Ruby Mendenhall examines the negative impact of racial discrimination on health and well-being. She discusses how racial stress gets “under the skin” and ways to foster wellness such as supportive relationships, mindfulness and technology (e.g., smart, healing, small and affordable homes/spaces in schools). She will describe a Wellness Store that will be co-designed with high school students and young adults (up to 21 years of age) of color living in neighborhoods with high levels of violence. This talk also discusses the role of structural change in public policies, higher education, public health and healthcare.
Ruby Mendenhall is the Kathryn Lee Baynes Dallenbauch Professor in Liberal Arts and Sciences (Sociology and African American Studies), and she is an Associate Dean for Diversity and Democratization of Health Innovation at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine. Her research examines Black mothers' resiliency and spirituality, and how living in racially segregated neighborhoods with high levels of violence affects their mental and physical health. Recent grants from the National Science Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign support training high school students and adults as Community Health Workers and Citizen Scientists. Mendenhall has written hundreds of poems, including “From Racism to Renaissance” which is co-authored with the Urbana, IL Poet Laureate Ashanti Files.
