Starting the Conversation
Over the last year, we’ve been reminded that systemic racism has had a devastating impact on our society. For centuries, health inequities have contributed to Black Americans and people of color suffering worse health outcomes than their white neighbors. This six-episode series, hosted by Michael Sneed, Executive Vice President, Johnson & Johnson, features conversations with Black doctors and nurses on the front lines of health equity with the hope that by Starting the Conversation and listening, we create empathy. Through empathy, we gain understanding. And, through understanding, we inspire change.
Atlanta: Biases are barriers in healthcare
One important aspect of addressing racial health inequities is creating more opportunities to enter health professions, given the systemic barriers for people of color. In this episode of Starting the Conversation, Michael Sneed, Executive Vice President, Global Corporate Affairs & Chief Communication Officer at Johnson & Johnson, travels to Atlanta, the home of the civil rights movement. He speaks with two women who are working to widen opportunities for the next generation.
If these conversations speak to you, please consider joining the effort by learning more about the National Medical Fellowships and National Black Nurses Association and by clicking here.
Michael Sneed
Michael Sneed most recently served as Executive Vice President, Global Corporate Affairs & Chief Communication Officer, and a member of the Executive Committee at Johnson & Johnson. He is a member of the Board of Trustees at the Thomas Jefferson Health System and a member of the Board of Directors of Wayfair. He holds a master’s degree in business administration from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and a Bachelor of Arts degree, cum laude, from Macalester College.
Dawn M. Aycock, Ph.D.
Aycock grew up in San Antonio, Texas, with her parents, sister and grandparents. At 10 years old, she was hospitalized following a boating accident and the nurse that took care of her inspired her to pursue the profession. Aycock went on to receive her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Prairie View A&M University and a Ph.D. in nursing from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Currently Associate Professor and Director of the Ph.D. program in nursing and health professions at Georgia State University, her 25-year tenure as a nurse has made her passionate about the need to develop, test and disseminate culturally relevant health promotion materials to improve cardiovascular health among African Americans.
Lattisha Bilbrew, M.D.
Dr. Bilbrew was born and raised in England. Both sides of her family are Jamaican, and her grandparents immigrated to England after World War II to help rebuild the country. From a young age, Dr. Bilbrew knew that she wanted to pursue medicine and has made educating patients and crossing cultural and racial barriers a main priority in her own practice. She received her medical degree from Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta and currently works as an orthopaedic surgeon for Resurgens Orthopaedics, the largest orthopaedic group in Georgia, where she is the first black female orthopaedic surgeon to ever become a partner. Dr. Bilbrew is motivated to improve how healthcare professionals interact with patients from different cultural, racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. She believes that there is also a need for more open conversations during medical training and a re-education of the educators who were born into a time when society was different.
Our race to health equity
For nearly 20 years, both in our laboratories and on the ground in countries impacted by TB and MDR-TB, Johnson & Johnson has been supporting global efforts to end TB and combat AMR.