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Tamara Bland

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has declared racism a public health crisis in the wake of a Chicago Department of Public Health report on health disparities between Black and non-Black Chicago residents. Dr. Tamara Bland, acting executive director of Dominican's MacNeil School of Nursing and an assistant professor in the nursing program, believes that medical professionals need to build fundamental trust with communities of color to help decrease the gap in healthcare. A former home healthcare nurse on Chicago's west side and a former nurse in the cardiac care unit at Rush Medical Center, Bland asserts that the healthcare disparity is exacerbated by chronic diseases such as diabetes, which is more prevalent in communities of color, and factors including lack of access to healthy foods and the inability to afford routine doctor visits. 

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