Healing Communities: Role of Social Determinants of Health

This session will focus on the importance of understanding the social-economic determinants of health and how these factors impact individual and community health and wellbeing. Social determinants which according to the World Health Organization refer to the “the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age” consist of both upstream and downstream determinants which are critical determinants of overall health and illness in communities. In the United States, health outcomes and inequalities are largely socially patterned across the life span by poverty, unemployment, social exclusion/discrimination, housing and transportation, factors that have deep historical connection to racial/ethnic stratification, racism and unequal distribution of resources and power. Public health strategies and policies that delve into dismantling these root causes of health and illness are likely to be more effective in eliminating health and social inequalities and promoting health equity.

Learning Outcomes:

  • Provide an overview of social determinants of health (connecting the tree to the forest).
  • Discuss the role of social determinants of health on community health and health inequalities.
  • Discuss strategies and importance of considering and addressing social determinants of health in promoting community health and serving populations.

Speaker

Emmanuel Ngui

Emmanuel M. Ngui, DrPH, MSc., is an Associate Professor in Community and Behavioral Health Promotion at the Joseph J. Zilber College of Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He serves as the director of the Master of Public Health (MPH) and the Maternal and Child Health Graduate Certificate and Catalyst Training Program at the Zilber College of Public Health.

Dr. Ngui received his public health doctoral training in Maternal and Child Health from the Gillings School of Global Public at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Before joining the faculty at the Zilber College of Public Health, he was a faculty member in the Department of Pediatrics and the Institute of Health and Society at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

His broad research interests include health inequalities in maternal and child health populations and the role of social determinants of health and paternal engagement in birth outcomes, maternal and child health and wellbeing. This work strives to apply an emancipatory pedagogy in community engaged, epidemiological and health services approaches to research on health equity and population health in reproductive health/birth outcomes and services among children and youth with special health care needs. He has served as the principal investigator of the Milwaukee Fetal and Infant Mortality Review (FIMR) program until 2023 and is currently principal investigator and evaluator of the Making Milwaukee a Lead Safe City project funded through the Wisconsin Partnership Program.