Des Plaines, Ill. (April 10, 2019) – Noted science writer, editor and ethicist Harriett Washington will present “Building Equity in Health Care” 2 p.m. Friday, April 26, at Oakton Community College’s Des Plaines campus, 1600 E. Golf Road, in Rooms 1604-1606.

Washington is the award-winning author of “Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present.” The 2007 book that chronicles the history of medical experimentation on African Americans received numerous honors, including a National Book Critics Circle Award, the PEN Oakland Award and the American Library Association Black Caucus Nonfiction Award.

“We are very pleased to have a top-caliber speaker such as Harriet coming to Oakton,” says Assistant Professor of Mathematics Mario Borha, a member of Oakton’s Anti-Racism Team. “She will present medical history and its impact on current medical practice. The presentation also includes a discussion of the ways in which current and medical professionals can build equity into their practice to address medical disparities.”

Washington presents her work in the history of medicine to universities throughout the U.S. and Europe. She has been published in a variety of prestigious publications, including “The American Journal of Public Health,” “The New England Journal of Medicine,” “The Harvard Public Health Review” and “The Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics.”

Assistant Professor of Biology Stephanie Blumer adds, “At Oakton, we’re training students for medical careers, and there is notable inequity in how different populations receive medical care, their health outcomes, and their mortality and birth experiences. We want to ensure that our students understand the history behind this disparity and learn practical ways to reduce this inequity moving forward.”

Washington has been a fellow in medical ethics at Harvard Medical School, visiting fellow at the Harvard Medical School, a visiting scholar at DePaul University College of Law and a senior research scholar at the National Center for Bioethics at Tuskegee University. She is also the author of “Infectious Madness: The Surprising Science of How We ‘Catch’ Mental Illness” and “Deadly Monopolies: The Shocking Corporate Takeover of Life Itself – and the Consequences for Your Health and Our Medical Future.”

The lecture is presented by the Oakton Diversity Council, Women’s and Gender Studies, Center for Promoting STEM and Anti-Racism Team with generous funding from the Oakton Educational Foundation.

For more information, call 847-635-1738 or visit www.oakton.edu/academics/special_programs/stem.