Join Culture Push Disability Arts Curatorial Fellow Megan Bent on March 16th for a community discussion on “Healthcare is a Human Right.”
Healthcare in America is a system where corporations make billions while the care it is supposed to provide is largely inaccessible and overpriced. Threats to Medicaid and Medicare are proposed to create larger tax cuts for billionaires. As more and more folks are affected by this cruel system the need for community to share and process has never been more urgent.
Join us online on March 16th at 4 PM for a community conversation on healthcare justice with Dr. Donald Moore from PNHP (Physicians for National Health Plan), Jamila Headley from Be A Hero, and Marianne Pizzitolla from NYC Org of Public Service Retirees.
The conversation will be moderated by Megan Bent, 2024-2025 Culture Push Disability Arts Curatorial Fellow. They will answer questions about what is happening with healthcare and ways folks can engage in healthcare justice in their communities. In this event, there will be time for participant questions and for small group reflection. To close out the event we will have time to reflect together.
Register here
Speakers:
Megan Bent (she/her) is a lens-based artist interested in ways image-making can happen beyond "traditional" media and methods. She is drawn to processes that reflect and embrace her disabled experience; especially interdependence, impermanence, care, and slowness. Her most recent work focuses on personal experiences of healthcare denials and critiques the use of AI in healthcare. She is interested in weaving together her health justice activism and art practice. Her work has been exhibited domestically and abroad at venues including The U.N. Headquarters, NY, NY; Root Division, San Francisco, CA; form & concept, Santa Fe, NM; F1963, Busan, South Korea; and Fotonostrum, Barcelona, Spain. She was a recent recipient of the 2023 Wynn Newhouse Awards.
DR. DONALD MOORE is a Yale-trained physician and public health specialist with over 35 years of experience in primary care and hospital practice, including emergency medicine. He consults on medical practice management, healthcare delivery systems, and health information technology. He is an Adjunct Professor of Biology at Pace University and a Clinical Assistant Professor at Weill Medical College of Cornell University and SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University. With over 35 years of experience, he has served as an Attending Physician at New York Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital and maintained a primary care practice in Brooklyn. As an educator and equity advocate, Dr. Moore is recognized as a thought leader in medicine and public health.
JAMILA HEADLEY is an impact-focused leader and an accomplished advocate for healthcare, racial, and disability justice. She thrives at the intersections of strategy and implementation, building organizations and movements at the global and local levels, and caring for the individuals in them. Jamila comes to Be A Hero, having spent the past 18 years advancing racial, economic, and health justice across the United States, the Caribbean, Eastern and Southern Africa, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and South-East Asia. She also brings to Be A Hero her significant expertise in strategic advocacy and movement building, health policy analysis and research, private philanthropy, and building progressive organizational and movement infrastructure. A Rhodes scholar, Jamila has a BA in Political Science, a Masters in Global Health, and a Ph.D. in Public Health from the University of Oxford. A former academic, Jamila has published research in health policy and financing, health systems reform, and the role of social movements in policy change. Jamila is a Caribbean immigrant from Barbados, where she grew up. She is living with the neurological disorder, Transverse Myelitis.
MARIANNE PIZZITOLA is a retired member of the FDNY EMS who has dedicated her post-retirement life to advocating for EMS retirees. After the devastating events of 9/11, she founded the FDNY EMS Retirees Association, focusing on ensuring that EMS retirees received the medical care they deserved. In 2021, Marianne saw another challenge that needed addressing: the forced enrollment of NYC retirees into Medicare Advantage plans. Understanding the potential impacts on retirees' healthcare options, she established the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees. Under her leadership, this organization has successfully mobilized thousands of retirees, culminating in several legal victories against the City of New York. Marianne's efforts have not only safeguarded retirees' healthcare choices but have also highlighted the importance of retiree advocacy.
