Health Equity Action is a consulting firm that supports organizations in bridging the gap from theory to practice to advance health equity.
Advancing health equity is imperative.
The CDC defines health equity as:
“The state in which everyone has a fair and just opportunity to attain their highest level of health. Achieving this requires focused and ongoing societal efforts to address historical and contemporary injustices; overcome economic, social, and other obstacles to health and healthcare; and eliminate preventable health disparities.”
Think of this as the start of a journey. We know that racism is historically the root cause of poor health outcomes and the primary driver of inequity. Far more than a mere product of a few bad actors or random incidents of prejudice — racism, anti-Blackness, white supremacy and other forms of oppression are systematic and structural in the United States. Know this: The work of advancing health equity and unpacking anti-Blackness and structural racism does not stop. There is no checklist and there is no final destination.
Equity transformation starts with looking inward. It requires examining systems, practices, and policies to assess where inequities are produced and where equity can be proactively created. This requires an examination of how anti-Blackness and white supremacy influences organizational culture, then identifying and committing to areas of transformation. The journey to advance health equity is a long one that requires continuous commitment, improvement, and community-centered transformation.
The steps to take to operationalize health equity that Health Equity Action has developed are informed by evidence-based and community-driven practices that prompt organizations to enable clinical, communal and organizational transformation.
Liberation does not come solely from change in individuals’ personal beliefs and values.
It requires changes in policies, practices, organizational structures, and power imbalances.
Principles that guide the Health Equity Action approach:
>Racism is a primary driver of inequity and we must address structural barriers
We recognize that anti-Black racism, structural racism, and white supremacy are primary drivers of inequity and pose a serious threat to advancing health equity. Structural racism continues to impact the health and wellbeing of communities and prevents them from achieving optimal health outcomes. It is critical to not only name this - but to audit and assess how this shows up in practices, policies, protocols, systems, and resources.
> We must prioritize people who experience the greatest inequities
To advance health equity, we have to pinpoint the inequities that exist. We start with what the data is telling us and stratify by demographics, such as race, ethnicity, and language. We also work to paint the full picture of community needs - alongside community. Quantitative data doesn’t always capture the nuance of lived experiences, intersectional identities, and groups that are typically excluded from traditional power structures and institutions. As practitioners, we have a responsibility to fully understand the inequities that exist and the root causes of them. With limited resources and time, we need to be focused and center and prioritize communities who are experiencing the greatest inequities and who have been the most systemically disenfranchised.
> We iterate, we learn, we improve
Transformation is an iterative process and requires evolving continuously as initiatives are executed and community, patient, and partner feedback is incorporated, rebuilding as we go along. Testing changes provides us with meaningful insight into what works and can be scaled - and what isn’t producing the results we anticipated. Creating mechanisms to incorporate feedback in every step of the process not only enables us serve people’s needs, but it also prevents us from doing harm.
> We involve community and share power with community
Nothing about us without us*; institutions need to involve community from the start — from the identification of challenges to the creation of solutions. It's important to build authentic and sustainable relationships across a diverse range of community players to promote equity, support community needs, and address underlying causes of poor health outcomes. This includes seeking out a diverse group of voices that include populations in geographically isolated areas, racial/ethnic diversity, gender diversity, populations with low-incomes, language diversity, the LGBTQ+ community, people who are uninsured, people with disabilities, immigrants, refugees and asylees. Institutions have an opportunity and a responsibility to listen to the needs of all the communities they serve, bring community organizations into decision making processes, and involve the community in programming through collective action. These activities are grounded in establishing trust and relationships, uniting different actors in a common agenda, creating shared goals and measures, and fostering mutually reinforcing activities, in order to rebalance power and promote better health outcomes.
*This slogan originates from the Disability Rights movement. Learn more here.
Tala Mansi (she/her)Principal and Founder
My understanding of health equity starts with my own lived experiences with systems of oppression as the daughter of refugees and as someone who grew up in an immigrant household in New York City.
My unwavering commitment to justice and truth drives my passion for contributing, however small, to building a world where all communities are healthy, thriving, and joyful. Every person deserves equitable access to resources, autonomy, and the power to live a healthy life. This commitment is at the heart of everything I do, personally and professionally, and has guided my work in public health and health equity for the past twelve years.
Services
Health Equity & Health Care
Health equity strategy development
Health equity metrics development
Operationalizing health equity through the entire lifecycle of any initiative, project, or process
Clinical Quality Improvement
Creating and sustaining a Community Advisory Board
Transformational Community Engagement
Community Needs Assessment
Social Needs Screening - strategy and best case practices
Maximizing Medicaid reimbursements to address structural determinants of health
Social and structural determinants of health strategy
Patient experience analysis (Press Ganey)
Employee experience analysis
Person-centered contraceptive care
Reproductive justice training for clinical and non-clinical staff
Operationalizing gender-affirming programs and policies
Research
Mixed-methods study design
Human-centered design - prototyping, empathy mapping
Qualitative research
Quantitative research
Survey design and development
Key informant interviews
Focus groups
Qualitative analysis (Dedoose)
Quantitative analysis (SPSS, R, Excel)
Leading teams through research processes, collaborative synthesis/analysis, and insight development
Facilitation & Training
Trauma-informed facilitation
Creating psychologically safe and inclusive spaces
Facilitation for vision, mission, goals development and all strategic planning components
Curriculum development
Facilitation of leadership team retreats and team building
Nonprofit Management
Strategic planning
Project management
Program Development
Grant proposal development - Government
Grant proposal development - Foundations
Contracts
Equity-driven Budgeting
