[Note: this webpage is descended from the Minority Student Caucus's first webpage, created by Victor Schoenbach on the Minority Health Project website (archival website). After several years, websites for the Caucus were created by the School and by the Caucus, on various web platforms. Several of those platforms were decommissioned, but several sites are still on the web, including a UNC Student Organizations page, a UNC Student Affairs page, multiple editions on Facebook (more recent, earlier), and the School's current website. The page you are viewing (in the webfolder www.epidemiolog.net/mhp/sph/caucus/) serves as an historical archive, having been maintained continuously since about 2003, though somewhat irregularly in recent years.]


Minority Student Caucus logo
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Gillings School of Global Public Health

Minority Student Caucus

 

Annual Minority Health Conference and William T. Small Jr. Keynote Lecture

About William T. Small, Jr.

MSC @ Student Affairs website

History of the Caucus and Conference, in video

Minority Student Caucus Alumni Network

To join the Minority Student Caucus listserv send a one-line email to (listserv@unc.edu) with the text:

subscribe minoritycaucus
        your-first-name your-last-name

  At the Minority Student Caucus alumni reunion

The Minority Student Caucus was founded in 1971 by a group of African American students who gathered in John Hatch's living room. They were troubled by the lack of attention to health disparities (then referred to as minority health), the lack of support for Black students, the near total absence of Blacks on the faculty, and the low representation of ethnic minorities among the students. The Caucus was intended as a vehicle for bringing their concerns to the attention of the School's Administration and for working to attract more Black students to the School. Initially called the Black Student Caucus, in the late 1970s the Caucus changed its name to Minority Student Caucus and welcomed American Indian, Asian American, and Latino students. [Some of the history is recounted in recorded interviews with John Hatch (coming soon), Bill Jenkin (view), Victoria Motley Washington (view), and Geni Eng (coming soon). The Caucus founded its annual Minority Health Conference in 1977 and has conducted it nearly every year since then. The Caucus also works with the School administration on initiatives to link to the Historically Black Colleges and Universities, especially in North Carolina, and to institutions serving other minority groups.

Leadership

The Minority Student Caucus is led by an Executive Board elected annually by all Caucus members. Officers - Co-Presidents, Secretary, and Treasurer - and other E-Board members serve one-year terms.

For its first quarter century, the Caucus received support and advice from William T. Small, Jr. (the Caucus actually played a role in Dean Small's coming to the School as a minority student recruiter in 1971). Following Dean Small's retirement in 1999, Aundra Shields became Assistant Dean for Students and worked with the Caucus. After Aundra's departure, her successors Felicia Mebane and then Charletta Sims-Evans became the Dean's Office advisers to the Caucus. Victor Schoenbach (Department of Epidemiology), who assisted the Minority Health Conference planners beginning in 1991, was invited to serve as faculty adviser to the Caucus in 2005/2006. Chandra Caldwell (Department of Epidemiology), who had informally counseled/advised Caucus members and officers since she joined the Epidemiology staff, was later named a staff adviser to the Caucus. Trinnette Cooper, coordinator for diversity programs and recruitment in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health is the current Dean's Office adviser.

Executive Board Members for 2018-2019


Co-Presidents:

  • Anshula Nathan, Masters student, Public Health Leadership (meet Anshula)


  • Brooke Staley, Doctoral student, Department of Epidemiology (meet Brooke)

Co-chairs for the 40th Annual Minority Health Conference:

  • Khadija Jahfiya

  • Afsaneh Mortazavi

Treasurer:

  • Courtney George

Communications Secretary:

  • Elise Ballan

TRIAD Chair:

  • Tanvi Shah

Education and Outreach Chair:

  • Esther Lee

Historian:

Links

Minority Student Caucus home page
2019-2020 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2017-2018 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2016-2017 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2015-2016 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2014-2015 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2013-2014 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2012-2013 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2011-2012 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2010-2011 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2009-2010 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2008-2009 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2007-2008 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2006-2007 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2005-2006 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2004-2005 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2003-2004 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2002-2003 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
Previous officers of the Minority Student Caucus
Annual Minority Health Conference
About Dean William T. Small, Jr.
Minority health-related links at UNC and elsewhere
Minority Health Project
Vic Schoenbach's Evolving history of minority health-related activities at the UNC School of Public Health

Last updated 8/31/2016, 9/1/2016, 10/6,24/2016, 2/3/2018, 1/16/2020, 8/12/2020, 12/26/2020 by Vic Schoenbach