Health Equity Collaborative

In April 2016, Loyola University Chicago held its first Health-EQ Conference at the Center for Translational Research and Education on Loyola’s Health Sciences Campus in Maywood. The conference launched a discussion to set the priorities for health disparities initiatives at Loyola. These initiatives are part of the University’s "Plan 2020: Building a More Just, Humane, and Sustainable World", a five-year strategic plan that aims to use its influence to help better society and its surroundings.

Following the conference, leaders across Loyola's campuses set to create goals for health disparities initiatives as part of Plan 2020. One of the most important goals was to establish a “Health Disparities Collaborative” that will direct all of Loyola University Chicago’s health disparities-related education, research, and community partnership projects.

The Health Disparities Collaborative will identify all Health Disparities work already in existence at LUC in the areas of education, research and community partnerships and create a repository with this information. It will conduct research to identify all health disparities” work in education, research and community partnerships that exist across the nation and create a national repository with this information. The collaborative will direct, coordinate and manage all calls for funding health disparities research, education and community partnerships projects with a focus on:

1. Education:
   1. Create a Health Equities undergraduate major/ minor.
   2. Create Health Equity graduate courses.
   3. Establish faculty and student development programs that focus on equity/diversity/ inclusiveness.
2. Research:
   1. Generate knowledge of bio/psycho/social mechanisms that contribute to health disparities.
   2. Investigate innovative strategies that reduce the health impact of adverse physical and/or social environmental exposures.
   3. Develop and test innovative community and clinically based strategies designed to reduce the impact of exposure to an adverse physical and/or social environment on disparities and improve health outcomes.
3. Community Partnerships:
   1. Develop/explore new partnerships and identify/strengthen existing strategic community partnerships to focus on health equity.
   2. Create replicable and sustainable community partnership models that promote heath equity.
   3. Align Loyola’s academic, research and service programs with community partners in order to advance health equity.

Download a list of Projects Funded.