2026 AAAC Symposium: We Got Us: Our Health, Our Rights, Our Future
By Crown Family School
Featuring Dr. Olusimbo Ige, Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, as Keynote Speaker
This year’s African-American Alumni Committee (AAAC) Symposium, held on Saturday, February 21st in Edith Abbott Hall, conveyed a clear message: health, well-being, and access to care are basic human rights, essential for families and communities to thrive and achieve equitable health outcomes.
The day-long bi-annual event brought together alumni, practitioners, researchers, students, and community leaders to examine how systems shape health outcomes for Black Chicagoans, and how community organizing, research, and policy can transform them.
Janelle R. Goodwill, PhD, Neubauer Family Assistant Professor at the Crown Family School, opened the symposium by framing health and well-being as inseparable from civil rights, including education, housing, and economic access.
“We cannot wait.”
Dr. Ige’s keynote message emphasized that health inequities are not accidental, but built into systems. She acknowledged that dismantling them cannot wait, but also requires professionals who understand both policy and lived experience. Throughout her remarks, Dr. Ige underscored that the social work profession sits at the intersection of healthcare, housing, education, and justice systems.
(Photo Credit: Beto de Freitas)
"Health must go beyond survival. The goal is for Black Chicagoans to prosper, physically, mentally, and socially,” Dr. Ige said.
She challenged attendees to know representation is not symbolic; it is structural. Black communities deserve providers who understand cultural context, who recognize racism as a health determinant, and who are prepared to confront it directly. Echoing the urgency that threaded through the day, she reminded the audience, “We cannot wait.”
"Waiting for perfect policy conditions or institutional reform is not an option, and social workers are not only service providers, but must act as architects of equitable systems,” Dr. Ige said.
Building systems that serve
The panel discussion, moderated by Eugene Robinson, Jr., AM ‘09, covered several topics, including the historical aspects of health justice, current systems, and community-led solutions.
During the discussion, Lionel Kimble, PhD, associate professor of History and Africana Studies at Chicago State University, stressed that accessible, community-rooted education is essential for civic engagement. People cannot advocate for change if they cannot access or interpret information, Professor Kimble said.
Star August Ali, CPM, LM, founder of Black Midwifery Collective, called for building a community-based maternal health workforce to counter preventable deaths among Black women.
Dr. Elizabeth Tung, an assistant professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago, emphasized that shifting from discussing only “social determinants” to recognizing “structural determinants” of health is key, highlighting how financial systems delayed critical resources, such as a South Side trauma center.
During the lunch symposium, attendees listened to the youth keynote speaker, Damarion Spann, a student in the Chicago Public School district. He implored the practitioners, community leaders, and advocates in the room to include young people in decision-making, especially policy decisions that directly impact them.
Leading Change at the Community Level
The day continued with four breakout session options. In Health: Black Maternal Health & Access to Quality Healthcare, Ali and Taneka Douglas, a faculty member at Kennedy-King College, discussed their focus on improving Black maternal health and diversifying the midwifery workforce, through policy and education.
Jasmine Herrion, PhD, led Reclaiming Research: Community-Centered Data for Civic Impact, emphasizing that researchers must build relationships in communities before conducting studies. Partnerships with local schools and attendance or sponsorship of community events were examples of relationship-building. And she encouraged researchers to make data accessible, so community members understand its impact on their lives.
During Community Empowerment: Human-Centred Approaches to Healthcare, Ayesha Jaco presented a video and guided participants through mapped locations of key human health services and other amenities, illustrating disparities in access and the effects on health and life expectancy in specific Chicago neighborhoods.
(Photo Credit: Beto de Freitas)
Camesha Jones-Brandon, AM’16, LCSW, founder and executive director of Sista Afya Community Care NFP, and Songiné Clarke, Community Care Program Manager at Sista Afya, led the session on Mental Health, Trauma, and Healing. Sista Afya is a nonprofit providing affordable, community-based mental health care for women facing barriers to care in Chicago. Facilitators led the participants from social work, communications, healthcare, and community service through discussions on the complexity and urgency of addressing mental health in Chicago’s Black community.
A call forward
By the end of the day, the throughline was unmistakable. For attendees, the symposium was not simply a conversation, but an invitation and challenge, to push the work forward. Symposium co-chairs Briahna Williams, AM'21, and Radiah Shabazz Harold, AM'18, described the event as timely and necessary, given the mounting health disparities and economic pressures on Black communities.
Shabazz Harold, a member of the Crown Family School African American Alumni Committee, felt compelled to co-chair the bi-annual event given the current polarizing political climate.
“I just couldn't say, no, there's so much need,” Shabazz Harold said.
(Photo Credit: Beto de Freitas)
Panelist and breakout session facilitator Jasmine Herrion, PhD, of the Black Researchers Collective and founder of The Trauma Zone, a non-profit organization for gun violence survivors, said her goal was to keep “community at the center of what we’re doing.”
Livi Murray, a second-year Master of Social Work student in the Integrated Health, Mental Health & Social Care pathway, attended the symposium between classes.
“One of the main takeaways was how important community…and each other's well-being is,” Murray said. “We live in a very individualized society, so we need to find innovative ways to re-establish communal roots, as our ancestors did.”
The number of experienced practitioners in attendance particularly inspired Murray. “It showcases the importance of…continuing to do this work and continuing to be an activist throughout one's lifetime,” Murray said.
That intergenerational continuity was intentional. Williams, reflecting on her own graduate experience at the Crown Family School, said the strong alumni presence made her feel supported, and she hoped this year’s symposium would do the same for current students.
“We as a community, we always come together,” Shabazz said. “This is what we do. We got us.”
AAAC Symposium Highlights
