Taking the Assault on Health Equity Personally

The author feels himself to be an anomaly-both a full professor at age 38 at a nationally ranked medical center and a Black man from Baltimore with dreadlocks. He considered leaving academic medicine given the political changes occurring in the United States. The National Institutes of Health are terminating funded grants focused on health equity, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are rolling back effective public health strategies specifically designed to mitigate health disparities. His main impetus for entering academic medicine-advancing health equity-as well as his identity as a Black male is being threatened. He is running out of positive coping mechanisms to counter these threats to remain in academic medicine. Addressing these challenges will require intentional efforts from faculty implementing health equity interventions, academic centers taking a stance, and foundations financially supporting health disparities research and interventions now abandoned by federal agencies.