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, Los Angeles, Calif.;
- Dr. Ho Tran, physician and state health official, Illinois Department of Public Health, Chicago, Ill.;
- Dr. Antonia Villarruel, nurse and educator, University of Michigan School of Nursing, Ann Arbor, Mich. (HHS release, 12/28).