Nao Hagiwara, PhD
A new book co-authored by Professor of Public Health Sciences Nao Hagiwara, PhD, examines the racist roots of American health disparities through an interdisciplinary lens, urging societal interventions to establish health equity.
Unequal Health: Anti-Black Racism and the Threat to America’s Health published in September by Cambridge University Press, was co-authored with Louis A. Penner, Professor Emeritus of Oncology Science at Wayne State University, John F. Dovidio, Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Public Health at Yale University, and Brian D. Smedley, an Equity Scholar and Senior Fellow with the Urban Institute. It is nominated for the Association of American Publishers’ prestigious Professional and Scholarly Excellence (PROSE) Award.
The text is an in-depth examination of anti-Black racism as the root cause of the pervasive racial health disparities in the United States and mechanisms through which it manifests in the health of Black people, including barriers to access and provider biases. Among the authors’ “immodest” solutions are equalized public school funding, affirmatively fair housing policies, and a universal single-payer health system.
A social psychologist, Dr. Hagiwara is also Director of the Program on Health Disparities and Community Engagement Research. She joined the School of Medicine faculty and the Cancer Prevention and Population Health Program this year from Virginia Commonwealth University, where most recently she was an Associate Professor of Psychology and member of the Center for Cultural Experiences in Prevention. She earned her doctorate from Michigan State University.
Filed Under: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Faculty