SHLI Announces the Inaugural Robert Raben Health Equity Innovation Competition Winners

Supporting the emerging generation of health equity innovators.

Atlanta, GA - The Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine (SHLI) recently hosted the Inaugural Robert Raben Health Equity Innovation Award Competition. This novel competition brings bright and innovative young minds together to compete for a $10,000 award to complete their health equity innovation project within twelve (12) months.  The Health Equity Innovation Award Competition is named in honor of the visionary work of Robert Raben. Raben is the founder and current President of the Raben Group, a consulting firm based in Washington, D.C. The Raben Group is a national public affairs and strategic communications firm committed to making connections, solving problems, and inspiring change across the corporate, nonprofit, foundation, and government sectors.  Raben has coordinated federal and local advocacy efforts for free speech, gun control, refugee assistance, LGBTQ issues, intellectual property, and cybercrime throughout his illustrious career. COMPETITION OVERVIEW After a thorough review process, the SHLI application reviewers selected the following top three projects:

• Shannon McInteer – Therapeutic Play Foundation - “Educational Wellness Retreat”
• Sandra Kong & Xindi Chen – Johns Hopkins School of Medicine - “Optimizing Care Coordination for Patients with Multimorbidity”
• Caitlin Costello – Portland State University - “Potential for Arbuscular Fungi to Aid in Corn Uptake of Iron”

The finalists attended a live virtual pitch competition, which featured this esteemed group of judges:  

• Robert Raben, JD - The Raben Group

• Elena Ong, PHN, MS - Ong & Associates, APHA
• Christian Amador, MBA, MSc - Satcher Health Leadership Institute
• Nelson Dunlap, JD - Satcher Health Leadership Institute
• Nia Mitchell, MPH - National Birth Equity Collaborative

Upon completion of the finalist's pitches, the judges deliberated and announced the winning pitch: “Optimizing Care Coordination for Patient with Multimorbidity” by Sandra Kong and Xindi Chen.  

“Thank you to SHLI and Robert Raben Health Equity Innovation team for this opportunity; it has been incredibly rewarding to share our work with a community that is similarly invested in health equity.”, shared Sandra Kong & Xindi Chen, Inaugural Award Recipients of the Robert Raben Health Equity Innovation Award. “The Multidisciplinary Empowerment for Sustainable Health (MESH) Program at Hopkins is advancing primary care delivery and coordination. We are excited that with this award, we will be able to expand upon MESH’s work to further streamline how our most vulnerable patients navigate the healthcare system. We have learned so much in the past few months and can’t wait to see where the next year of collaboration takes us.”

The winners of this competition will continue to work alongside the SHLI team of experts and dedicated health equity mentors to continue to further develop their health equity project.  Stay up-to-date on the progress of this project as we follow along our Health Equity Innovator’s journey toward realizing and advancing equity for the communities they serve.   For questions regarding how to participate in future iterations of this award competition please contact Dr. Jammie Hopkins at JHopkins@msm.edu.

Learn More About the Competition Here