The Center for Health Justice seeks to enable health through racial, economic, and environmental justice for Black, Brown, and all people and neighborhoods harmed by structural inequity
The Center for Health Justice (CHJ) was launched on September 1, 2023, with a vision to enable health through racial, economic, and environmental justice for Black, Brown, and all people and neighborhoods harmed by structural inequity.
We define health justice as opportunity and well-being for all people. Achieving health justice requires the examination and repair of power structures, rooted in knowledge and experiences of communities harmed by social, political, and economic systems.
Our work spans three portfolios – research, community action, and health system transformation – managed by two groups. Research and community action are led by the Urban Health Lab @ CHJ, and health system transformation is led by Health Justice Transformation @ CHJ. Our Center collaborates across Penn Medicine, the Perelman School of Medicine, and the University of Pennsylvania to guide strategy and implementation as well as build infrastructure and accountability to enable transformative structural and policy change.
Eugenia C. South, MD, MS, associate vice president of health justice and associate professor of emergency medicine, is the faculty director of CHJ. Nicole Thomas, MBA, is the director of CHJ.
Scroll down to learn about Health Justice Transformation @ CHJ, and check back soon for additional content. More information about the Urban Health Lab is available on their website, linked below.
Health Justice Transformation
The Health Justice Transformation portfolio seeks to transform operations by collaborating with staff and leaders to infuse justice and antiracism into all aspects of the health system and to guide strategy and implementation enabling radical structural and policy change.
Our roles:
- Guide | Provide health justice thought leadership to all areas of the health system.
- Cultivate | Support and champion health justice stakeholders to maximize collective impact for staff, patients, and our local community.
- Act | Partner with frontline staff, health system teams, and leaders to pilot and scale initiatives that advance health justice.
Our priorities:
- Grow health system infrastructure to facilitate collaboration, strategic alignment, and accountability across health justice stakeholders to maximize impact.
- Build systems to understand how and where racism shows up in the health system, and implement responsive programs and policy changes to dismantle racism.
- Transform the experience of low-wage earners at Penn Medicine.
How can we best treat health woes that are rooted in social and historical issues? CHJ is working to address racial inequities through efforts rooted in research that include greening neighborhoods, supplying financial support, and empowering community members.
CHJ’s work was featured in Penn Medicine magazine’s fall/winter 2024 issue. Click the button below to view articles that dive into CHJ’s approach, describe key collaborations such as Deeply Rooted and IGNITE, and showcase the team’s connections to the Philadelphia communities that CHJ serves.