The 2025 Hubie Jones Lecture in Urban Health: Our Moment to Address the “Taint of Race” in Health, If Not Now, Then When?

In this year’s Hubie Jones Lecture in Urban Health, Michael Curry, Esq., president & CEO of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers, which represents 50 health centers that serve over one million patients at 285 practice sites across the Commonwealth, will discuss the lingering inequities in health -- locally and nationally -- as well as their origins, the efforts in Massachusetts to address them, and the threats presented by the recent shift in federal policy. The presentation will also feature an introduction to the Health Equity Compact, a collection of over 85 leaders of color in Massachusetts who are advancing a health equity agenda for the state, as well as the launch of the nation’s first primary care association-based Institute for Health Equity Research, Evaluation & Policy focused on emancipatory research. Boston University President, Dr. Melissa Gilliam will open the event. Following the lecture, Professor Dolores Acevedo-Garcia, director of the Institute for Equity in Child Opportunity & Healthy Development at BUSSW, will join Curry for a moderated conversation and Q&A with the audience. A reception with refreshments will follow. PROGRAM: 5:30-7:00 pm l Presentation/Q&A (Hybrid) 7:00-8:00 pm l Reception (In-Person) 1.5 free CE credits (pending) will be available to social workers licensed in the U.S. If you wish to receive CE credits, please provide your license number in the registration form. The Hubie Jones Lecture in Urban Health is an annual symposium hosted by Boston University School of Social Work that addresses vexing health issues, featuring national and international leaders working at the intersection of health and social justice. Learn more about the Hubie Jones Lecture in Urban Health.

About Michael Curry, Esq. Curry brings over 35 years of experience and results in civil rights advocacy, health reform and health equity. Under his leadership The Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers, which provides clinical, advocacy, workforce, data, legal and compliance support for its members, has thrived. Doubling in size over the last four years with over 100 staff, the organization secured the largest contract in the association’s history at over $300 million to administer the state’s provider loan repayment program, MA Repay, and launched the nation’s first Institute for Health Equity Research, Evaluation & Policy, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization designed to promote and engage in community-driven research, evaluation, and public policy to achieve health equity. Among his many leadership positions, Curry held several significant roles during the COVID-19 pandemic. He was co-chair of the legislatively created Health Equity Task Force, served on the Vaccine Working Group and the Department of Public Health’s Health Equity Advisory Group, the City of Boston’s Health Inequity Task Force, and the City of Brockton’s Social Justice Task Force. He earned a reputation for being the equity voice in the room. The experiences led him to co-launch the Health Equity Compact, a collection of over 85 c-suite leaders of color aimed at driving health equity reform in Massachusetts. In just three years, the group filed the first in the nation omnibus health equity reform bill, hosted the state’s first of its kind annual Health Equity Summit, worked with the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation to publish a Cost of Inequity report which made the business case to eliminate health disparities, and partnered with MassINC. to capture and publish a poll on the topic. Curry is the past president of the Boston branch of the NAACP with over 25 years of dedicated service to the organization on the city, state-area conference and national levels. He says of his roots, “Where I’m from keeps where I am in perspective.” He was born into poverty, raised by a single mother in public housing and is a graduate of the Boston Public Schools. He is also a graduate of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., New England Law Boston, and the inaugural class of the Executive Leadership Council’s Pipeline to Leadership Program.

About Prof. Dolores Acevedo-Garcia Dolores Acevedo-Garcia, PhD, MPA-URP, is a renowned researcher of child health equity and social policy, and director of the newly created Institute for Equity in Child Opportunity & Healthy Development (IECOHD). Her research focuses on the social determinants of racial/ethnic inequities in health (e.g. residential segregation, neighborhood inequality, immigrant adaptation); the role of social policies in reducing those inequities (e.g. housing, anti-poverty, immigrant policies); and the well-being of children with special needs. She received her BA in Public Administration from El Colegio de Mexico (Mexico City) and her MPA-URP and PhD in Public Policy with a concentration in Demography from the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.