Guest Speakers and Presentations
In addition to providing in-kind conference and meeting space for nonprofit organizations and public agencies, Sierra Health Foundation hosts guest speakers and presentations at its conference center. We have proudly welcomed the following guest speakers:
Dr. Richard Pan
On July 1, 2010, we were pleased to welcome Dr. Richard Pan to Sierra Health Foundation for a discussion about the Social Determinants of Health. A nationally known speaker on the Social Determinants of Health, Dr. Pan is a physician and an educator at the UC Davis Children's Hospital. As associate professor of pediatrics, he heads the UC Davis Pediatric Residency Program, where he developed a national award-winning program to promote healthy lifestyles by partnering with community groups.
Dr. Pan talked about the factors other than health care that influence health, such as a person's socioeconomic condition, environment, education, income and individual behavior choices — factors that have come to be known as the Social Determinants of Health. Dr. Pan presented an extensive amount of data and insight about topics such as life expectancy, leading causes of death, population health and determinants of health. He also discussed how risk reduction and health promotion strategies influence health development, as well as social emotional development.
Learn more on our Social Determinants of Health Web page.
Mark Friedman
We were pleased to bring internationally renowned author and speaker Mark Friedman to Sierra Health Foundation for three Results-Based Accountability workshops on Oct. 13, 14 and 15, 2009.
Friedman is the director of the Fiscal Policy Studies Institute in Santa Fe, N.M., and is the author of the book Trying Hard Is Not Good Enough. He has provided training and consultation on Results-Based Accountability in more than 40 states and in countries around the world, teaching organizations how to use performance measurement for results-based decision making.
Workshop participants learned how to use results to drive decision making and budgeting, how to use baselines to define success and failure, how to identify the most important performance measures and how to build performance accountability in their organizations.
Watch a video of the workshop introduction below.
For more information about Results-Based Accountability, visit the Fiscal Policy Studies Institute Web site.
Pedro Noguera, Ph.D.
Sierra Health's Bannon Island room buzzed with energy on May 11, 2009, when special guest Pedro Noguera spoke about education reform to a group of about 80 educators, elected officials, nonprofits and community members.
A renowned speaker, author and education expert, Noguera is an urban sociologist who focuses on the ways in which schools are influenced by social and economic conditions in the urban environment. He is a professor in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development at New York University, and serves as executive director of the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education and the co-director of the Institute for the Study of Globalization and Education in Metropolitan Settings.
Among the many topics in his inspirational address, Noguera spoke about the challenges facing America's schools and the lack of educational progress being made, citing drop-out rates, which in many of the nation's largest cities are at 50 percent or higher, and the number of graduating students leaving high school unprepared for college. He addressed the need for schools to attract highly qualified teachers and the responsibility of teachers' unions to ensure teacher quality. Noguera also emphasized the need for schools and communities to adopt strategies to empower children and their families, as well as the importance of everyone in the community working together.
Download Pedro Noguera's slide presentation.
A video of Pedro Noguera's presentation is posted by chapter below.
Video Chapter 2: Pedro Noguera: Leaving Children Behind in the USA
Video Chapter 3: Schools Can't Do It Alone
Video Chapter 4: Vulnerable Students and Immigrant Children
Video Chapter 5: Promoting Student Achievement and Healthy Youth Development
Video Chapter 6: Developing Systems of Support and Civic Capacity Building
Video Chapter 7: Questions and Answers
Marian Wright Edelman
Sierra Health was pleased to host the Children's Defense Fund on Feb. 25, 2009, for an important discussion on Dismantling the Cradle to Prison Pipeline, led by Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children's Defense Fund. A renowned speaker, author and humanitarian, Edelman spoke to Northern California philanthropists about the need to address the "uneven playing field" that leads to poor children and youth of color being disproportionately tracked into dead-end lives from birth. According to Edelman, a Black boy born in 2001 has a one in three chance and a Latino boy a one in six chance of going to prison in his lifetime.
Edelman talked about the need to end child poverty, gun violence, teen pregnancy and lack of health coverage for children, as well as the need to "reweave families and communities" and provide high-quality early childhood services. Calling on philanthropists and community leaders to unite in this effort, Edelman expressed her desire for funders to work together on specific issues one at a time until each factor in the Cradle to Prison Pipeline has been addressed.
The Children's Defense Fund held a California/National Summit for youth on Feb. 25 at the Tsakopoulos Library Galleria in Sacramento, followed by a summit for adults on Feb. 26. Visit the Children's Defense Fund Web site for more information about this work.
Anthony Iton, M.D., J.D., MPH
Anthony Iton, director and public health officer of the Alameda County Public Health Department, gave a powerful presentation to graduates of Health Leadership Program Class VII and guests at Sierra Health Foundation on April 4, 2008. An advisor to the PBS documentary series Unnatural Causes, which explores racial and socioeconomic inequalities in health, Iton spoke about the causes of disparities in health across communities.
With a primary interest in the health of disadvantaged populations and the contributions of race, class, wealth, education, geography and employment to health status, he has asserted that in every public health area of endeavor, local public health departments must recognize that they are confronted with the enduring consequences of structural poverty, institutional racism and other forms of systemic injustice.
Learn more about this issue on the Unnatural Causes Web site.