Health justice starts with humankindness.

Good health is a human right.

Yet there are vast inequities in health access, quality, and education that disproportionately burden our nation. CommonSpirit® is addressing these systemic challenges on many fronts. But we know that the most powerful catalyst for change is actually found within each of us—in our shared humanity, kindness, and capacity to care.

Catalyst Conversations

Health justice doesn’t just happen. It arises from the vision and leadership of people who are committed to a healthier world. Prepare to be inspired as you join CommonSpirit Health® CEO Lloyd H. Dean in conversation with some of these remarkable catalysts of change.
Molly Burhans Headshot

Molly Burhans
Environmentalist, Cartographer and Social Entrepreneur​

Molly Burhans is an internationally recognized environmentalist, cartographer, and social entrepreneur. She is the founder of GoodLands and was the Chief Cartographer for the first unified global map of the Catholic Church in history, which premiered in the Vatican in 2016. Read Full Bio

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Ron Finley Headshot

Ron Finley
Artivist and Gangsta Gardener

Most widely known as the “Gangsta Gardener,” Ron Finley inadvertently started a horti-cultural revolution when he transformed the barren parkway in front of his South Central L.A. home into an edible oasis. Ron unexpectedly became one of L.A.’s most widely known artivists. Read Full Bio

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Everyone has a stake in this.

Inequities in our public health system are felt directly and disproportionately in systematically excluded communities. But their suffering indirectly affects us all through billions of dollars in excess medical care costs and lost productivity. There is another kind of cost as well—the cost to our nation’s conscience, its empathetic nature, and its ideals of fairness.

Soup Kitchen

What is health justice?

Everyone should have the opportunity to be healthier. As simple as that sounds, there is formidable complexity behind it. Achieving health justice will require a nationwide commitment to addressing poverty, domestic violence, food scarcity, climate change, drug addiction, childhood education, health policy, and more in meaningful ways.
Graffiti Mural

What is CommonSpirit doing?

As one of the nation’s leading health systems, CommonSpirit invests tens of millions of dollars toward finding solutions to these challenges. We are also expanding access to care in underserved communities, supporting a wide range of community health programs, and working with policymakers to advance health justice on a national scale. There is much more work to be done, though, and CommonSpirit is committed to this for the long run.

A snapshot
of health inequality
in America.

+40%

High blood pressure

Black adults are 40 percent more likely to have high blood pressure than are non-Hispanic white Americans.

Source

A snapshot
of health inequality
in America.

2x

Liver cancer deaths

Hispanic men and women are twice as likely as white Americans to die from liver cancer.

Source

A snapshot
of health inequality
in America.

8x

Hepatitis B deaths

Asian Americans are eight times more likely than white Americans to die from hepatitis B.

Source

A snapshot
of health inequality
in America.

+60%

Childhood asthma

American Indian and Alaska Native children are 60 percent more likely than white children to suffer from asthma.

Source

A snapshot
of health inequality
in America.

1.3x

Diabetes

Hispanic adults are 1.3 times more likely than non-Hispanic whites to die from diabetes.

Source

A snapshot
of health inequality
in America.

+50%

Stroke

African Americans are 50 percent more likely than white adults to have a stroke.

Source

An epidemic
of violence

Violence kills tens of thousands of Americans every year and injures millions more. It is one of the most prominent public health issues of our time, and it is entirely preventable. Human trafficking is a particular type of violence that is pervasive yet widely misunderstood. CommonSpirit’s Violence and Human Trafficking Prevention and Response (VHTPR) Program is a new model for health care systems to comprehensively address multiple issues of violence.
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Violence Counseling
Doctor and Nurse Meeting

Culturally informed
care.

When patients of color are in the care of doctors from their own culture, outcomes improve. To help foster more culturally informed care, CommonSpirit has committed $100,000,000 to Morehouse School of Medicine to increase the number of physicians from underrepresented communities.
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Climate
action for
better health.

The effects of climate change can harm everyone, but disproportionately the health and well-being of people who live in lower-income areas. CommonSpirit Health is taking a stance with an industry-leading commitment to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 and an interim target to cut operational emissions in half by 2030.
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What progress looks like.

Violence Prevention

Working Together to Prevent Youth Violence

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Justice

There is no “Normal,” and that’s Okay

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Addiction Treatment

A Small Town Takes on Opioid Abuse

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Why equity in
health matters.

The Lloyd H. Dean
Institute for Health Justice
and humankindness.

Lloyd H. Dean believes that our greatness is derived from our rich diversity. He has dedicated his career to health justice and preserving and expanding health care access for all.

A nationally recognized leader for health justice in our country, Mr. Dean has helped shape public policy at the national, state and local levels with a focus on quality, health equity and advocating for the most vulnerable.

“I chose a career in health care because there can be no justice or dignity without health. Nor health without justice or dignity. Eyes can no longer be closed. Heads cannot be turned. Blame not shifted. This is the time for all people to demand justice, truth and dignity for all,” Lloyd Dean wrote after the murder of George Floyd.

As a health justice leader, Mr. Dean believes that humanity has the power to heal. Through his leadership as CEO of CommonSpirit Health, one of the nation’s largest health systems, Dean has led groundbreaking programs and partnerships that expand health justice for all. These include his nationally recognized work to advance climate action, anti-violence and human trafficking programs, and educational partnerships with Morehouse School of Medicine, Creighton University and Baylor School of Medicine to shape the future workforce by training and graduating a more diverse health care workforce.

Lloyd H. Dean Headshot

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