Crossing Bridges Summit returns with “Socioeconomic and Environmental Perspectives on Black Women’s Health”

Penn State Greater Allegheny presents its second installment of its campus signature community project–the Crossing Brides Summit’s (CBS) speaker series, entitled “Socioeconomic and Environmental Perspectives on Black Women’s Health,” Thursday, Dec. 10 at 3:00 p.m. EST. The Summit will feature a panel of subject matter experts, based on the 2019 report, entitled, “Pittsburgh’s Inequality Across Race and Gender.” The panelists include Dannai Wilson, program director for Maternal and Child Health, Allegheny County Health Department; Jim Kelly, deputy director, Bureau of Environmental Health, Allegheny County Health Department; Tammy Thompson, poverty expert and executive director, Circles of Greater Pittsburgh; and Germaine Gooden Patterson, community health worker, Women for a Healthy Environment.

The Summit discussion will be led by Jonathan White, moderator and lecturer of history at Penn State Greater Allegheny. This year’s theme plans to examine black women’s health from different perspectives.

“Our Crossing Bridges Summit committee identified this year’s theme after reading “Pittsburgh’s Inequality Across Race and Gender” report (September 2019),” said Jacqueline Edmondson; chancellor and chief academic officer at Penn State Greater Allegheny. “Women’s health was identified as a concern. We want to partner with local and national experts to help the campus community and the public understand the issues identified in this report, to consider how these issues are manifest in the Mon Valley region, and to identify areas where the campus can collaborate with community partners to be a catalyst for change.”

The Crossing Bridges Summit is in its fourth year and is a program created with the purpose of uniting students, faculty, staff, and community members through five components—an annual speaker series, post-event Summit Talks, student led Unity Talks, a visiting scholar program, and a task force on racial equity and justice.

The summit is free and open to the public and livestreamed and produced by Penn State’s public media organization, WPSU, where it can be viewed live at watch.psu.edu/crossingbridges.

The Greater Allegheny campus will host a virtual Unity Talk on Saturday, Dec. 12 at 10:00 a.m. allowing campus and community members to discuss the panelists’ perspectives and to identify actionable items.

For more information on the Summit and weekend unity talks, visit greaterallegheny.psu.edu/cbsummit.

Story by: Alisha Tarver (ait5274@psu.edu)