A PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN AND CARLE HEALTH
September 27, 2021

PRIDE Festival: Carle Illinois Students Host Health Booth

  • By Ryann Monahan

Carle Illinois College of Medicine students participated in the 2021 Champaign-Urbana Pride Festival Saturday, September 25th in Urbana, Illinois. Carle Illinois students checked dozens of festival attendees’ vitals and offered information affirming LGBTQ+ health care in the community. Carle Illinois’ participation in the event was led by the Carle Illinois PRIDE student group. The C-U Pride Festival was hosted by the Uniting Pride (UP) Center of Champaign County and themed “What the Health? Fighting. Surviving. […]

Read More
REACH and SpHERES program header
August 19, 2021

Carle Illinois’ Summer Outreach Programs Link Youth Scientists with World-Class Health Research, Mentors

  • By Beth Hart

Carle Illinois College of Medicine is giving high school and college students from underrepresented groups exposure to research experience on health topics ranging from cancer and tissue engineering, to documenting the health effects of the COVID-19. Carle Illinois’ summer REACH program for undergraduate students and the SpHERES (Sparking High Schoolers’ Excitement for Research in Engineering and Science) provide learning and research opportunities to students from groups that are underrepresented in medicine, science, and engineering. The […]

Read More
August 11, 2021

New Carle Illinois Grant to Foster Health Equity Among Chicago Youth

  • By Ryann Monahan

A new grant will help reduce disparities in healthcare through a unique new training program led by Carle Illinois College of Medicine’s Ruby Mendenhall. The programming will create a culture of innovation that centers around the health and wellness of mostly Black and Latinx high school students and young adults living in Chicago. With the $500,000 MacArthur Foundation grant, Mendenhall and her research team will create programming and wellness tools, including art, to foster healing […]

Read More
June 18, 2021

Healing Racial Trauma: Researchers offer framework for healing injured communities

  • By Carle Illinois College of Medicine

A series of traumatic and racially charged events this past year had profound and lasting effects on individuals and communities of color. The murder of George Floyd in June 2020 and numerous other acts of violence left deep wounds, compounding a history of racism and discrimination impacting Americans of African and Asian descent and the communities where they live. Dr. Carla Desi-Ann Hunter, psychologist and co-author of a multidisciplinary paper, “Community Healing and Resistance Through […]

Read More
June 7, 2021

Carle Illinois’ Med Student Vaccination Outreach in Underserved Communities

  • By Ryann Monahan

Carle Illinois College of Medicine students are launching new outreach efforts in culturally diverse and low-income communities to answer questions about the COVID-19 vaccine, and then administer the vaccine to those who would like to receive it. For students like Aaron Brown, the efforts are deeply personal. He saw firsthand how the pandemic ravaged communities from Champaign County to his home community in Virginia. The stories of sadness and loss were debilitating to him.  “After […]

Read More
June 3, 2021

Expert Viewpoint: Why do we need a health care equity law?

  • By Beth Hart

On April 27, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed House Bill 158, a health care equity bill sponsored by the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus, making law the Illinois Health Care and Human Services Reform Act. In drafting the bill, the caucus consulted with Ruby Mendenhall, an Illinois professor of African American studies and sociology and assistant dean for diversity and democratization of health innovation at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine. Mendenhall has researched health care disparities and […]

Read More
April 21, 2021

Carle Illinois Assistant Dean, student organization honored for work on diversity issues

  • By Beth Hart

Carle Illinois College of Medicine Assistant Dean for Diversity and Inclusion Ruby Mendenhall is being honored for advancing the cause of diversity. Dr. Mendenhall was honored in the Outstanding Faculty and Staff category of the 9th Annual Diversity and Social Justice Education Awards presented by the Office of Inclusion and Intercultural Relations at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She was nominated for the award by Carle Illinois student Kitan Akinosho. The awards recognize members of […]

Read More
April 16, 2021

Vaccine Advocacy PSA from Carle Illinois College of Medicine

  • By Ryann Monahan

 Carle Illinois College of Medicine students are helping answer questions about and advocate for the COVID-19 vaccine through a new vaccine public service announcement (PSA). A Spanish version of the vaccine advocacy PSA can be found on YouTube and Illinois Media Space.

Read More
March 18, 2021

Health experts address rise in attacks against Asians in the U.S.

  • By Beth Hart

The alarming rise in racism, violence, and harassment against Asian American Pacific Islanders (AAPIs), exacerbated this past year by the COVID-19 pandemic, is leaving short- and long-term impacts on public health in its wake. Over 3,000 cases of COVID-19-related hate and violence against individuals of Asian descent have been reported in the United States since March 2020, according to Asian Americans Advancing Justice–Los Angeles. Carle Illinois College of Medicine explores the recent discrimination and attacks, […]

Read More
March 12, 2021

‘Hunker down’ stress genes boosted in women who live in violent neighborhoods

  • By Ryann Monahan

The chronic stress of living in neighborhoods with high rates of violence and poverty alters gene activity in immune cells, according to a new study of low-income single Black mothers on the South Side of Chicago. The changes in stress-related gene expression reflect the body’s “hunker down” response to long-term threat, a physiological strategy for lying low and considering new actions rather than launching an immediate “fight-or-flight” response. This has implications for health outcomes in […]

Read More