Beneath the Masks: Men, Masculinities, & COVID-19 Disparities
Join APA Division 51 President and UConn Health Disparities Institute Director, Dr. Wizdom Powell along with Dr. Brian Smedley, PhD of APA, Dr. Joel Wong, PhD, of Indiana University, Dr. Ron Levant, EdD, of APA Division 51 & Dr. Derrick Griffith, of Vanderbilt University. Death rates due to COVID-19 are highest among men across the U.S. There are sub-populations at great risk for COVID-19 disparities with higher impacts of racial/ethnic communities of color. If findings were rooted in biology, we would see across all racial/ethnic groups. Roles played by masculinities and psych0social factors, shared cultural expectations or standards of how men should be, we recognize that many of the expectations are socially constructed and operate in tandem with biological factors of potential disparate outcomes for men and boys. These conversations will center on reimagining masculinities, transforming systems, & advancing health equity.
APA Division 51 will 3 webinars on Men and Masculinities and COVID-19
Brian D. Smedley, PhD, is chief of psychology in the public interest and acting chief diversity officer, where he leads APA's efforts to apply the science and practice of psychology to the fundamental problems of human welfare and social justice. A national thought leader in the field of health equity, Smedley got his start in Washington, DC, as an APA Congressional Science Fellow, and subsequently served at APA as director of public interest policy. Most recently, he was co-founder and executive director of the National Collaborative for Health Equity, a project that connects research, policy analysis and communications with on-the-ground activism to advance health equity. He was also co-director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health Leadership National Program Center.
From 2008-14, Smedley was vice president and director of the Health Policy Institute of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, DC, a research and policy organization focused on addressing the needs of communities of color. Previously, Smedley was research director and co-founder of a communications, research and policy organization, The Opportunity Agenda, which seeks to build the national will to expand opportunity for all.
Ronald F. Levant, Ed.D., ABPP, is currently Professor Emeritus of Psychology, The University of Akron, where he served as Dean of the Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences from 2005-2009. He also served as the 2005 President of APA, and as Editor of the Psychology of Men and Masculinity (2007-2015). Dr. Levant has authored, co-authored, edited or co-edited 19 books and over 250 peer-reviewed refereed journal articles and book chapters. He is a the co-author for The Tough Standard: The Hard Truths about Masculinity and Violence His research focus is in the psychology of men and masculinity. Further information is at his website: www.DrRonaldLevant.com
Dr. Joel Wong is a Professor of Counseling Psychology and Chair of the Counseling & Educational Psychology Department at Indiana University. Dr. Wong is a fellow of the American Psychological Association through Divisions 17, 45, and 51 and of the Asian American Psychological Association. His research interests are in the psychology of men and masculinities, positive psychology, and Asian American mental health. Dr. Wong is the co-editor of two books on men and masculinities – the APA Handbook of Men and Masculinities (with Dr. Stephen Wester) and the Psychology of Men and Masculinities (with Dr. Ron Levant). He is also an associate editor for the journal, Psychology of Men and Masculinities.
Dr. Derek M. Griffith is Professor of Medicine, Health and Society, and he is the Founder and Director of the Center for Research on Men’s Health at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Griffith also has affiliate appointments in American Studies, Health Policy, Human and Organizational Development, and Sociology at Vanderbilt, and he is the chair of the Tennessee Men’s Health Report Card.
Trained in psychology and public health, Dr. Griffith has developed a program of research that focuses on developing and implementing behavioral and policy strategies to achieve equity in health and well-being. He has been a leader in three areas: (a) applying the concepts of intersectionality and manhood to men’s health; (b) developing and testing precision lifestyle medicine interventions to prevent and reduce the impact of obesity, cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease among African American men and other groups of men; and (c) conceptualizing institutional racism, men’s health disparities, and men’s health equity. His research has been featured on NPR and in Ebony, Time, USA Today, and numerous other national media outlets.
Dr. Griffith is a contributor to and editor of two books: Men’s Health Equity (Routledge, 2019), the first book to describe unjust yet modifiable differences among men in the United States and across the world, and Racism: Science and Tools for the Public Health Professional (APHA Press, 2019), which offers insight and strategies to identify and address racism in various public health roles and settings. He is a member of the editorial boards of several men’s health and public health journals, and has been a guest editor of seven journal special issues or supplements on aspects of men’s health, health equity and men’s health equity. Dr. Griffith has co-authored or provided expert review of reports from the American Psychological Association, Promundo-US, and the World Health Organization.
Dr. Griffith been the principal investigator of over 4-million dollars in research grants and co-investigator of over 26-million dollars in research grants from the American Cancer Society, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, other foundations, and several institutes within the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Griffith has collaborated with colleagues in Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and the United States on various research projects on health equity, men’s health, institutional racism in public health, and racism as a determinant of health. Currently, Dr. Griffith is conducting three studies: (a) Mighty Men, the first individually tailored, faith-based weight loss study specifically designed for African American men; (b) Tailor Made, the first weight loss intervention for African American and Latino men that seeks to incorporate individual psychological and biological factors; and (c) Engendering Trust in Health Care, which aims to create a new measure to increase African American men’s trust in health care by incorporating gender, age and race.
Dr. Griffith was given the Tom Bruce Award by the Community-Based Public Health Caucus of the American Public Health Association in recognition of his leadership in community-based public health and for his research on “eliminating health disparities that vary by race, ethnicity and gender”. In addition, he was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Health Behavior for significant contributions to the field of health behavior research.
