The Joint Center’s Health Policy Institute was host to winners of the Commonwealth Fund/Harvard University Fellowship in Minority Health Policy at a seminar where the future health policy leaders engaged in a discussion of the social determinants of health.

Gina Wood, deputy director of HPI, introduced the fellows to programs underway at the Joint Center during their visit on Thursday, Jan. 17. One highlight was a preview of “Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick,” a PBS series, due to air in March, that was produced with significant support from the Joint Center and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

The fellows also learned about efforts to increase diversity in the health professions led by the Sullivan Alliance, and about a variety of health-related research projects that the Joint Center is spearheading.

They even discussed the presidential campaign and the work on political participation that the Joint Center and its allies among black elected officials in the National Policy Alliance have planned.

The fellows program prepares doctors for leadership roles in shaping public health policy and practice. They complete academic work leading to Master of Public Health degrees from the Harvard School of Public Health. Other program activities provide them with insight on the major health issues facing minority, disadvantaged and underserved populations.

The fellows are Connie Gistand, a hospitalist at West Jefferson Medical Center, Marrero, La.; Keila Lopez, chief pediatric resident at University of Chicago Children’s Hospital, Chicago; Audra Robertson, chief resident in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston; Judith Steinberg, medical director of Neponset Health Center, Dorchester, Mass.,; Mallory Williams, a fellow in surgical critical care at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston; Monica Le, a women’s health fellow in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Harbor UCLA, Torrance, Calif.; and Brian Swann, a dentist with Dental Solutions II, San Jose, Calif.