The final event in the COVID-19 reflections series will feature Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, the vice president and chief health equity officer at CVS Health and former chief medical executive for the State of Michigan, in conversation with Celeste Watkins-Hayes, faculty director of the Center for Racial Justice. Together, they will reflect on the two-year anniversary of the pandemic and will discuss the key lessons learned from Michigan's response to COVID-19 health disparities.

The Center for Racial Justice is partnering with Poverty Solutions and the National Center for Institutional Diversity to co-host a virtual event series that reflects on the local and state-level policies that have been instrumental in responding to the racialized health and economic disparities stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. The series brings together a diverse group of changemakers, including national and local policymakers, journalists, researchers, and community leaders, to (1) meditate on the past and current racial dynamics of COVID-19 in Michigan and Detroit, and to (2) discuss the policies, programs, and practices that have successfully responded to the needs of communities of color disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.

Speaker Bios:

Joneigh S. Khaldun, MD, MPH, FACEP is a nationally recognized healthcare executive, health policy and public health expert who currently serves as the Vice President and Chief Health Equity Officer for CVS Health. In this role she advances strategy, programs and policy to achieve health equity across all CVS Health lines of business. Prior to this she served as Chief Medical Executive for the State of Michigan and Chief Deputy Director for Health in the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, where she oversaw public health, Medicaid, behavioral health, and aging services. She was the lead strategist guiding Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer's COVID-19 response and in 2021 was appointed by President Biden to the COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force.

Dr. Khaldun has spearheaded the design and implementation of several system-changing projects at the intersection of public health and clinical medicine. She is known for her ability to lead teams through crisis as well as take innovative and bold ideas from conceptualization to precise operational execution and results. Prior to her role in the State of Michigan, she was appointed by Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan to lead the rebuilding of the Detroit Health Department. There, her accomplishments include building the city's opioid overdose response efforts; spearheading programs to address infant mortality and teen pregnancy during a time when Detroit saw the lowest infant mortality rate ever recorded in history; designing and implementing a neighborhood-based lead outreach and testing program; launching Detroit's first online restaurant inspection reporting system; creating a professional development program for staff; and successfully leading Detroit's response to the largest hepatitis A outbreak in modern U.S. history. Dr. Khaldun formerly served as Chief Medical Officer of the Baltimore City Health Department overseeing all clinical operations and worked in the Obama-Biden Administration's Office of Health Reform, supporting implementation of the Affordable Care Act. She has received multiple awards including 40 under 40 Leader in Minority Health by the National Minority Quality Forum; 40 Under 40 Leader in Public Health by the the Beaumont Foundation; George Washington University Monumental Alumni Award; 2020 Crain's Detroit Newsmaker of the Year, Detroit News 2021 Michiganian of the Year; and 2022 USA Today Woman of the Year. She is a board-certified practicing emergency medicine physician at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

Prior events were held on April 1 and May 6.