UMass Faculty Panel to Address COVID-19 and Health Disparities by Race, Gender and Class

On Oct. 9 at 1 p.m., a panel of UMass faculty will discuss “Race, Gender, Class, and COVID-19” via Zoom Webinar. The event is free and open to the public but registration is required.

COVID-19 has exposed deep inequities in our society. This panel will explore the structural inequalities laid bare by a pandemic that disproportionately affects so many along divisions of race, gender and class. This event is co-sponsored by the Office of Equity and Inclusion and the Office of the Provost and organized in collaboration with critical political studies research cluster in the political science department.

Panelists include:

Airin Martinez, assistant professor of health policy and management, UMass
Martinez's research examines the sociopolitical and institutional arrangements that produce chronic disease disparities among Latinx immigrants and their U.S.-born children. Martinez’s current research examines how the local implementation of immigration enforcement policies creates material deprivation and psychosocial stress among Latinx mixed-status families, with at least one unauthorized immigrant.

Dean Robinson, associate professor of political science, UMass
Robertson is the co-author of “Health Disparities by Race and Class: Why Both Matter” and author of “The Black Family and U.S. Social Policy” and “Black Nationalism in American Politics and Thought.”

Javier Rodríguez, Mary Toepelt Nicolai and George S. Blair Assistant Professor, Claremont Graduate University
Javier Rodríguez’s research incorporates theoretical and methodological principles from economics, demography, psychology, and public health to study the political causes and consequences of socioeconomic and racial disparities in health.

Wilmore Webley, associate professor, pre-medical and pre-dental advisor, UMass
Webley is the director of pre-med/pre-health advising and oversees advising for 1,500 undergraduates across campus exploring careers in the medical, dental and health fields. His research focuses on infectious disease mechanisms and the role of specific infections in chronic diseases.

Moderated by:
Anna Maria Siega-Riz, dean of the School of Public Health and Health Sciences, UMass
Siega-Riz serves on the National Institutes of Health Council and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s Health and Medicine Division Advisory Committee. Previously, she served on the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Federal Advisory Committee, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Advisory Council and the USDA/DHHS Pregnancy Technical Expert Committee, B-24 Months Project.