Dr. Uché Blackstock Honored as Harvard Humanist Of The Year
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The Harvard Humanist of the Year Award has for decades honored people in the community who have dedicated their lives to humanist values such as critical thinking, compassion and the pursuit of justice for other human beings. 

Physician Dr. Uché Blackstock, a thought leader on bias and racism in healthcare who founded Advancing Health Equity, is the latest to earn the distinction. 

“I do think that in this moment right now this is an opportunity for Black healthcare professionals like myself to really get out there and try to connect with our community…”

Dr. Uché Blackstock, 2021 Harvard Humanist of the Year

The 2021 Harvard Humanist of the Year , whose twin sister Oni is also a doctor, was raised by a Black woman in medicine at odds with the circumstances of this country. 

Dr. Dale Blackstock, whose own mother raised six kids alone, was the first person in her family to attend college.   

She from myelogenous leukemia at the age of 47. To this day, her daughter Uché states that her mother inspired her to work to advance health equity for Black people and study the effects of systematic racism in healthcare. 

Uché Blackstock exemplifies this with her main goal of making healthcare more of a comfort zone for the Black people in the United States.

“I do think that in this moment right now this is an opportunity for Black healthcare professionals like myself to really get out there and try to connect with our community because we know our patients are more likely to trust their physicians as a trusted source of information,” Blackstock during an online ceremony in her honor on Wednesday. 

The Harvard University graduate founded Advancing Health Equity in 2019 to partner with healthcare organizations to eradicate racial health inequities; her organization is also a medical contributor to MSNBC. 

Just a year later, Blackstock became one of many inaugural leaders awarded an unrestricted grant for her advocacy work from the Black Voices for Black Justice Fund. 

Just two years ago she left her role as the Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine and Faculty Director for Recruitment, Retention, and Inclusion in the Office of Diversity Affairs at NYU School of Medicine equality. 

Now she has gained the attention of the Chicago Tribune, Scientific American, The Washington Post, and STAT News for the Boston Globe. 

Blackstock said she plans on continuing her work to have a positive effect on the Black community in regards to healthcare.