Celebrate 2025 Black History Month

Curated by Dr. April Lewis, and the DEIA Committee

The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Advocacy Resident Committee invites you to celebrate Black History Month!

Highlight: Joan Y. Reade, MD, MS, MPH, MBA

Joan Y. Reede, MD, MS, MPH, MBA was appointed Harvard Medical School’s first dean for diversity and community partnership. She is the first African American woman to hold a position of that rank at Harvard Medical School and one of the few African American women to hold a deanship at a medical school in the United States. She was born and raised in Boston, MA and attended Brown University for college, followed by Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. She then completed residency at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in pediatrics, followed by a fellowship in child psychiatry at Boston Children’s. Reede returned to school at Harvard later in her career and earned a Master’s of Public Health, a Master’s in Policy and Management, and she also earned an MBA from Boston University.

While attending Harvard, Dr. Reede was struck by the absence of minorities among the School of Public Health faculty, igniting a desire to implement new programming to make a difference. The impact of Reede’s work is reflected in the numerous programs she has created to benefit minority students, residents, scientists, and physicians. Dr. Reede created and developed more than 20 programs at Harvard Medical School that aim to address pipeline and leadership issues for minorities and women who are interested in careers in medicine, academic and scientific research, and the healthcare professions. She has developed mentoring programs for underrepresented minority students from middle school through the graduate and medical school levels. She has also designed a training program for middle and high school teachers, developed science curricula for public schools, implemented research and exchange clerkship programs at Harvard, and designed and implemented innovative fellowships in minority health policy for physicians, dentists, and doctoral-level mental health professionals.

She was most recently awarded the 2024 W. Montague Cobb Lifetime Achievement Award by the W. Montague Cobb/National Medical Association Health Institute for her work.

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What’s Happening in St. Louis? 

St. Louis Library branches are hosting several events throughout the month:

• Saturday, Feb. 22 from 10 a.m. to noon., Schlafly Library. Bread and Roses “Strike! How St. Louis United for Change in 1877.” Learn about a historic but little-known piece of St. Louis history at the Schlafly library in the Central West End. Through labor songs, theater and visual art activities, learn how people of all ages, backgrounds and races joined together to demand better working conditions and more pay, and how modern-day workers still organize strikes as a way to demand change. 

• Friday, February 21, 7:00 p.m., Clark Family Branch. Jennifer Jones, “Becoming Spectacular: The Rhythm of Resilience from the First African American Rockette.” When the Rockettes began in 1925, Black people were not allowed to dance on stage with white people. In 1987 the color barrier was finally broken by one brave and tenacious woman. When she arrived, Jennifer Jones was met with pushback—a fierce resistance she details in this intimate and inspiring memoir. 

• St. Louis Art Museum Free Fridays – Every Friday this month from 10 a.m to 9 p.m., the Narrative Wisdom and African Arts exhibit connects historical arts and oral traditions across Africa, with work from the 13th century to today. 

• Consider visiting The Griot Museum of Black History and Culture! 2505 Saint Louis Ave, Saint Louis, MO 63106 

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Lucy, Anarcha, and Betsey Days of Recognition

This section is curated by: Dr. Bridget Huysman, DEIA Committee.

Black Maternal Health Week 

Wanda Irving: How the US medical community fails Black mothers | TED Talk

Maternal Care Reformer Wanda Irving had her life turned upside down when she lost her only daughter, Shalon Irving, at the hands of “the covert bias of her medical provider.”

As Wanda explains, “that very bias, fueled by structural racism, is the root cause of disparities in health care. That very bias impacted Shalon’s outcome, and caused her to be included in the maternal mortality statistics for 2017.”

In her powerful TEDMED Talk, “How the US medical community fails Black mothers”, Wanda reveals the horrific statistics that feed into the systemic disparities which result in Black women dying at rates almost 300% higher than White women. Today, over 3 years later, Wanda is working to promote accountability measures in postpartum care bills and she invites us to use the full range of our resources to eliminate inequity. 

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DEIA Book Club

Mark your calendars for the DEIA Committee’s annual book club! This May, we will be reading the critically acclaimed, New York Times Bestseller “Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine” by Uche Blackstock. Location TBA!