Founded and directed by Dr. Patricia Miranda-Hartsuff since 2020, the Hub for Evaluation and Learning (HEAL) Detroit believes that to reach transformational change, we must build professional competency in our communities. HEAL Detroit believes we should offer not just a mechanism for hearing previously silenced voices, but instruments for credentialing communities to define their own metrics, craft appropriately tailored evidence-based interventions, design evaluation processes that are grounded and granular enough to detect change, and provide the development and grant-seeking support to sponsor their activities. The health of Detroiters has been marked by health disparities across racial and ethnic groups for decades. While the causes are complex, the role of systemic racism has finally been pulled out of the shadows. As communities work to recover from the pandemic, it’s our imperative to help them rebuild in an efficient, impact-focused manner. HEAL Detroit will serve as a nucleus for matching evidence-based solutions with community-engaged approaches to address social determinants of health through increasing community capacity and applied learning opportunities for Wayne State students and the larger community. By identifying and engaging community partners and the organizations that seek to serve them, HEAL Detroit will apply a systems change strategy to bring about structural, relational and transformative change using a racial equity lens – and ultimately, in so doing, shift power and resources back to local communities who have struggled with high rates of unemployment and widely disseminated opportunities for workforce development.
Associate Professor of Public Health