Dr. Moro Salifu, Brooklyn Health Disparities Center Director and SUNY Downstate Department of Medicine Chair, Keynotes 2019 “Igniting Hope” Conference
Aug 15, 2019
The 2019 Conference will Focus on Building A Culture of Health and Ending African American Health Disparities
BROOKLYN, NY – SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University Professor Moro Salifu, MD, MPH, MBA, MACP,
will keynote the “Igniting Hope 2019: Building A Culture of Health & Ending African
American Health Disparities” conference on Friday, August 17, at the Jacobs School
of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo.
Dr. Salifu, who currently serves as the Director of the Brooklyn Health Disparities Center at SUNY Downstate, will join a group of health experts from across the nation to discuss the impact of race of health and wellness and how to reverse the trends that have led to healthcare disparity in African American communities.
“One of our most impactful tactics in influencing the cultural shift in the attitude towards healthcare has been our ability to engage community members to help them find solutions to improve their wellbeing,” said Moro Salifu, MD, MPH, MBA, MACP.” I look forward to sharing our culturally competent and transformative model with the task force.”
Brooklyn Health Disparities Center (BHDC) is an innovative partnership formed in 2004 between SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health and the Office of the Brooklyn Borough President. The partnership is committed to reducing health disparities in Brooklyn and increasing the level of engagement of academics, community members, and policymakers.
Hosted by The African American Health Disparities Task Force based in Buffalo, the conference will feature leading African American public health experts who have experience in initiating and engaging communities to effect a change in minority health disparities.
The two-day conference will kick off with opening remarks from Dr. Salifu, followed by presentations, workshops, roundtable discussion, and a solution-based dialogue with African American physicians and faith-based leaders from Buffalo, and nationally renowned health experts. The goal of the event is to learn how health initiatives are being implemented in Brooklyn and across the nation to help the City of Buffalo address its race-based healthcare disparity issues in African American communities.
In 2017, BHDC and SUNY Downstate successfully secured an NIH endowment award that establishes a new and sustainable Translational Program of Health Disparities Research Training (TRANSPORT). TRANSPORT will provide a foundation and infrastructure for growing and developing a diverse biomedical research workforce that will position Downstate as a national leader in translational disparities and population health research. Our efforts will focus on recruiting and training underrepresented minority (URM) junior faculty, postdoctoral candidates, and undergraduate students who come from Brooklyn and other communities that are vulnerable to health disparities.
Dr. Salifu completed his residency training at SUNY Downstate after graduating from
medical school in Turkey. In 2001, he was appointed by SUNY Downstate as an assistant
professor. In just seven years, he was promoted to Associate Professor and then Professor.
Dr. Salifu has served as the director of the nephrology fellowship training program,
the chief of the Division of Nephrology, and director of the Kidney Transplant Program
at SUNY Downstate. He is a recipient of many grants, fellowships, awards, and has
been published extensively.
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About SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University
SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University is the borough’s only academic medical center for health education, research, and patient care, and is a 342-bed facility serving the healthcare needs of New York City, and Brooklyn’s 2.6 million residents. University Hospital of Brooklyn (UHB) is Downstate’s teaching hospital, backed by the expertise of an outstanding medical school and the research facilities of a world-class academic center. More than 800 physicians, representing 53 specialties and subspecialties—many of them ranked as tops in their fields—comprise Downstate's staff.
A regional center for cardiac care, neonatal and high-risk infant services, pediatric dialysis, and transplantation, Downstate also houses a major learning center for children with physical ailments or neurological disorders. In addition to UHB, Downstate comprises a College of Medicine, College of Nursing, School of Health Professions, a School of Graduate Studies, a School of Public Health, and a multifaceted biotechnology initiative, including the Downstate Biotechnology Incubator and BioBAT for early-stage and more mature companies, respectively. For more information, visit www.downstate.edu or follow us on Twitter at @sunydownstate.