By Elizabeth Wells, UC Health For Omar Morales-Haro, pursuing a public health degree while training to be a doctor just made sense. “When we’re in the business of helping people improve their health, we should be taking a step back and evaluating the systems in which we practice,” he said. Omar just graduated from UC Irvine ...

By Dianne Anderson For Quinton Smith, the thing that keeps him motivated also keeps him up at night – that a hair cell, a human cell, a fat cell, can be reprogrammed to its embryonic state with the possibility of turning that cell into any cell type is nothing short of mind blowing. “The idea ...

By Dianne Anderson Some Netflix armchair scientists may be happy to learn that, at least theoretically, Afrofuturism is cutting edge and already here. Ronke Olabisi doesn’t just celebrate Black History Month – she is Black history in the making. She imagines a vast universe of possibilities through tissue regeneration, skin and bone, and more, but ...

By Dianne Anderson Black moms dying three to four times more than white moms during the birthing process, and Black babies dying over twice as much as white babies before their first birthday, is not a medical mystery for nurse Shamiesha Ebhotemen. Black health professionals, although distressed, are not surprised. “The thing is, as a ...

By Dianne Anderson Long before race bias in health systems was trending, Ernesta Wright was pushing advocacy, trying to debunk some of the myths that keep the community from getting the healthcare they need. Then and now, her concern was to bring the facts to the community for informed decision-making, and learn the best options ...

By Dianne Anderson In just 22 years, people of color are projected to become the majority of Americans, even though the medical field nowhere near reflects that level of diversity in nursing, especially for Black nurses. At last count, the Registered Nurse workforce was made up of 80.6% White, 6.7% African American; 7.2% Asian and ...

If early African American classical music composers such as Scott Joplin, who went bankrupt trying to promote his 1911 opera “Treemonisha,” had been better received by white audiences – particularly philanthropists – the history of American music might be much different than it is today.   In the early 20th century, up to and including the ...

By Dianne Anderson Whatever the health equity category, the Black community continues at two to three times more likely to die than whites, which is prompting more research to show that it’s not by accident, but more by design. Disparities across healthcare for Black patients over the decades is not an unfamiliar conversation for Dr. ...

By Dianne Anderson As far as definitions go, at various points in history slavery was considered legal, as was Jim Crow “colored only” access, voting restrictions, lynchings targeting Blacks, and segregated schools and jobs. Students at the University of California, Irvine School of Law will soon be mulling over such erudite questions around societal law, ...

by Lilibeth Garcia, UCI UCI program serves as a support network for students without one For students new to UCI, the enormity of the campus, the vast variety of resources and the quick pacing of the quarter system can be intimidating. They often rely on a network of friends and family members for help adapting ...