City Club of Chicago: Promoting Equitable Cancer Care and Research in Chicago’s Communities of Color

October 24, 2024

Promoting Equitable Cancer Care and Research in Chicago’s Communities of Color in support of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society – Proceeds from this event will directly support the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s vital work funding lifesaving blood cancer research to find a cure and improve the quality of life of patients and their families – Commissioner Dr. Olusimbo (Simbo) Ige, UIC Chancellor Marie Lynn Miranda, Dr. Edwin McDonald IV, Tawa Mitchell and Adrian Talbott

City Club event description:

While cancer affects all of us, due to systemic social, environmental, and economic disadvantages, African American and LatinX communities bear a disproportionate burden. Communities of color, including those on the South and West Sides of Chicago, face greater obstacles to cancer prevention, detection, treatment, and survival. This reality results in significantly higher death rates and substantially shorter survival rates for most cancers—a stark and unjust inequality that demands our attention. However, this disparity is not insurmountable.

Join Chicago Public Health Commissioner Dr. Simbo Ige, University of Illinois Chicago Chancellor Marie Lynn Miranda, Assistant Professor at University of Chicago Medicine Dr. Edwin McDonald, Member of the Board of Trustees, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Tawa Mitchell and cancer survivor and advocate Adrian Talbott for a meaningful conversation on how we can work to close this gap and promote equitable cancer care.

Speakers

Mayor Brandon Johnson
Brandon Johnson was sworn in as the 57th Mayor of the City of Chicago on May 15, 2023. Mayor Johnson began his career as a public school teacher, first at Jenner Academy in Cabrini-Green and then at Westinghouse College Prep on the West Side, where he experienced firsthand how school closures, unemployment and gun violence impacted his students and their communities. He then went on to become an organizer with the Chicago Teachers Union, where he led multi-racial coalitions to defend neighborhood schools from privatization, reduce high-stakes standardized testing and expand access to state funding. Mayor Johnson was elected Cook County Commissioner of the 1st District in 2018. During his five years on the Cook County Board, he led efforts to pass the Just Housing Ordinance which prohibited housing discrimination against formerly incarcerated people, legislation to secure legal representation for immigrants facing deportation, and coordinated COVID-19 resources for low-income seniors in nursing homes. In 2018, Mayor Johnson was elected Commissioner of the 1st District of Cook County. Here he led the effort to pass the Just Housing Ordinance, which prohibited housing discrimination against formerly incarcerated people. As commissioner, he also collaborated with colleagues to eliminate the gang database, secure legal representation for immigrants facing deportation and advance recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ Day. In the wake of civil uprisings in the summer of 2020, he organized the Cook County Board to commit to the “Budget for Black Lives,” bringing new investments in health care, public transportation, internet access, and affordable housing. Mayor Johnson and his wife Stacie live in the Austin community, where they are raising their children Owen, Ethan and Braedyn.

Marie Lynn Miranda
Marie Lynn Miranda, a nationally renowned leader in higher education and geospatial health informatics, became the 10th chancellor of the University of Illinois Chicago in July 2023. She also serves as a faculty member in the Department of Pediatrics and the Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science. Chancellor Miranda brings a focus on access and excellence at scale ac