About the host:

Fatou Barry is a second year Master’s in public health student in the school of global public health at New York University. Her interest in global health began as a young girl traveling back and forth to Senegal, West Africa to visit family. “I’ve always been aware of health disparities and their impact in underdeveloped nations, but understood its gravity when I went to Senegal to visit my grandparents in 2021 and saw how the severe shortage of health resources along with the struggles of COVID-19 were impacting people’s lives.” Inspired by this experience, Fatou is completing her practicum with the Boston Congress of Public Health where she conducts research and facilitates conversations about health disparities and cultural competency. In the future, Fatou aspires to work within global health organizations to help improve health services and resources in Senegal and other low-income countries. You can find Fatou spending her spare time cheering for Bayern Munich and cooking for friends and family.

About the Guests:

Mary Crossley is a Professor of Law, John E. Murray Faculty Scholar, and Director of the Health Law Program at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. Widely recognized for her scholarship in disability and health law, Professor Crossley has written broadly on issues of inequality in health care financing and delivery and has published articles in numerous law journals, including Columbia Law Review, Iowa Law Review, and Notre Dame Law Review. She is also the author of Embodied Injustice: Race, Disability, and Health (Cambridge University Press 2022). She teaches courses on Health Law, Health Justice, and Torts.

Crossley was appointed Dean and Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 2005 and served as Dean from 2005-2012, focusing her leadership on initiatives relating to curricular reform, innovation programming, and promoting diversity. She was selected in 2013 as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Public Health Law Scholar in Residence. In 2016, she was elected to the ALI, and in 2020 she was appointed to the Pennsylvania Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Dr. Jessica “Jex” Huang (pronouns: she, they) works with the World Bank Health, Climate, Environment and Disasters Program to research the health impacts of climate change, including injuries from extreme weather events such as cyclones. They have firsthand experience with a range of motion disability that developed after injury, and self-advocated through dozens of medical consultations to get access to corrective surgery, rehabilitative physical therapy, and occupational therapy.

Previously, Jex worked with a burn clinic in Nepal to use human-centered design to help reduce rates of disability and death through a Master’s Program at Stanford University. They received a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) degree from Harvard University and trained in the Boston Inclusion Community of Partners for Youth with Disabilities (PYD).

Often called a mindful troublemaker, Grayson Schultz is an activist, educator, researcher, and writer currently living on the stolen and unceded lands of the Osage and Shawnee tribal nations in southeastern Ohio. From his day job creating DEIB educational content at PowerToFly to projects working with research groups, organizations, and collaboratives, Grayson enjoys focusing on how

we can best advocate for communities that are forcibly, systematically, and continually oppressed. As a transgender, queer, disabled, and neurodivergent human, he is most focused on the topics of LGBTQIA2S+ health and wellbeing, sex education, chronic illness and disability, disparities in healthcare, oppression, systems change, DEIB efforts, and liberation. Grayson also runs Chronic Sex, an award-winning website and podcast focused on discussing living well with disability, including a focus on relationships and sexual health. In his free time, Grayson enjoys cooking, gaming, and renovating his first home with his partner and two helper dogs, Hank and Dean.

About the course:

Approximately 10% of the world's population is considered disabled. Disability is not just a diagnosis. For many people, it’s a culture where well-established beliefs, personalized expressions, and idiosyncratic experiences are shared amongst the community. With many ongoing challenges aside from the diagnosis, disability is a context where many different identities intersect and collide. In this course, you will learn how there are multiple disability communities, as well as unique ways to advocate and support persons with disabilities, regardless of whether you are a healthcare provider or not.

Learning Objectives:

• Understanding the diversity and heterogeneity that exists within disability cultures
• Learning how to be a better advocate for people with disabilities
• Discerning how to provide adaptations and accommodations for people with disabilities

Public Health and Social Justice Topics Covered:

• Disability Health