Root of the Issue

Government
Health & Fitness
Society & Culture

Social Determinants
Systemic Inequality
Health Equity
Barb Petee
The Root Cause Coalition

Conversations with Health Equity Champions

The Root of the Issue shares the personal and professional journeys of nationally recognized health equity advocates and their work to end disparities in access to healthcare and basic needs in America. Our podcast provides inspiration to become involved in our collective quest for health equity and offers common sense solutions to the underlying injustices that prevent all Americans from living a life of health and well-being.

Credits

Barbara Petee
Paul Woodhull

Root of the Issue Trailer

Barb Petee, the president of The Root Cause Coalition, previews the organization's new podcast highlighting conversations with health equity leaders across the country to provide common sense solutions to the underlying injustices that prevent all Americans from living a life of health and well-being.

Lisa Marsh Ryerson on the Impact of Social Isolation

Lisa Marsh Ryerson, former president of the AARP Foundation, discusses how the health of older Americans is being negatively impacted by social isolation. We know from research that social isolation has very devastating health outcomes,” says Ryerson. “Everyone can take steps to ensure that individuals have a reliable social network and connections to the community resources and supports that help them thrive. [This] has been some of my most important work.”

Ryerson and host Barbara Petee, also examine the importance of optimism when addressing some of the nation’s most pressing health care crises.

Randy Oostra On the Urgent Need for Health Equity in America.

Randy Oostra, the CEO of ProMedica, a nationally-recognized, mission-driven, not-for-profit health and well-being organization with services in more than 25 states, discusses the need to address the social determinants of health in America. Oostra says “We need to call on health organizations to really begin to look at data and really start to make people aware of biases in healthcare. We know many, many, many people can't afford care. What are we doing about it? I would argue, not enough. We're making progress but it can't come fast enough.”

Oostra also told host Barbara Petee, “We have to commit ourselves to a national dialogue to think about the future of health and well-being. It is now time to have a different dialogue, a different discussion. And given what's happened over the last three or four years now is the perfect time to do that.”

Melissa Fox on Caring for Yourself in Order to Care for Others

Melissa Fox is the Chief Operating Officer for Acenda Integrated Health. Acenda is an integrated health care organization dedicated to world-class prevention, treatment and wellness services. Their care is compassionately delivered to ensure that every individual, family and community achieves their greatest potential.

Fox’s dedication to serving communities who are typically denied adequate levels of care and services stems from her childhood. She speaks of the challenges she encountered growing up, “There weren't really good systems in place to help people. When you saw people dying and getting really ill, people just accepted it because there was nowhere to send them and no way to really treat them.”

Inspired by the women role models in her life, including her mother who worked as a nurse, Fox brings a sense of urgency to her work. She says, “The longer we take to get these programs in place and get the communities help, the more people are dying and the more people are hurting and we can't have that on us. So, that's what's really driven me. And that's what continues to drive me every day.”

AARP Foundation’s Emily Allen on Increasing Equitable Outcomes

Emily Allen, the Interim President and Senior Vice-President, Programs, AARP Foundation, discusses their work ending systemic barriers by “focusing on populations that have historically been marginalized or experienced systemic racism and discrimination.”

In addition to relying on strong data sets to guide their work, AARP Foundation also relies heavily on real-time human interaction with the people they are serving to ensure their insights and their input become part of the Foundation’s action plans to create equitable outcomes.

House Rules Chair McGovern on the White House Hunger Summit

Rep. Jim McGovern, a passionate advocate for food equity, joins Root Cause Coalition president Barbara Petee, for an exclusive interview detailing the goals of the upcoming White House Summit on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health.

"One of things that I think will be helpful is the fact that the White House is going to elevate the voices of those with lived experiences," says McGovern. "I think one of the problems we have had in the past is that we talk about initiatives and programs and we throw numbers and statistics and graphs and all kinds of interesting studies. But I think we've lost our human ability to feel what's behind those numbers and statistics."

The 2022 White House Summit on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, will be the first time IN MORE THAN 50 years that the Executive Branch will focus their efforts to "accelerate progress and drive significant change to end hunger, improve nutrition and physical activity, reduce diet-related disease, and close the disparities around them."

Katy Crosby on Creating A Pathway to Generational Wealth Equity

Katy Crosby, Town Manager of Town of Apex, North Carolina, discusses the dire need for a focus on addressing economic wealth as a core to achieving health equity.

“I think your access to wealth or your economic condition really does impact your health,” says Crosby. “So I decided to focus on economic justice. And how do you build wealth? Because I felt like that was the foundation of so many of our life conditions, right? The more wealth that you have, the better health outcomes that you have.”

Michelline Davis on Advocating for Diversity in Medical Professions

Michelline Davis, the president and Chief Executive Officer of National Medical Fellowships, Inc. (NMF), leads her organization's mission of creating greater representation of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in medical professions. By advocating for greater representation in the practice and leadership of healthcare, Davis is working for equity in employment, and as a result, greater health equity in in underserved communities.

“Ensuring that there are more black indigenous persons of color — who are at present underrepresented in medicine — are in leadership at healthcare systems and in healthcare structures across this country [will lead to] administrative operational and clinical decisions that help us to eliminate, not just reduce, health disparities,” says Davis

Health Equity Starts at Home with Ruth Ann Norton

Ruth Ann Norton, President and CEO of the Green and Healthy Homes Initiative (GHHI), joins host Barbara Petee to discuss the importance of a healthy home environment as a determinant to achieving health equity.

“I think we are doing some of the most groundbreaking work on the intersection of climate, healthy housing and healthcare. Helping to inspire healthcare to invest in occupied housing as an incredible opportunity for justice of equity and a path of a high trajectory for low income families to move out of poverty,”

Rachelle Reyes Wenger on the Multifaceted Approach to Tackling Health Inequity

Rachelle Reyes Wenger, System Vice President of Public Policy & Advocacy Engagement for CommonSpirit Health, joins host Barbara Petee to discuss the power of collaboration in the face of seemingly insurmountable societal obstacles. From climate change to social justice reform to health inequity, Rachelle believes that through the determination of many working in lockstep, change is always possible.

“I think what the beauty is about collaborating with so many different folks within the RCC (Root Cause Coalition), is because we have the advantage of not only looking through our own individual lens, but through the lens of others within healthcare and our friends outside of healthcare. Those who are really committed to this work and who have various ways of looking at the problem, I think that's really what's needed and also what Congress needs to hear.”