January 5, 2001
Shalala Appoints Minority Health Advisory Committee
Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna E. Shalala Dec. 28 announced the appointment of 12 members to the Secretary's new Advisory Committee on Minority Health. The committee will advise the secretary on ways to improve the health of racial and ethnic minority populations, and on the development of goals and program activities within the department.
Louis Stokes, a lawyer, a former congressman from Ohio, and a former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, will chair the advisory committee. Other committee members are:
- Dr. Isamu Abraham, public health official, Department of Public Health, Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands;
- Salvador Balcorta, social worker and chief executive officer, Centro de Salud Familiar La Fe, Inc., El Paso, Texas;
- Dr. Henry Chung, physician, Chinatown Health Clinic, New York, N.Y.;
- Dr. Estevan T. Flores, sociologist and journalist, Latino/a Research and Policy Center, Denver, Colo.;
- Dr. Theodore Mala, physician and public health expert, Office of Village Initiatives, Southcentral Foundation, Anchorage, Alaska;
- Dr. Clyde Oden, optometrist and health services executive, Watts Health Foundation, Inglewood, Calif.;
- Dr. Joan Reede, physician and educator, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass.;
- Dr. Yvette Roubideaux, physician, president of the Association of American Indian Physicians, Tucson, Ariz.;
- Delight Satter, senior public health researcher and policy manager, UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, Los Angeles, Calif.;
- Dr. Ho Tran, physician and state health official, Illinois Department of Public Health, Chicago, Ill.; and
- Dr. Antonia Villarruel, nurse and educator, University of Michigan School of Nursing, Ann Arbor, Mich.
The committee was created by the Health Professions Education Partnerships Act of 1998. The 12 committee members have expertise on a wide range of health issues including the unique challenges facing minorities in rural and urban communities, children, women, elders, people with disabilities, mental illness and AIDS. The committee will meet four times a year.
