Richard J. Weber Supported Lecture, “Racism in Medicine: Why and How I Confront It” with Dr. Vanessa Grubbs

The UIC College of Medicine and the UIC Women’s Leadership and Resource Center invite the UIC community to the Richard J. Weber Supported Lecture, “Racism in Medicine: Why and How I Confront It” with Dr. Vanessa Grubbs.

Friday, September 17, 2021
2-3:50pm CT
Via Zoom
Register: https://go.uic.edu/MedColl917

Dr. Vanessa Grubbs is a key voice in contemporary advocacy efforts to bring attention to the racial inequities in how kidney function is evaluated, reported, and treated, and the particular implications for African Americans. She will discuss how biological ideas of race influence historical and contemporary practices of and approaches to medicine. Her lecture will specifically examine the implications for nephrology, and the use of Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR) for diagnosis, treatment and long-term outcomes for people experiencing kidney-related problems.

Dr. Grubbs is a nephrologist, internist and writer. After completing a nephrology fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco, in 2009, Dr. Grubbs maintained a clinical practice and research program with a focus on palliative care for patients with end-stage kidney disease at San Francisco General Hospital until 2019, at which point she chose to leave academia to focus on writing. Dr. Grubbs’s book, “Hundreds of Interlaced Fingers: A Kidney Doctor’s Search for the Perfect Match” (Amistad, 2017), tells her story of becoming a kidney donor, then nephrologist, and her experiences with ethical and controversial topics in nephrology.

The lecture is one in a series of collaborative programs on the intersections of race, gender, and medicine organized by the Women’s Leadership and Resource Center as part of the College of Medicine’s Medical Colloquium Series. The next program, scheduled for October 15, 2021, will engage College of Medicine students in a discussion of Dr. Jennifer Freyd‘s book, “Blind to Betrayal,” as part of WLRC’s fall focus on its 30 years of advocacy to end gender-based violence. Programs hosted in the spring 2021 semester included discussions of Dorothy Roberts’ groundbreaking text “Fatal Invention,” medical students’ anti-racist activism, and gender-based violence in medicine.

The lecture is open to all UIC students, staff, and faculty. CART live captioning will be provided. Please send any questions or additional accommodation requests to wlrc@uic.edu.

UIC Co-sponsors:

• African American Cultural Center
• Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology | College of Medicine
• Department of Medical Education | College of Medicine
• Office of the Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs
• Office of the Vice Provost for Diversity
• Urban Health Program