Cobb & Company: Leadership & Mentorship in Addressing Health Disparities

20. Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Health Legacy: From Civil Rights to COVID-19 Action

OVERVIEW: This episode honors the life and legacy of Reverend Jesse L. Jackson Sr., featuring Dr. Randall C. Morgan Jr., President, Montague Cobb Institute, with Dr. Roger Mitchell Jr. and Dr. Leon McDougall reflecting on his leadership and lasting influence on health justice.
Speakers discuss Reverend Jackson’s strategic vision—his 10-point plan and the COVID-19 Public Health Manifesto—his advocacy for universal healthcare, attention to vulnerable groups (incarcerated people, public-transportation users, student-athletes), and his role in strengthening community health centers and FQHCs.
The conversation ends with a call to action: deepen the NMA–Rainbow PUSH partnership, mobilize community-based care and mobile clinics, and invest in young Black scholars and leaders to carry forward Jackson’s work for health equity.
DETAILS: Rev. Jackson was often described as a “Drum Major for Justice,” and throughout his life he challenged institutions and individuals alike to expand the promise of democracy and opportunity to all people. His leadership consistently emphasized that access to healthcare, education, and economic opportunity are fundamental pillars of justice.
The National Medical Association and the Cobb Institute were privileged to benefit from Rev. Jackson’s insight, advocacy, and direct engagement over many years. His strategic counsel and moral clarity helped inspire initiatives that advanced health equity and strengthened the voice of Black physicians and health professionals. To reflect on this legacy, Dr. Randall C. Morgan Jr., MD, MBA, former 95th President of the National Medical Association, convened a discussion recorded on February 24, 2026, joined by Dr. Roger Mitchell Jr., 126th President of the National Medical Association, and Dr. Leon McDougle, 121st President of the National Medical Association. Together they share reflections on Rev. Jackson’s influence on the National Medical Association, the broader struggle for health justice, and the continuing work required to ensure that healthcare is an attainable right for all, not a privilege for a few.
Rev. Jackson’s vision extended far beyond any single movement or moment in time. He called upon leaders across professions—including physicians, researchers, and public health advocates—to serve their communities with courage, compassion, and determination.
As we reflect upon his life, the Cobb Institute and the National Medical Association reaffirm our commitment to the ideals he championed: justice, dignity, opportunity, and health equity for every community. We invite you to watch (YouTube) and share this tribute as we honor the life and legacy of Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.
Video version on Cobb Website: https://www.thecobbinstitute.org/webinar-series 
 

19. When Minutes Matter: Dr. Selwyn Rogers on Ending Chicago’s South Side Trauma Desert and Disrupting Cycles of Violence

Dr. Selwyn Rogers Jr. recounts his journey to establish an adult Level I trauma center at the University of Chicago Medicine, driven by high-profile tragedies, community advocacy, and a vision to treat trauma as a chronic public-health issue rather than a single event.
He describes the center’s launch, the role of hospital systems and community partnerships, hospital-based violence prevention, and the broader social determinants that shape health and life expectancy on Chicago’s South Side.
Further reading: Hope — Beyond Firearm Trauma in NEJMAuthor: Selwyn O. Rogers, Jr., M.D., M.P.H. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2214971 
Biography 
Selwyn O. Rogers Jr., MD, MPH, FACS, is a widely respected surgeon and public health expert. As founding director of the University of Chicago Medicine Trauma Center, Dr. Rogers is building an interdisciplinary team of specialists to treat patients who suffer injury from life-threatening events, such as car crashes, serious falls and gun violence. His team works with leaders in the city's trauma network to expand trauma care on the South Side.
Dr. Rogers has served in leadership capacities at health centers across the country, including most recently as vice president and chief medical officer for the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Dr. Rogers has also served as the chair of surgery at Temple University School of Medicine and as the division chief of trauma, burns and surgical critical care at Harvard Medical School. While at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), he helped launch the Center for Surgery and Public Health to understand the nature, quality and utilization of surgical care nationally and internationally. Additionally, as executive vice president for community health engagement, Dr. Rogers works with faculty across the University of Chicago as well as members of the community to develop a multidisciplinary approach to trauma care and health disparities. His work will help enhance the understanding of social factors that affect victims of violence and underserved populations, in addition to identifying approaches necessary to achieving better outcomes for trauma victims.
Dr. Rogers' clinical and research interests focus on understanding the healthcare needs of underserved populations. He has published numerous articles relating to health disparities and the impact of race and ethnicity on surgical outcomes.
Transcript
My name is Dr. Selwyn Rogers, Jr. I serve as a founding director of the Adult Trauma Center at the University of Chicago Medicine.
As with any talk or speech to any audience, it's both important for the speaker to know the audience, but it's very helpful for the audience to know the speaker.
For those in podcast land, you can't see me, so let me give you a few descriptors of what you'd be seeing if I was in a room with you. You'll be seeing a 6'4 black male who is cisgender, happily married, father of three African-American sons, a birthright citizen of the United States of America, who has a son who's gay, and a sister who's transgender. Those are descriptors of categories, of definitions of who Selwyn Rogers is, but they're only small descriptors. At a cocktail party, if I was to introduce myself, I would say I'm a trauma surgeon, which is what I do.
I was compelled to join the University of Chicago Medicine eight years ago, leaving a very cozy life as a chief medical officer in Galveston, Texas, where I served as the chief medical officer with a beach house and a very comfortable living. And I was asked to consider standing up an adult level one trauma center on the south side of Chicago at the University of Chicago. Now, many people have been to the city of Chicago as I have been, but I actually had never stopped to think about the fact that there was no adult level one trauma center on the south side of Chicago. It had actually never crossed my mind. And so when I was first being wooed, invited. Recruited, I thought long and hard, and my kids are very wise, they said, Dad, do you want to work that hard? You seem pretty comfortable right now. And as I reflected on the question and their point of view, it came to me that at the age of 50, which is what I was eight years ago, I had done several things that were, if you will, significant. But at that point in my life, I was very eager to do something of significance. And that's what brought me to the University of Chicago Medicine, to stand up in adult Leavenworth Trauma Center.
Now, the story of an adult trauma center, I'm going to share with you. A allegory around one of the greatest improvisational jazz artists of all time, the great Miles Davis. And Miles was a bad dude, and bad in a good way, if you will, as the kids would say. And they probably would say something else, like he was a bad, I'm not gonna say that, mother, father. And in the summer, specifically August of 1959, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Bill Evans got together and over a very short window of time, produced, created the greatest jazz album of all time, Kind of Blue. Now, not everyone may love jazz music, one of America's original music forms. But that album in particular is special. And I had the opportunity on vacation just a few weeks ago to read a biography of that event, the creation of Kind of Blue album. And the name of the book is Three Shades of Blue. The author did an incredible job talking about before, talking about the event of creation of the album, and talking about after. And the highlight, because of the greatness of Miles, but also the greatness of John Coltrane, the greatness of Bill Evans, there was a lot of stories about Miles Davis. And I'd always been a fan of Miles Davis music, But this gave me an opportunity to understand Miles Davis, the person. And over the course of his lifetime of constant reinvention, he was kind of a hard person to please, a bit of a perfectionist is how he's defined. And he was never satisfied with what he had done. He was always looking to do something next. And along the way he gave a lot of interviews and made a lot of statements and one in particular has always stuck with me and that will be a theme about telling the story of the launch of the adult trauma center at the university of chicago medicine on chicago's south side And the story that Miles tells is that if you hear a note, that's just an event. It's the next note that matters. And that's a very powerful metaphor in my mind about trauma in general.
All of our lives are affected by trauma. Small trauma, big trauma, but trauma nonetheless. And we often think about trauma as physical injury. A fist, a bat, a bullet, a knife, a sword. Machete, whatever, that creates physical damage to the body. And the consequences of the physical damage is harm to an organ, harm to a limb, or potentially loss of life. And we often talk about trauma in a very binary way, alive or dead. But trauma is so much more complicated than that. And so without telling stories, and stories are powerful, it's hard to understand the full scope of trauma or the creation of a trauma center. And no story about trauma in the city of Chicago can be told without telling the story of Benjamin Benji Wilson.
Benji, as he was fondly called, was an 18-year-old black male teenager who was destined to be the number one pick in the subsequent years NBA draft. When he was a star player at Simeon Rice High School here in the state of Chicago on the outside, a school that's produced numerous NBA players, he had, at the time, one of the first definitions of positionless basketball. For those who don't follow basketball, every team at any given time only has five players in organized basketball. The five players have very distinct roles because most players can do one or two things, but not everything. Benji was an exception. Benji could do everything. He was good with the rock, as they say. He had a great handle. He could play point guard at 6'8", 220 pounds. He was a great shooter, so he could play shooting guard. He was pretty quick, so he can defend just about any other team's best player so he can play small forward. He was also a very magnificent rebounder, which is often the role of the power forward. And he could defend and protect the basket given the size and his abilities so he could play center. So he could play every position. And on the counter, not everyone could play him. So it was an imbalance of an individual who can play any position, defend any person on the opposing team. Benji Wilson had incredible ability on the basketball court to improvise. He was not, if you will, a one-trick pony or only had one set of skills that were not adaptable. He was highly adaptable on the court. And we see it today with some players who have that ability to, if you will, play any position. And more and more players who traditionally are tall, they look like they should be centers and rebounders, are now playing point guard. Probably the first person who broke that mole was Magic Johnson and his ability to play point guard given his size at 6'9 and play center and all the things that Magic Johnson has done. More and more players have been able to do that. You know, someone like Kevin Durant, who is 6'11", 6'10 and shoots the lights out like a shooting guard. It's truly remarkable that the skill set of some of the biggest players have also just incredibly grown over time. And some of the younger players, like someone senior in high school, can make a jump from high school like LeBron James to the NBA because of their skill set.
But back in 1984, unfortunately, Benji left school with his girlfriend at the time, the mother of his baby, their baby, together. And Benji, paying attention to his girlfriend, talking to each other, bumped into a kid walking into a store. And the kid was another 18-year-old teenager on the south side, Mr. Moore. 18 year old kid bumps into him that should have been nothing more and sorry man I bumped into you. That escalated, and you have a 6'8", 220-pound, incredible athlete hovering over you, and Mr. Moore felt threatened. The details only Mr. Moore knows for sure, but he pulled out a gun and shot Benji twice. And Benji lay bleeding to death on the streets on the south side of Chicago. It took about a half an hour before EMS, Emerging Medical Services, arrived, transported Benji to a community hospital, unfortunately not a trauma center. And it took hours before a surgeon was available in the hospital and subsequently went to the operating room and Benji Wilson died November 21st, 1984. About 10,000 people came to his funeral because that's how well-known Benji Wilson was. Contacts around the same time, another favorite son of the city of Chicago, Chicago's first black mayor, Harold Washington, also died that Thanksgiving season. There was not a lot to be thankful for that particular season.
Because of the high visibility of Benji's death, the city of Chicago and Illinois Department of Public Health changed the rules around what needed to happen for the most severely injured person. They needed to be transported as quickly as possible since time matters to the nearest trauma center. In Illinois, we divide adult versus children hospital by the age 16. So if you're 16 and under, you go to a pediatric trauma center. If you're 16 and over, you go to an adult trauma center. Obviously, there's some 16-year-olds who look like they're 20, and there's some 20-year-olds who look like they're 15. So there can be a little vagary around the cutoff. But in general, those are the age cutoffs. Because of Benji's visibility and the fact that he was projected as a number one draft pick a year from now, he had had all of the opportunities to go to premier NCAA Division I schools, Indiana, DePaul, Illinois. And he was going to then play for a year and likely be one and done and go to the NBA and make millions. And Benji would change the life for not just him, not just the mother of his child, but his entire family. And that was snuffed out the day that Benji died.
Because of the rule change, many things changed. Benji died in 1984. At the time, the University of Chicago Medicine was both a pediatric and adult trauma center for two dominant reasons. The first was financial. Lots of financial losses from taking care of mostly uninsured young men who were shot on the South Side and capacity. The hospital was always full, and so the University of Chicago Medicine elected to close their adult trauma center. At the time, there was another trauma center on the south side, Michael Reese Hospital, which was a busy community hospital that had a trauma center. They got purchased by a private equity firm. And in 1991, the decision was made there to close their adult trauma center. And so since 1991, there was no adult trauma center proximate to the south side of Chicago. The counter argument about those closures was that there were several other adult trauma centers throughout the city of Chicago. But for those who don't know Chicago as a city, it's a city of about 3 million people. That covers a very large footprint. We often talk about Chicago by its geography. There's South Chicago, the South Side. There's North Chicago. And there's West Chicago. East Chicago is not in Chicago because east of the city of Chicago is Lake Michigan. We also divide Chicago into the loop, or if you will, the central core of the city of Chicago. And the loop is where all the skyscrapers are, financial district, communities like Streetaville, where the Bean is, for those who have ever been to the city of Chicago, the Art Institute. All the tourist things that people think when they see a postcard of the city of Chicago are in the loop of Chicago. But Chicago is a large city with a large number of people that covers a vast geographic footprint and is a city of 77 neighborhoods that all have a slightly different flavor.
One of the factors that then happened next also involves an 18-year-old black male teenager. So fast forward, and for context, I just gave you a mild marker, 1984. There's another mild marker of 1989 to 1991 when two adult level one trauma centers on the south side closed. And there was no adult trauma center on the south side since 1991. So if you're severely injured, bad motor vehicle collision, stab wound, gunshot wound on the south side, you'd be transported. To the core or the loop of Chicago to Northwestern, or you'd be transferred to the west side of Chicago, or you would potentially go southwest to one of the advocate hospitals. But there's nothing on the south side specifically.
Picking up on the point about geography, when Martin Luther King Jr. Visited the city of Chicago, and he actually did a little experiment where in the west side of Chicago, he actually moved he and his family to the city of Chicago to bring forth concerns about housing inadequacy and segregation in the city of Chicago. And I can't remember the exact quote. Those who quickly can Google or chat GPT can find it. But he said that he thought back then in the early 60s, Chicago was the most segregated city in America. The segregation in the city of Chicago is largely, sadly, structural and historical. Red lining, the practice of assigning high interest rates for certain communities, mostly black and poor, at higher risk, meant that the housing stock in much of South Chicago by interest rates was more expensive and harder to secure compared to other parts of the city. And those were structural decisions that reinforced income inequality and reinforced segregation in the city of Chicago.
That's the backdrop in which Damian Turner, this second black male teenager, was advocating as a youth activist for social justice. In his leadership of a youth group called Fearless Leading by the Youth Fly, he pushed and led efforts around housing justice, housing equality. Among other things that were structurally unequal in the city of Chicago, especially on the south side of Chicago, which is where he lived. The life of Benji Wilson and the life of Damian Turner intersects in this moment because when Benji died and taken to the nearest community hospital that was not a trauma center, rule change meant that anyone who was injured and brought by Immersed Medical Services or Chicago Fire Department. They would have to take severely injured patients to the nearest trauma hospital, not the nearest hospital. Damian Turner was shot four blocks from the University of Chicago Medicine Hospital, a hospital that does liver transplants, cardiac surgery, complex cancer surgery, delivers babies, had a pediatric trauma center. But because Damien Turner was 18, even though he was only four blocks when he got shot from the doorsteps of the University of Chicago Medicine, he was transported eight miles north to Northwestern where he arrived and was pronounced dead. With trauma, the most severe physical trauma, the trauma that damages blood vessels, damages whole organs, time matters. Minutes matter. and someone who is most severely injured with a bleeding blood vessel without pressure on that blood vessel to staunch the bleeding, you have minutes before you effectively bleed out and die. And so the absence of an adult trauma center on the South Side, more likely than not, has led to some deaths that may have been preventable. And the community rallied around Damian Turner's death and advocated, petitioned nonviolent protests that unfortunately on occasion led to some violent interactions, pushed for a trauma center on the South Side. And because there's only one academic medical center on the south side, the University of Chicago, many community hospitals, there was no other clear, if you will, winner of which hospital would be best equipped to become an adult trauma center.
And I need to make a distinction here between emergency medicine or the ER, emergency room, and a trauma center. It is my running joke with... Friends and family and people I meet that the show ER with George Clooney ruined my life because I joke that people conflate a trauma center with an ER. And an ER is a place. It's a place where people come who are acutely ill of a whole host of things. Some could be trauma, some could be a heart attack, some could be a stroke. And unfortunately, some people may use the ER for their primary care needs because they don't have a primary care doctor. But trauma center is not a place. It's a system of care that just happens to use the ER as the most common portal of entry. But that system of care touches all parts of the hospital. Touches the ER, touches the operating room, touches the interventional radiology suite. It touches the angiography suite, touches the intensive care unit. In terms of staff, it touches trauma surgeons, orthopedic surgeons, anesthesiologists, a wide swath of nursing, social workers, sadly, the morgue. It touches every aspect of the hospital. And trauma care in a trauma center is basically about creating systems of care to meet the needs of critically injured patients 24-7 every minute of every day, of every week, of every year. That's what trauma centers do, both here in Chicago, Baltimore, Los Angeles, throughout the country, throughout the world. And it's that creation of trauma care that the community pushed and advocated for. The journey wasn't easy, and the counter-arguments were myriad. But ultimately, in 2016, the University of Chicago Medicine elected to move in the direction of doing both feasibility studies and ultimately made the decision to move forward with the launch, or relaunch of an adult trauma center on the south side of Chicago. And that's when I'd come in.
I got the call to consider the opportunity to come and stand up an adult trauma center at the University of Chicago on the south side of Chicago in January of 16. And I remember it pretty well because I was in my office as the chief medical officer at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. And the person who called me, that's Jeff Matthews, I had known from our mutual days in Boston. And so it wasn't a cold call. It was a call from a friend and my first response with the call was why are you calling me i have a pretty comfortable life here in gallows i have a beach house i go to the beach i see the sunrise every morning i i'm running half marathons i'm i'm living my best life however as i reflected over the next several months and reflected with my girlfriend at the time, fiance. Right around the time that we mutually made the decision to make this move as a family, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to do something of significance. And standing up an adult trauma center in a trauma a desert was of significance. And that is what I've been doing the past seven years now, and I've truly found my calling.
The question of standing up an adult trauma center de novo from scratch in terms of the planning, there were so many components to putting that together. And because I'd worked in five different adult trauma centers over my career, in some ways I had a lot of knowledge, but I didn't understand the context. I'd never lived in Chicago. I'd never worked at the University of Chicago. So building those relationships were essential. But the component parts were clear. You had to have a functional, large enough emergency room. And so that was built. A new emergency room was built with spaces and a trauma bay for triage of traumatically injured patients. That's just a place. You also need people because it was not a trauma center. There was no need for orthopedic traumatologists. There was no need for trauma surgeons. And so we had to build and recruit a team of people dedicated to the care of critically injured patients. But then having people in a place doesn't actually create a trauma center. It's necessary but not sufficient. The next piece was largely around creation of policies, procedures, simulation, training, all of those exercises in preparation for the launch. All of that took, a year and a half. I arrived January of 2017. And as I did a needs assessment, where are we now? Where do we need to go to close the gap? We jointly, myself, hospital administration, hospital leadership, made the decision to set May 1, 2018 as the target date for opening our Adult Level 1 Trauma Center.
As a bit of a funny aside, as someone who's very goal-oriented, one of the reasons why I chose a career in trauma surgery is I have always run towards chaos. My idea of medicine is to take the chaos and create order out of it. To do that, you have to have a vision about where you're going to go, and you have to have expert execution to get there. And when someone is traumatically injured from a fall of 30 feet or multiple gunshot wounds, you have to have a plan. You have to execute that plan. Developing an adult trauma center was all of that and some on steroids. Steroids, anabolic steroids, large doses of steroids, because there were many pieces and many moving parts that had to sync together like a symphony in order to end up with a functional adult trauma center. But one of the funny things I did as a motivating, and people got a little annoyed about it when I got to day 100, I would start every meeting with, okay, today's day one. Today is day five. Today is day 20. Today is day 87. When I got to the hundreds, people said, could you stop that now? And all I was trying to do is reinforce time is ticking. We have to make decisions. We have to execute plans because if we have a deadline of May 1st, 2018, if we don't keep pushing. This is not a cramming exercise. You have to plan all the way through to the very end. And we opened on time with all those pieces in place. But in classic fashion, I think it was Mike Tyson who said, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. And the point there being is no matter how well planned you are, there are contingencies that you just can't plan for. And so we effectively were flying the plane while still building it. And through iteration, through feedback, through reflection, we continuously improved, which is what most trauma centers do. But the context in which we were doing it was intense because we were projected to be at 3,000, which is a moderate-sized people activation trauma center. What do I mean by activation? Patient is injured. They're brought by plane, train, automobile. Helicopter, police car, fire, firefighters, Chicago Fire Department, private car, walk-in. Whatever that number is, however they get there, we were projected to be about a 3,000-per-year trauma center. We are a 6,000-plus-per-year trauma center. So we're double what was projected. Part of that is driven by the fact that we've had significant growth of traumatic injuries over this time period, and no one could have predicted in 2018 that there would be a worldwide pandemic in 2020 for which so much disruption of social connections would also lead to a significant spike. And violence. And that happened throughout the United States. And we had to absorb that. Trauma centers don't get to say, we're closing the door for business today. We have to be ready all the time. And so that's another feature of trauma centers, adaptability, no matter what the crisis may be. Because you have to adapt to the routine, but you also have to adapt to the mass shooting. And that's what trauma centers do throughout the United States.
One of the important features of Trauma Center distinctly was built into the Trauma Center at the University of Chicago, largely driven by the community. I was very intentional about being in the community, since I wasn't from the community on south side and i left my cozy office and went into the community to understand the community to listen to the community to build partnerships with community members, and so by going to town halls and town fairs and churches i. Got enough of a relationship to build trust, to be able to listen attentively and shut my mouth so I could understand what I was hearing and affect procedures and programs within the trauma center. So one of the dominant things that the community said is having an adult trauma center is necessary, but not sufficient. And the trauma center needs to also think about prevention and risk mitigation. And that can be daunting. With my public health background, we often think of prevention in two different buckets. There is secondary prevention. That is, something has already happened. A gunshot wound has happened to a person. What happens next, going back to Miles Davis, is not the event. It's not the note. It's what happens next. The next note is what matters. So hospital-based violence prevention programs have been shown to reduce re-injury, to positively affect people's lives and to connect people with services that are community-based. The other arm of prevention is primary prevention. How do you prevent people from being injured in the first place? And I've always had a aspiration that trauma centers should aim for primary prevention because the best trauma center is one that's open for business 24-7 that no one ever needs. And we're not there yet. We're a long way off. But the analogy in other forms of disease, for example, heart disease, you will never be allowed in any hospital in the United States to come into the hospital with acute myocardial infarction or acute heart attack and get a coronary stent that opens up the blood vessels and get blood thinners to keep the blood vessels open and then not have your hypertension. Your uncontrolled diabetes, your smoking, your sedentary lifestyle, or your high cholesterol addressed, i.e., those are the risk factors for recurrent myocardial infarctions. And in many trauma centers across the country, just because that's how we've done it, we treat trauma as episodic, a single event, but we don't look at it as a life course. We don't look at trauma as a chronic condition. And in many ways, trauma is a chronic condition driven largely by the social determinants of health. The same drivers of health around heart disease, diabetes, end-stage renal disease, cancer, those same drivers where you live, work, play, and pray affect health outcomes more strongly than someone's ability as a doctor to convince someone to take a pill for their high blood pressure. Some calculations say about 80% of the people's health is driven by where they live. And so the RAND Corporation did this study and made the startling comment or conclusion, startling conclusion. If I know your zip code, I can tell your life expectancy. And sadly, here in Chicago, that's also true. So I mentioned the loop of Chicago, which is where Streetaville is. If you live in Streetaville, your average life expectancy is 85 years of age. If you live in Washington Park, which is right in the community where the hospital, University of Chicago Medicine that I work at, is your average life expectancy is 69 years of age. That's 16 years of life lived difference. Separated by eight miles of geography, seven stops on the L train. And those type of geographic disparities by where people live in life expectancy, which is a pretty hard outcome, are duplicated in St. Louis, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, throughout the country. And there's no simple prescription of moving people from one community to the next.
I have to add that communities in which people live are also assets. So from an asset perspective, when you live in a community where you know your neighbors and your neighbors look out for you, and if a kid is sick. Someone, and you have to go to work, someone down the block will look at your kid for you that you trust. If you're running late because your car broke down, someone in your community will give you a ride. If you take that person, transplant them to another community where they don't have any connection, don't have any social capital, it's not the same. And we are all social creatures. So we need that human connection. COVID magnified that. And I think we can't ignore that even when there's structural violence over decades, chronic disinvestment in some communities, poor schools that are tied to tax bases, that are tied to housing prices. And one community that's already endowed gets more and another community that's disenfranchised gets less and the cycle repeats itself over and over again. We can't ignore that many of the things that are happening, the events are happening in a larger context. And that context is one of the things that we are trying and several hospitals are trying, like Dungeons and now hospitals are trying to develop hospital-based violence intervention programs that try to do two things, broadly speaking. The first is interrupt retaliatory violence. If someone is hurt and they're connected to a group of people that sometimes they go back to third grade, fifth grade, and that's your clique or your group or your peoples, rules. Hurt people hurt people. And so that cycle gets repeated by one group hurting another group because someone in one group was hurt. Street outreach workers, community violence interventionalists, community violence ecosystem prevention focuses on interrupting these cycles of violence. The other large fact is that social drivers of violence. And the social drivers are things that are hard to change, but we know they're highly impactful. Impact of poverty, racism, impact of poor economic opportunities, impact of poor educational access, impact of access to health systems, economic instability, lack of agency. I'm always amazed that I have access, physician, as a leader. If I needed to contact my state senator, that's a phone call. If I needed to email the governor, that may be a little bit harder, but I could get there, if you will, two degrees of separation. But for my patients, they're often voiceless. They don't have a way to get to a leader, an alderman, a state senator, or the governor. And one of the things that I've taken on as a passion is to try the best I can to use my privilege to give voice to the voiceless. And that could take the form of testimonials. That could take the form of opinion pieces. That could take the form of writing, speaking. And that could take the form of going to a third grade class and giving kids exposure to a surgeon who looks like them. And those are, if you will, the. Extra parts of my job that fuels me and gives me hope after the bad days.
Right now, we're taping this on a Saturday morning, and I'm not on call. I'm obviously dressed in a suit and tie at the National Medical Association conference. I'm still a practicing trauma surgeon. I was on trauma call last week, knowing that the National Medical Association this week. I scheduled myself, so I am off for the meetings and being able to attend without concern that I'm going to be pulled back to the hospital. But my colleagues, my partners, were faced this morning at 6.30 with a 25-year-old multiple gushed wounds, a 30-year-old multiple gushed wounds, and a 38-year-old all men, all black on the south side of Chicago, who are all three, as we speak, in the operating room having life-saving surgery. I'm not sure the counterfactual would be true that those three men would still be alive had there not been a trauma center at the University of Chicago Medicine. And that was the advocacy that the communities on the South Side, groups like Phyllis leading by the Ute, Stop South Side together, Organizing for Power, COCO, Urban League. There are so many organized groups, students, including University of Chicago students, clergy, faith healers, faith leaders all working together as a coalition around trauma center now and their efforts are largely reason why i'm here doing my life's calling.
I am pathologically optimistic. And it's not that I am ignoring the moment. And a whole bunch of people are likely going to be hurt because of various policies that on the surface may have some potential upside, smaller government. You name all the rational reasons why these approaches are being moved forward. The challenge, though, especially around issues of equity, I view equity, especially health equity, as a justice issue, as a fairness issue. And the analogy I would make is, if we are running a race, depending on your natural abilities, it would be ideal if the backpack that's on your back when you're running this race weighs the same. If the goal is to win said race. Now, I'm simplifying this because life is a lot more complicated than running a race. But the point being, when people are historically disadvantaged, when I attend a school that doesn't have AP classes and has less well-equipped teachers and there is no... Physical labs in the school for science education. And I'm in a context where because of the community that I am living in, surrounded by violence, how can I have a future orientation that I'm going to go to school, study hard, delay gratification, go to college. Study hard, delayed gratification, go to graduate school or professional school, and then be in a position where I could have a career that's going to provide fulfillment, financial, personal, over the course of a life, how do you then think about that if you think that you're not going to live past 25? Or you're surrounded by scarcity and you can't conceive that you can go to college. It's a mindset issue. And it's a mindset issue that I think if we actually didn't other others, and you can imagine what would your life be like if that was your starting line with a backpack that weighs you down, could you actually run the same race that you're currently running?

18. When Algorithms Hurt: Guiding Principles for Tackling AI Bias in Healthcare with Dr. Marshall Chin

In this episode Dr. Marshall Chin discusses how AI and predictive algorithms are reshaping healthcare, and how bias can harm marginalized patients. He explains real-world examples of racial bias in clinical tools, the challenges of opaque “black box” models, and the need for transparency.
Dr. Chin outlines five guiding principles—problem choice, data quality, explainability, community involvement, and accountability—to ensure algorithms promote equity rather than entrench injustice.
Dr. Marshall Chin, MD, MPH, is a general internist with extensive experience improving the care of vulnerable patients with chronic disease. Dr. Chin is the Richard Parrillo Family Professor of Healthcare Ethics at the University of Chicago and the Associate Director of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics. He has worked to advance diabetes care and outcomes on the South Side through health care system and community interventions. He also leads initiatives to improve health strategies at a national level as director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)'s Finding Answers: Solving Disparities Through Payment and Delivery System Reform Program Office and Co-Director of the Merck Foundation's Bridging the Gap: Reducing Disparities in Diabetes Care National Program Office. Dr. Chin's major research focus is on improving shared decision making among health professionals and LGBTQ racial/ethnic minority patients. He has led investigations on health disparities in diabetes care in health centers serving vulnerable populations with limited assets.
Special Communication Health Informatics: Guiding Principles to Address the Impact of Algorithm Bias on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health and Health Care. Marshall H. Chin, MD, MPH; Nasim Afsar-Manesh, MD, MBA, MHM; Arlene S. Bierman, MD, MS et al
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2812958 
Full AI Symposium at NMA JULY 2025 Convened by Cobb Institute:  
https://www.thecobbinstitute.org/webinar-series 
 
 

17. From Brooklyn to the Bench: Nina Uzoigwe on MD/PhD Pathways and Encouraging Tomorrow’s Physician-Scientists

In this episode of Cobb & Co, the institutes President Dr. Randall Morgan speaks with Nina Uzoigwe, an MD/PhD candidate at NYU and SNMA leader, about her journey from Brooklyn to cardiac research and clinical care. They discuss the MD/PhD pathway, Nina’s RISE UP summer program that exposes high school students to physician-scientist careers, and the importance of representation, mentorship, and documenting impact.
Nina encourages listeners from diverse backgrounds to pursue MD/PhD opportunities, to ignore naysayers, and to use their unique experiences and leadership to advocate for their communities --- uplifting the next generation of physician-scientists. Dr. Morgan and Nina also explore future collaboration possibilities. and the Cobb Institute's Scholars Program. 
 

16. Plain Language, Precision Matching: AI’s Role in Expanding Clinical Trial Access. Featuring Dr. Brenda Jamerson.

Episode 16 of Cobb & Company features Dr. Brenda Jamerson, CEO and founder of iSimcha Health, in a conversation with host Rolf Taylor. Dr. Jamerson shares how AI-powered tools like ResearchLinQ are transforming the way clinical trial information is translated into plain language and how people can be connected to studies that align with their location and personal health goals.
Fresh from speaking at the Cobb Institute’s Symposium on AI in Healthcare, Dr. Jamerson explains how artificial intelligence can help dismantle barriers to accessing healthcare—and, in particular, the clinical trial barriers that drive disparities in participation. She describes how AI speeds up and scales plain-language conversion, reduces literacy obstacles, enables conversational chat features, and supports more representative and precise trial matching.
The discussion also explores the promise—and the challenges—of ensuring that AI remains ethical and unbiased, while expanding both health literacy and research literacy. Together, these innovations point toward a future where more people have equitable access to cutting-edge medical research and the potential benefits it brings.
The Cobb Institute Clinical Trial finder (https://www.thecobbinstitute.org/trial-finder) is designed to assist patients and their healthcare teams identify clinical trial participation opportunities, and is powered by ResearchLinQ. 
Dr. Brenda Jamerson is CEO and Founder of iSimcha Health, a health information company providing digital tools dedicated to making medical advances and clinical trial opportunities understandable and accessible to all. Dr. Jamerson is also Adjunct Assistant Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Health System, Durham, NC.
Cobb & Company is featuring interviews with speakers from our AI symposium, which the Cobb Institute recently convened at the NMA Annual Convention. Titled Code, Context, & Care - Artificial Intelligence at the Crossroads of Healthcare, Research, & Workforce Development - the symposium explores the role of AI in shaping scientific direction and operational decision-making.  Speakers considered the ethical, methodological, and policy-related challenges of conducting research in a landscape shaped by shifting language norms and increasing use of data-driven technologies.
You can review the full symposium program - and a video recording  - on the Cobb Institute website using this link: https://www.thecobbinstitute.org/webinar-series 
The Cobb Institute thanks our partners and sponsors for supporting this event, including Amgen, BlackDoctor.org, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Cato T. Laurencin Institute for Regenerative Engineering, and the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation. 
Production Credits: Hosted, edited & engineered by Rolf Taylor.
Symposium development: Tiffany North Reid, M.P.H. 
Copyright © W. Montague Cobb Institute - 2025.

15. AI at the Crossroads: A Surgeon’s National Security View of AI Innovation in Healthcare, featuring Dr. Hassan Tetteh

In this episode, Rolf Taylor (Cobb Institute) interviews renowned cardiac surgeon and AI expert Dr. Hassan Tetteh about ways that artificial intelligence is reshaping healthcare, research, and the workforce, and it's origins in military applications. 
Drawing on his 25-year naval career, surgical background, and work with the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, Dr. Tetteh discusses AI’s potential to expand access, improve productivity, and address health inequities—as well as the need for strategic governance to manage risks and bias.
The conversation highlights practical examples—like wearable devices, large language models (LLMs), and plain language translation for underserved communities—and urges thoughtful integration of AI so it can safely empower patients, clinicians, and health systems.
Over the next few weeks, we are featuring interviews with speakers from our AI symposium, which the Cobb Institute recently convened at the NMA Annual Convention. Titled Code, Context, & Care - Artificial Intelligence at the Crossroads of Healthcare, Research, & Workforce Development - the symposium explores the role of AI in shaping scientific direction and operational decision-making. 
The discussions highlight AI’s great potential to share information, support research continuity, streamline processes, and uncover new insights, as well as its risks—such as reinforcing existing patterns of bias when built on limited data, or restricting the scope of inquiry through automated content filtering. 
Dr. Hassan Tetteh is a retired US Navy Captain and Associate Professor of Surgery at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, and adjunct faculty at Howard University College of Medicine. He a much published author, including most recently the book “Smarter Healthcare with AI”
The symposium also examines how evolving guidelines around language and terminology are shaping health-related research, influencing how studies are designed, interpreted, and communicated. Speakers considered the ethical, methodological, and policy-related challenges of conducting research in a landscape shaped by shifting language norms and increasing use of data-driven technologies. Transparency, thoughtful integration, and institutional readiness remain critical to ensuring AI serves the broad needs of the research and healthcare communities. 
You can review the full symposium program - and a video recording  - on the Cobb Institute website using this link: https://www.thecobbinstitute.org/the-cobb-institute-annual-lecture-symposium-2025 
The Cobb Institute thanks our partners and sponsors for supporting this event, including Amgen, BlackDoctor.org, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Cato T. Laurencin Institute for Regenerative Engineering, and the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation.
Copyright: W.Montague Cobb Institute 2025. 

14. The Satcher Health Leadership Institute Mission, & Breaking Barriers in HIV Care in Southern Black Communities. With Dr. Maisha Standifer, Part 2

Welcome to another enlightening episode of Cobb and Company, the podcast of the W. Montague Cobb Institute. Hosted by Cobb Institute President & CEO Dr. Randall Morgan, this episode features a captivating discussion with Dr. Maisha Standifer from the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine.
Dive deep into the challenges and triumphs of the Satcher Health Leadership Institute's overall mission, and the groundbreaking program focused on dismantling structural barriers in HIV care within Southern Black communities. Dr. Standifer shares her insights into how the program is impacting cities like Atlanta, New Orleans, and Baton Rouge, targeting people living with HIV and advocating for health equity.
Explore how the program is addressing stigma, promoting sexual health education, and creating alliances with other historically Black institutions. With a clear commitment to advancing health policies and creating data-driven strategies, Dr. Standifer discusses aligning efforts with initiatives like Georgia Thrives and engaging with governmental and non-governmental organizations.
Gain a deeper understanding of the evolving landscape of HIV care and the critical importance of training the next generation of healthcare leaders to be culturally competent and responsive to the needs of marginalized communities across the Southern United States.

13. A Cobb Scholar Returns: Dr. Maisha Standifer discusses how medical anthropology helps us understand structural barriers to health

In this enlightening episode of Cobb and Company, hosts Rolf Taylor and Jasmyne Lott are joined by Dr. Maisha Standifer, Director of Population Health at the Satcher Health Leadership Institute. With over 15 years of expertise, Dr. Standifer discusses her journey as a medical anthropologist and her transformative work addressing structural barriers in HIV care within Southern Black communities.
Dr. Standifer shares insights into her career path and the influence of Dr. W. Montague Cobb and the Cobb Scholars program on her professional choices and advocacy. She elaborates on the value of community-based participatory research and the essential role of mentorship in shaping future change-makers in the healthcare domain.
The episode also delves into the dynamic Georgia Thrives initiative, targeting HIV disparities in Atlanta, and explores similar initiatives in New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
Dr. Standifer talks about the challenges of stigma, the importance of culturally competent care, and the critical need to understand the socio-political determinants of health. This is a comprehensive discussion aimed at empowering Black communities and enhancing healthcare equity.
Satcher Health Leadership Institute: 
https://satcherinstitute.org/ 
Addressing structural barriers in HIV care impacting Black communities in the Southern United States: 
https://satcherinstitute.org/research/end-the-epidemic-hiv-equity/ 
Maisha Standifer, PhD, MPH, Director, Health Policy
https://satcherinstitute.org/maisha-standifer/ 
 
 

12. The Power of Mentorship: Building Success and Diversity in Healthcare, with London Wheeler and Carrington Boyer

Welcome to this episode of Cobb and Company, the podcast of the W. Montague Cobb Health Institute, recorded live at the National Medical Association Annual Convention in New York. Join Dr. Christina E. Stevens, Director of Operations for the Cobb Institute, as she discusses the crucial role of mentorship in enhancing diversity and representation within the healthcare workforce.
In this fun and insightful episode, we hear from London Wheeler, a third-year student at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, and Carrington Boyer, a recent graduate from Howard University. Both guests share their personal journeys and the transformative impact mentors have had on their careers. From navigating medical school challenges to exploring the interdisciplinary field of bioethics, London and Carrington highlight the invaluable support and guidance received from their mentors.
Discover how mentorship has helped them connect with the Cobb Institute and understand the importance of diversity in clinical trials. Gain valuable insights into building meaningful mentor-mentee relationships and the qualities that make effective mentors. Whether you're an aspiring healthcare professional or a seasoned mentor, this episode offers inspiration and practical advice for fostering a more inclusive, resilient and diverse healthcare environment.
(c) W. Montague Cobb Institute, 2024
The Cobb Scholars https://www.thecobbinstitute.org/overview 

11. Understanding Disparities in Multiple Myeloma Care with Dr. Joseph Mikhael

In this episode of Cobb & Company, series producer Rolf Taylor speaks with Dr. Joseph Mikhael, the Chief Medical Officer of the International Myeloma Foundation, about the significant disparities in the diagnosis and treatment of multiple myeloma, especially within African-American communities. Recorded at the National Medical Association Annual Assembly, Dr. Mikhael shares insights into the genetic and socioeconomic factors contributing to these disparities and the importance of equitable healthcare access.
The discussion delves into the challenges for underserved communities receiving timely diagnosis and cancer treatment, the social determinants of health, and the unique challenges faced by minoritized communities in accessing advanced therapies like CAR T-cell therapy. Dr. Mikhael emphasizes the need for a holistic approach that addresses delayed diagnosis and barriers to care, while also highlighting the role of systemic racism and healthcare system stratification in perpetuating these disparities.
Listeners will learn about the International Myeloma Foundation's M-Power program, which aims to empower patients and communities to change the course of myeloma through engagement, education, and enhanced care. The episode also touches on the importance of mentoring the next generation of healthcare providers to ensure a diverse and equitable future in medical care.
(c) W. Montague Cobb Institute 2024 
International Myeloma Foundation https://www.myeloma.org/