WASHINGTON -- National Partnership for Action to End Health Disparities has tapped Laura Anderko, Ph.D., RN, to serve on a Regional Health Equity Council for the Washington, DC-area. Anderko holds the Robert and Kathleen Scanlon Chair in Values Based Health Care at the School of Nursing & Health Studies, a part of Georgetown University Medical Center.
The National Partnership for Action (NPA) to End Health Disparities was established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Minority Health. The NPA is a public-private initiative that seeks to mobilize a nationwide, comprehensive, community-driven, and sustained approach to combating health disparities and to move the nation toward achieving health equity.
NPA organized 10 councils, each covering a geographical territory. Anderko’s role on a Council complements her dedicated commitment to keeping social justice at the forefront of the health care field. She is a scholar and educator in the fields of epidemiology, public health and environmental health. A Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow, Anderko also is a member of the Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee, a federal advisory committee with the Environmental Protection Agency.
“It is an honor to be selected to participate in this innovative approach with the overall goal of achieving health equity nationally,” says Anderko. “My career has focused on the reduction of health disparities, from my early work in public health nursing to my current work in values based health care.”
Anderko says the core values of the School of Nursing & Health Studies including value of the common good and social justice are intrinsic to the work of the Region III Health Equity Council. “It will provide me an opportunity to not only apply knowledge from previous practice and research experiences into working with the poor, underserved, and disenfranchised populations, but to apply the values of NHS into policy and social action initiatives that will benefit these populations.”
Anderko’s service as part of an inaugural council begins this month. The Regional Health Equity Councils include members from the public, non-profit, and private sectors.
Councils will serve as leaders and catalysts for strengthening health equity actions within a region in response to the NPA's National Stakeholder Strategy for Achieving Health Equity. Members are also charged with helping to enhance collaboration between health equity stakeholders in the region, including public-private partnerships, alignment between initiatives and programs, and leveraging of assets to more effectively accomplish health disparity reduction goals.
Anderko earned her Ph.D. in Public Health from the University of Illinois, an MS from Northern Illinois University, and a BSN from University of Chicago.
About Georgetown University Medical Center
Georgetown University Medical Center is an internationally recognized academic medical center with a three-part mission of research, teaching and patient care (through MedStar Health). GUMC’s mission is carried out with a strong emphasis on public service and a dedication to the Catholic, Jesuit principle of cura personalis -- or "care of the whole person." The Medical Center includes the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing & Health Studies, both nationally ranked; Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, designated as a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute; and the Biomedical Graduate Research Organization (BGRO), which accounts for the majority of externally funded research at GUMC including a Clinical Translation and Science Award from the National Institutes of Health. In fiscal year 2010-11, GUMC accounted for 85 percent of the university’s sponsored research funding.
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