Advocating for Health Equity and Addressing Disparities (AHEAD) Initiative was started by Michele Wright, Ph.D. and Terry Wright, Co-Founders of the National Organization of African Americans with Cystic Fibrosis (NOAACF) and Co-Chairs of the Annual Blacks, Indigenous, and Other Minority Ethnicities with Rare and Genetic Diseases (BIOMERGD) Conference with a mission to increase awareness of health disparities in minority and underserved communities and to introduce a successful roadmap and advancement strategies toward achieving health equity in healthcare, clinical treatment, medical diagnosis, and clinical trials across a multitude of disadvantaged populations.
The AHEAD Initiative was inspired by 62-year old Terry Wright, an African American man who was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis (CF) at the age of 54, although he had been hospitalized, seen by an array of healthcare practitioners, and unknowingly dealing with the devastating consequences of CF throughout his entire life. As such, this initiative uniquely strives to help organizations, businesses, and corporations forge ahead to work in partnership, collaboration, and synergy with healthcare professionals, executives, and institutions to help ensure that health equity is the norm and health disparities are tactically and cohesively identified, addressed, and resolved.
As with Terry Wright’s late diagnosis, health disparities can make the difference between life and death, sickness and health, quality of life and well-being, and/or avoiding and minimizing the burden of disease, surgeries, injury, and other negative medical outcomes. Health equity is imperative in ensuring that all populations and members of society can achieve and sustain optimal health – regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, or values/beliefs – and are afforded the same fair and unbiased opportunity to receive the best quality of health available. AHEAD can offer your organization educational content, assessment methods, and short- or long-term consultancy to evaluate your institutional culture and climate, set health equity goals, and transform the experiences of patients and families from marginalized backgrounds. To discuss how our organization can help yours advance AHEAD with health equity and address health disparities, then contact Michele Wright at careerwisdom@sbcglobal.net or (501) 247-2623.
