By Keith Gillogly

This year’s ninth annual conference took place on Sept. 19 at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

The theme was “Turning Community Voices into Action,” which built on last year’s conference and efforts to set priorities for and implement a community-driven strategic plan for transforming life on Buffalo’s East Side.

The conference also included a community day on Sept. 18, with games, music and family events in downtown Buffalo. 

UB president Caroline Attardo Genco, PhD, welcomed the audience of community members, leaders, activists, faculty and students.

Genco reflected on the conference’s themes and the importance of collaborative work while sharing more about her own story and the changes she’s seen since recently returning to Buffalo.

Genco recalled growing up in Buffalo and attending Buffalo Public Schools and Mount St. Mary Academy before starting college and later earning her doctorate. “As a first-generation college student, I know how education and opportunity can change the trajectory of a life,” she said.

She remembers a Buffalo shaped by industry, strong neighborhoods, and close families, while commending its development today.

“Today’s Buffalo is dynamic in new ways. I see innovation, entrepreneurship, vibrant cultural life, a growing medical campus, and a renewed energy in neighborhoods across the city,” she said. “But I know that prosperity has not reached every person, family, or neighborhood equally.”

Decades-old inequities related to education, environmental conditions, and access to health care, among other challenges, persist, Genco said. “They affect whether children can thrive, whether families can build stability, and whether every person has a fair opportunity to live a healthy life. That is why this conference matters,” Genco said.

UB, she said, is uniquely positioned to leverage its expertise and research in partnership with the community to confront these challenges and bring people and disciplines together.

“As I begin my presidency, I want to be clear: UB will continue to build on these collaborative efforts — in the coming year and well beyond.”

Allison Brashear, MD, MBA, UB’s vice president for health sciences and dean of the Jacobs School, thanked the audience and community for attending.

She discussed how turning community voices into action relates directly to the Jacobs School’s and UB’s efforts and to their multifaceted roles.

“Universities like UB have an important opportunity to serve as convenors, partners, and, perhaps most importantly, catalysts for change,” she said.

Community engagement is one of the pillars of the Jacobs School’s strategic plan, alongside education, research, and clinical care.

“We view community engagement as more than a pillar. It is also the thread that connects everything that we do,” she said. “We improve health outcomes when we work alongside the communities that we serve.”

Heather M. Gardiner, PhD, director of UB’s Community Health Equity Research Institute (CHERI), the Carl V. Granger Endowed Chair in Health Equity, and professor of family medicine, also welcomed conference attendees.

She discussed how shifting goals have affected community work, but that efforts persist.

“This room is full of people refusing to let uncertainty become an excuse to stop. The inequities we’re here to dismantle don’t pause for funding cycles,” Gardiner said.

By working together, new and renewed efforts and ideas shaped at the conference have intentionally addressed housing instability, low literacy levels, limited educational access, and other key areas, she said.

“None of this can be done by any one organization alone. Change in the system ripples through every other part, which means that this has to be a collective effort.”

The Rev. George F. Nicholas, CEO of the Buffalo Center for Health Equity, and Kelly Marie Wofford, director of the Erie County Office of Health Equity, also addressed the audience, reflecting on their personal journeys and the path to transformative change. 

Igniting Hope focused on five critical social determinants of health: affordable housing, access to primary care, access to healthy foods, workforce development, and education and literacy.

Attendees broke off into groups to further discuss and prioritize activities needed to launch a strategic plan to address each of these areas.

David A. Milling, MD, senior associate dean for medical education and associate professor of medicine, facilitated the discussion on improving primary care access.

He detailed the Buffalo Primary Care Initiative, a Jacobs School-led effort to improve health care access by increasing the number of primary care physicians working in underserved areas of Buffalo, including the East Side, and noted the strong association between where doctors train and where they ultimately live and practice.

Milling and audience participants also dug into root causes along with potential solutions. They spoke about complex health care systems, boosting health literacy, better provider reimbursement, and increased cultural competency. Temporary versus sustained solutions and unifying fragmented support providers were also discussed.

“We have to think about things at the root causes. If we’re going to make sustained change, that’s the way we have to do it,” Milling said.   

Gardiner facilitated the session focused on boosting education and literacy.

There, participants also sought to describe root problems and strategize solutions. They talked about the need for better informing local leaders on the topic, transparency and accountability for education funding and resources, and supporting training for youth to enhance employable skills.

The conference attendees then regrouped to share ideas and discuss how to turn them into action.

The Igniting Hope Conference was organized and supported by the Buffalo Center for Health Equity, CHERI, the Erie County Department of Health Office of Health Equity, Highmark, and the Jacobs School.