New York Public Health Now
Join New York State Department of Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald and Executive Deputy Commissioner Johanne Morne as they explore the critical issues, innovations, and initiatives that shape the health and well-being of the people of New York.
You will hear timely conversations with public health leaders on topics like air quality, climate change, opioids and harm reduction, Wadsworth Center, New York’s world-class public health laboratory, New York State of Health, our health insurance marketplace, Medicaid recertification and much more. If it matters to you, chances are we are talking about it on NYSDOH's podcast, New York Public Health Now.
New York Public Health Now
s2e03 Dr. Cord Stone Discusses the Promotion of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Public Health and at NYSDOH
In this episode of the New York Public Health Now podcast, hosts Commissioner McDonald and Executive Deputy Commissioner Morne are joined by Dr. Cord Stone, Director of the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the New York State Department of Health.
They discuss the links between health disparities and systemic racism, and how addressing implicit bias is key to eliminating health inequities.
Dr. Stone shares the work his office is doing to promote diversity, equity and inclusion within the Department and across communities in New York.
The significance of recognizing concepts like trauma-informed care and the social determinants of health are also explored as ways to advance health equity.
If you have an idea for topics we should discuss, please let us know: PublicHealthNowPodcast@health.ny.gov
Hello and welcome to New York Public Health Now, this is where we talk about the why so you can decide what to do. Again, it's Dr. Jim McDonald coming to you from the 14th floor at Corning Tower here in downtown Albany overlooking Empire State Plaza. And again, our streak of recording these on sunny days continues, which I find fascinating. This is our third episode of season number two and our guest today is Dr. Cord Stone, the Director for the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion here at the New York State Department of Health. But before we welcome you, Dr. Stone, I'd like to introduce my co host Johanne Morne, the Executive Deputy Commissioner here at the New York State Department Health and formerly our first director of our new Office of Health Equity and Human Rights. Johanne, how are you today?
Johanne Morne:I am great, thank you so much. Always a pleasure to join you and glad to be here with Dr. Stone, talking about Black History Month, and how it relates to the goals of the Department of Health and and also how we address the social determinants of health.
Jim McDonald:It's great to have Dr. Stone here, and you know, I
say this a lot:Our mission at the New York State Department Health is to eliminate health disparities. And, you know, health disparities are linked to structural racism, systemic racism, they began under the immoral institution of slavery in our country, and the imprint of redlining, limited educational and economic opportunity and exposure to environmental hazards has left a mark across a broad spectrum of health indicators from maternal health and respiratory illnesses to diabetes, heart disease and substance abuse disorder. We're going to talk more about this topic today, and it's great to have Dr. Cord Stone with us, Dr. Stone before you were appointed the Director of the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion here at the department, you were our Deputy Director of the Office of Sexual Health and Epidemiology within our own AIDS Institute. And Dr. Stone earned his doctorate in executive leadership --- I want to talk more about that --- and has worked in public health for over 15 years. Johanne, I'm excited to have Dr. Stone on our team.
Johanne Morne:Oh, I'm absolutely excited. Dr. Stone is an absolute asset to the department and certainly in his current position. So you know, Dr. Stone, or, as I often hear you introduce yourself humbly, Cord, you've had an exciting career in public health, you've served on the forefront of many epidemics from HIV as well as mass incarceration. You've also done work related to mental health disorders and the impact of COVID-19, particularly as it relates to the impact on communities of color. So welcome to you, and thank you for joining us today.
Jim McDonald:Thank you for the invitation. So Cord, can you just tell us a bit about yourself and what you do here at the department?
Cord Stone:Yeah, sure. So, like you said, I am the Director for the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and I was most recently designated as the Chief Diversity Officer for the Department, and this means that I'm responsible and accountable for ensuring that department has a diversity equity, and inclusion plan, meeting all of our diversity, equity inclusion deliverables, that's given by our governor, but also ensuring that we support entities with establishing diversity, equity, and inclusion goals specific to their centers. I'm also charged with advising and collaborating closely with the executive leadership team and the commissioners on strategic direction specific to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Johanne Morne:In the beginning, Dr. McDonald indicated that you have a doctorate and executive leadership. What is that? Talk to us about what that is?
Cord Stone:Right? Like why get a degree in leadership? There are several different requirements on achieving this degree. It was rigorous coursework and field work. But one of the reasons why I wanted to do it is to you know, just just expand my horizons when it comes to being an executive levels of organizations, that organizational change. So some of that work includes public and human relations, leadership and cultural change applied on research, leadership in human resource development and policy laws and ethics. Just to name a few. Yeah,
Jim McDonald:Cord, that's great, and I think, you know, it is great to have your expertise in the department. It's not last week, February is Black History Month, which is something that you know, at the department, we're celebrating an honor and reflecting upon, and it just makes me think I want to start with a concept though, that I think it's really important, just talking about implicit bias. Everybody has implicit bias, I have implicit bias. I'm just trying to learn about it and trying to grow as human being I'm just trying to become more kind of just different as I think through life to understand my own implicit bias, how it affects my decisions. But what is implicit bias? Yeah, thank you for the question, and for you to say that everyone has bias; If you didn't think you had a bias, that would be a bias. Isn't that a good point, if you don't admit to having a bias, that's a bias, really good way to put it. Yeah, please keep going.
Cord Stone:So just as the definition of implicit bias is: Attitudes, stereotypes of payments, or judgment that's being made towards an individual or group of people that people may not be aware of. So this could come from childhood experiences growing up or just in general, general norms across cultures.
Jim McDonald:You know, so that leads me to ask a little bit about we hear the term systemic racism. And I don't know that people always understand what the term systemic racism means, but I wonder if you could just chat a little bit about what is systemic racism.
Cord Stone:So systemic racism, also known as structural or institutional racism, those are the different policies, procedures or practices that exist in our society or within organizations that makes it unfair advantage for certain groups of people based on race or their cultural backgrounds. On a guess a national or macro level would be something like redlining...
Jim McDonald:Redlining, right, what is redlining? Because I don't think people know what that is.
Cord Stone:Yeah, so redlining was an approach or strategy where it limit opportunity for certain groups of people to get loans and mortgages for homes. Sometimes this is even used today. But that's just the overall concept and organizations. It could be something as simple as via an interview on resumes or interview panels.
Jim McDonald:Yeah, it's interesting. When I think of redlining, I think of Levittown, you know, which is like literally what happened is bankers put red lines along map saying, we aren't going to lend money to people of color in these communities. And it's interesting, like when you think about how people accumulate wealth, generational wealth, in particular, a lot of it comes from your home. And if you're passing on wealth to your family, if you had no home to pass on you, you don't pass as much money on. But it really if you think about homeownership, there's a lot that comes from homeownership. But if you're told you can't even borrow money for a home just because of the color of your skin, that's an obvious bias. It's obviously systemic racism, and it has generational impact.
Cord Stone:Absolutely.
Johanne Morne:Yeah. So interesting to talk about the history of redlining and recognize that the very ground that we're on, in this neighborhood, has been impacted by redlining as well. There's a long history here in the Albany area. So you know, Cord, there are many things that you're doing within the department, and one of the huge leadership roles that that you hold, is leading the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Can you talk about the office?
Cord Stone:Yeah, of course. So it was established in February of last year. I wasn't there during that time. But I was hired in June of last year to take on the responsibility of leaving the office. And I think that there's three key reasons why this offer was established. One is to ensure cultural inclusivity within our workforce, and ensuring that, you know, we meet the needs of our staff through staff engagement, retention, satisfaction and organizational culture, but also to help build capacity towards our DEI efforts to help staff to build an influence of equity within the work in the community.
Jim McDonald:Yeah, so I mentioned before, this is Black History Month, what is the significance of Black History month just to you, and how does it relate to your work in the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion here at the Department?
Cord Stone:For me, black history is paying homage to people black backgrounds, who helped to pave the way for others, from black cultures and for other cultures as well. And it's personal for me because I am a black person. But also, it helped to pave the way for opportunities that I have right now, with leading this office and also being at the table.
Jim McDonald:And you're at a lot of tables here, which we really appreciate you being at a lot of our tables here. So what does the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion do to promote diversity, equity and inclusion at Department Health? Can you just give us a few examples of how we actually operationalize that here at the New York State Department Health?
Cord Stone:Yeah, I think it's just quite simple, just normalizing conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion, being able to talk about sensitive conversations, that's one, but also being able to help guide the office, create plans to where we make impact across the board.
Johanne Morne:So as we've talked about, previously, you have a significant public health history, and especially as it relates to leadership, how has that experience influenced your role today?
Cord Stone:As you all have mentioned earlier, I have a lot of health equity experience through my direct service work. And that led to other consulting opportunities to where I was able to provide diversity, equity, and inclusion consultation to government, non-profit and healthcare organizations.
Johanne Morne:So, we started out talking about implicit bias, right, which for many people, means if we're going to have intentional dialogue here within the department, we have to create those spaces. What types of trainings have been conducted or are anticipated?
Cord Stone:Yeah, of course, so we have our implicit bias trainings with our partners from Advancing Health Equity, which is an external consultant who's working with us, and I encourage everyone to participate in that we are at the final stages of ending that project. But we've had we've heard a lot of good things about this training. In addition to that there's focus groups that's related. So our goal is to assess make people aware of health equity, and then also how we can make informed decisions about how we can improve across the board.
Jim McDonald:We're talking to Dr. Cord Stone from the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion here at the New York State Department Health and you know, Dr. Stone, we use words like diversity, we use words like equity, we use words like inclusion, but I'm not sure nobody has real understanding of what those words mean. I'm just wondering, can you just give us a simple understanding of what is diversity?
Cord Stone:I could, I could break it down in a few words. So diversity is acknowledging differences. So every one is different and their own unique way, equity is providing access to opportunity. So internally, that means providing access to job opportunities, promotional opportunities, recognition and those aspects. And then inclusion means making sure that all of those individuals are valued for who they are bringing them to the table to help with decision making, and informed decisions across the board.
Jim McDonald:You know, the way you explained that was really, really valuable. You know, when you talk about diversity, everybody's different, nothing really threatening there, by the way, everybody's different. We talk about equity, everybody having opportunity, again, nothing really threatening there. And we talk about inclusion, everybody having an opportunity to be part of this, right? You know, as a leader of an organization, this is really important to me, because how many great ideas don't happen in large organizations, because you didn't listen to people?
Cord Stone:Right.
Jim McDonald:And everybody comes with different point of view, and I really need those different points of view. When I'm leading the New York State Department Health trying to protect the health and wellness of 20 million people, I want everyone's point of view. Because quite frankly, most people in New York aren't 60 year old, white heterosexual men like I am. I need to know how everything we do impacts everybody. So I think these words are really, really important. Very vital.
Cord Stone:And I think what you said is key, because like you said, it's not threatening, but we don't want to forget anyone, we just want to make opportunities for others who haven't had that opportunity.
Jim McDonald:Right, and you know, I think it's one of the things where I embrace people's differences I learned from everybody every day, public health is public, and it's hard to learn from the public if you're not able to understand that they're different, and all need opportunity, and all to be included.
Johanne Morne:You know, it's really clear to me that the ability to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion has to be about being intentional, right? A lot of times when we think about, you know, the use of these terms and other terms that we hear throughout public health and health care work, the words don't necessarily translate to the action. So public health and practice, if you will. So with all of the work, the training, the prioritization, the intention, that's happening within the Department of Health, how do you see and how do you anticipate that's going to impact our communities and our partners across the state?
Cord Stone:Yeah, that's that's a very important question. I think one of the one of the key things is what Dr. McDonald said, is being intentional and being inclusive across the board. And I think one small step is making sure diversity, equity, and inclusion, health equity is embedded across the board throughout every level of the organization. But also being intentional about the messaging and reflecting that in the community so people can know what we do, to be able to promote health equity in general, in the services that we do.
Jim McDonald:You know, this is Black History Month, and I want to go back to a quote I was thinking about from Dr. Martin Luther King. You know, one of the things that he said once was, "Of all forms of discrimination and inequalities, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhuman." It is shocking and inhuman, right? And again, justice and health. You know, I think about as a doctor, I've been a pediatrician for, gosh, almost 34 years, [I] never looked at a child who was sick differently based on the color of their skin or any other attribute about a child because you want to help kids get better period, the end and prevent problems for them. And really, when I think about a health care in particular, we all need health care. There's a real deep part of my soul that just hurts when you think about people suffering from health disparity because of their race. And I guess I'm just thinking like, you know, as you listened to Dr. Martin Luther King's quote, do you have any thoughts about that, that you'll just share with us?
Cord Stone:Yeah, I think what you were just talking about reminded me of trauma informed care, that opportunity where where folks could get access to health care, they still have to go home into the communities and live their lives and experience different things that may be different from others. So you know, I think embedding trauma informed care into what we do is essential to health equity and diversity, equity, and inclusion, because this work is personal and professional and we have to take into consideration both.
Johanne Morne:I can't agree with you more, trauma informed care is so significant, and I've been really proud of the fact that the department has prioritized this in many ways, both with pilot projects within healthcare settings, and with community-based organizations with the true intention of making sure that as an individual enters a healthcare facility for service, that from the point of entry to the point of exit, people are educated and aware of trauma, and really utilizing the trauma informed care principles in order to allow people to feel safe. So, thank you for raising that and bringing that up. I guess my question to you is, is there anything that we haven't brought up about the experience that you bring the office that is, you know, growing and continuing to impact you will have certainly had voice and ability with not only within the department but with other state agencies? How has that interagency relationship grown and prioritized diversity, equity and inclusion?
Cord Stone:Yeah, of course. I think that interagency working and collaboration are key to the success of our efforts to build a more equitable workforce across the state and across the board, working with other entities has made opportunities for collaborative learning and thinking and also, I'm compiling efforts to be able to inform the governor on her overall decision to make New York state a better place.
Jim McDonald:We've been talking to Dr. Cort Stone today, and Cord, thank you for joining us today. It's been great to have you.
Cord Stone:Of course, it's always a pleasure.
Jim McDonald:We start every episode and end every episode the same we've talked about the why so folks can decide what to do. But today, we've talked about really the concepts of diversity, equity and inclusion, and I liked the way you put it.
Diversity:Just kind of recognizing, hey, folks are
different. Equity:Everybody needs equal opportunities. And
Inclusion:By the way, you really need everyone to get everything to work. These aren't threatening terms. These are actually things that make us a better people, if we understand them. You know, I'm thinking about one of the best books I read last year was The Sum of Us by Dr. Heather McGhee, who just really talked about how when we don't embrace these concepts, it really hurts all of us. So if you want to read Heather McGhee's book, The Sum of Us, that's a good read for me. But one of the concepts I want to close with is if we're going to eliminate health disparities, and if we're going to make meaningful differences in diversity, equity, and inclusion, it's got to be intentional work that leads to actual action, which is what we do with New York State Department Health every day. So that's gonna do it for today of the New York Public Health now podcast. As always, if there's a topic of interest you would like to hear us talk about please let us know by email at PublicHealthNowPodcast@health.ny.gov- Keep an eye out for the latest New York Public Health Now Episode on your favorite podcast player like Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, YouTube Podcasst and Google Podcasts. To find us, search by our podcast title, New York Public Health Now or by keyword NYSDOH. Then tap subscribe or the follow button to get notified when we release a new episode, which comes out about every other week. For New York Public Health Now, I'm Dr. Jim McDonald. I'm Johanne Morne.
Cord Stone:And I'm Dr. Cord Stone.
Jim McDonald:And thank you for listening.
Monica Pomeroy:New York Public Health now is a production of New York State Department of Health's Public Affairs Group. Michael Wren is the executive producer and engineer with additional production support provided by Sarah Snyder, Genine Babakian, Barbara Stubblebine, Alicia Biggs, Monica Pomeroy and Kyle Kotary. Copyright 2024, All rights reserved. We welcome your feedback. Please email us at PublicHealthNowPodcast@health.ny.gov
