Championing Health Equity for Black History Month
By: Thomas G. Bognanno, President and CEO of CHC: Creating Healthier Communities
As Black History Month begins this week, my team at CHC: Creating Healthier Communities is taking time to recognize the Black community leaders, healthcare professionals, teachers, and first responders who have worked tirelessly to care for our communities during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as well as advocating for racial justice in the U.S.
For over 60 years, CHC and our nonprofit and business partners have pursued our mission to create healthier communities across the nation, improving the quality of life for everyone. It is only natural that we are more focused than ever on advancing health equity, working to eliminate the tragic health disparities that exist for many in our society.
Our efforts will culminate on March 11, 2021 with our CHC Giving Day #ForHealthEquity. This date is intentional to highlight the first anniversary of the World Health Organization declaring COVID-19 a global pandemic. Over the past year, this insidious new virus only magnified longstanding, glaring health inequities that disproportionately impacted people in under-resourced communities — with Black people and communities of color most significantly affected. A long history of systemic policies and healthcare practices has led to Black people in the U.S dying from COVID-19 at 1.5 times the rate of white people (The COVID Tracking Project at The Atlantic: https://covidtracking.com/race).
With your help, we are working hand in hand with a host of Black leaders and communities to address the barriers to achieving good health and equity, with many new partnerships and coalitions these past few years.
When you visit our #ForHealthEquity landing page For Health Equity | CHC: Creating Healthier Communities (chcimpact.org), we hope you will be struck by the dynamic and compelling content and graphics that add a deeper dimension to this issue. These illustrations have been intentionally selected and sourced from BlackIllustrations.com. Founder and designer John D. Saunders said he “wanted to create more diversity in design.” We’re proud to feature these illustrations as a key part of our #ForHealthEquity campaign and ongoing commitment to inclusion and equity.
Leading by example, CHC is proud of our internal diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts that have produced a diverse and inclusive staff team, as well as a national board of directors with more than 50% women and more than 60% people of color: Leadership | CHC: Creating Healthier Communities (chcimpact.org). These board leaders have continually provided the leadership we needed to re-brand our organization and expand our mission to focus on impact: creating healthier communities for all people, especially focused on issues of health equity.
At CHC, we envision a world where every person in every community has an opportunity to realize their greatest potential and live a healthy life, no matter their race, gender, financial situation, or geographic location. Achieving health equity in our communities requires a collective effort, however, and that’s what we’re working towards, together with partners and leaders like you. Your commitment to supporting high-impact community nonprofit organizations that help build, protect, and maintain health for all of us is more important now than ever. Please join us for CHC Giving Day #ForHealthEquity, not as a one-day event, but as a movement.
Thomas G. Bognanno, President and CEO of CHC: Creating Healthier Communities
Thomas G. Bognanno has been the President and CEO of CHC since January 2006. Prior to that, Tom had a distinguished 20-year career with the American Diabetes Association (ADA), where he served as the Chief Field Officer. He was instrumental in revitalizing ADA’s community-level infrastructure and acting as one of the chief architects of the Everyday Choices for a Healthier Life partnership between ADA, the American Heart Association, and the American Cancer Society. Before ADA, Tom spent six years with the American Cancer Society.
At Community Health Charities, Tom has been a catalyst for consolidating the organization and creating a new direction for its more than 2,000 charity partners nationwide and its network of over 17 million caring employees. Under Tom’s leadership, Community Health Charities evolved its mission to empower people to take action to improve health and wellbeing to build stronger, healthier communities. Community Health Charities supports education, treatment, and prevention for those with health challenges; brings organizations together to improve community health; provides individuals with opportunities to get involved; and increases the capacity of nonprofit organizations.
Residing in northern Virginia, Tom and his wife Suzan have been married for over 35 years and have raised three children.
