TC Prof Runs Health Conference

Sixteen percent of individuals in Central Harlem have diabetes. But just a few blocks southwest, the statistic drops down to 6 percent for residents of the Upper West Side, according to 2004 New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene reports.

Combating the disparities in health care that lead to statistics like these is the life work of Barbara Wallace, a professor of health education at Teachers College. A clinical psychologist whose public health research has focused on everything from diversity training and crack addiction to HIV/AIDS treatment, Wallace is running Teachers College's second annual Health Disparities Conference on Friday and Saturday.

Conference attendees will examine how local and national health disparities play a role in the treatment that patients receive. On Saturday, there will be a community health fair, located outside of Teachers College and open to the public, and it will include free on-the-spot HIV testing and free screenings for glaucoma, diabetes, dental problems, asthma, and depression. Following the community health fair, all will be allowed to attend afternoon conference sessions on specific health topics and health disparities.

Wallace said she hopes the conference will work to heal the relationship between Columbia and the surrounding community by unifying the two around the topic of good health. The conference is only in its second year, but Wallace, who founded the Research Group on Disparities in Health through the Department of Health and Behavior Studies in 2003, has focused on health disparities for years.

She said she started the research group because she felt "isolated" as the only faculty member of color in her department. "It was a way of creating a focal point and a magnet to attract scholars who were committed to similar issues," she said. "If I wanted a community, I had to create that community."

Wallace has a calm, almost meditative way of discussing public health. "We want to move toward equity in health and propel a global health transformation," she said. "We are training global leaders who can work alongside community members. ... It is a process of empowerment so the community can emerge able to determine its own health and sustain that health."

This year, the conference will focus on holistic approaches to health disparities, including physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health and an emphasis on the use of research and evidence accumulation in public health.

Delivering the keynote address on Friday will be Dr. Cornel West, professor of religion and African American Studies at Princeton University.

All community health fair tests and events are free to the public. The community health fair will take place from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday at Teachers College on 120th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue.