Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion

Guided by CHERP’s mission to advance the quality and equity of health and health care for Veteran populations, and in partnership with our Equity Capacity Building Core, we will strive to embed an equity focus in all of our research and partnered operational initiatives and to expand our portfolio of research to address the root causes of disparities in health and health care. We will also pursue opportunities for CHERP investigators and staff to receive racial justice training so that we are better equipped to recognize and address structural racism in our work setting and communities. Lastly, we will bolster our efforts to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in CHERP and to increase diversity in the field of health services research on a national level. We count on you to help us in these efforts.

Dear Colleagues:

As we observe Juneteenth – a day that commemorates the end of slavery and celebrates the achievements of Black and brown individuals in our nation – we take a moment to reflect on the devastating legacy of slavery in our country. The racial and ethnic injustices witnessed in the past year – including police violence against and murder of people of color and racial disparities in COVID testing, treatments, and outcomes – are tragic consequences of that legacy and a powerful reminder of the persistent and deep-seated systemic racism that plagues our country.

Although these and other recent events have raised awareness of the pervasive economic, educational, and social disadvantages that people of color and other marginalized individuals experience in our country, for many of us there is still much to learn. At a minimum, we need to better understand key lessons from African American history that have been purposefully omitted from our formal education or white-washed, at best – from the large-scale massacre of a thriving Black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to the post-slavery Jim Crow laws that perpetuated white supremacy in our country, to the growing number of current State laws that systematically restrict the voting rights of individuals of color.

As CHERP Directors, we re-affirm our commitment to address these injustices. Guided by CHERP’s mission to advance the quality and equity of health and health care for Veteran populations, and in partnership with our Equity Capacity Building Core, we will strive to embed an equity focus in all of our research and partnered operational initiatives and to expand our portfolio of research to address the root causes of disparities in health and health care. We will also pursue opportunities for CHERP investigators and staff to receive racial justice training so that we are better equipped to recognize and address structural racism in our work setting and communities. Lastly, we will bolster our efforts to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in CHERP and to increase diversity in the field of health services research on a national level. We count on you to help us in these efforts.

We recognize that these steps alone are insufficient to overcome the deep-rooted systemic racism in the US. Eliminating the racial and ethnic injustices that originated with slavery and forceful removal of indigenous Americans from their lands will take a deep commitment from all of us combined with efforts by local, state, and national leaders across all sectors of our society. We at CHERP are committed to supporting these efforts, evaluating our contributions, and understanding how we can do better.

For more information about Juneteenth and CHERP's call to action, please see the special section of our website.

Michael J Fine MD, MSc
Director VA CHERP
Professor of Medicine
University of Pittsburgh

Judith Long MD
Co-Director VA CHERP
Sol Katz Professor of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania