Marshall Magazine Summer 2022

“ For me , the most important aspect of the job is to help be the voice of the minorities and underserved populations in West Virginia .”

Mississippi, where he earned two master’s degrees in business ad ministration and sociology. After that, he enrolled in a doctoral pro gram at Boston University, where he earned a Ph.D., specializing in medical sociology with a subspecialty in complex organizations. Today, as professor and chair of Marshall’s Department of Public Health in the College of Health Professions, Woart continues the work he launched with the MHI two decades ago. It began with a 2003 research project to examine the demographics of students who attended Bluefield State, a histori cally Black college. As a result of the project, Woart uncovered star tling facts that set him on a course of health-equity discovery in the Mountain State. “I learned that not only was the rate of breast cancer among African American women disproportionately higher compared to their white counterparts in West Virginia, but they also received a late diagnosis,” Woart recalled. For his research, he considered specific social determinants such as age, household income, frequency of mammograms and breast self exams and family history of breast cancer, to name a few. After shar ing his findings with the National Institutes of Health, he secured a $1 million grant to further his research for a second year. In 2018 he was named chair of the Department of Public Health in the College of Health Professions at Marshall. In Huntington Woart found a new home to align the work

education projects over the past four years, including COVID-19 vaccina tion education awareness projects. As an African American woman and Huntington native, the mission of the MHI is very personal to her. “It is especially important to achieve health equity and reduce the burdens of health disparities among the minority and under served populations, as well as to strengthen and improve access to health care through education, re source development, research and community partnerships,” Walker Dean noted. Although the MHI is funded entirely through various grants, it also collaborates with government entities, policymakers, health care providers and other supporters through partnerships, including the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources Bureau for Public Health, UNICARE Health Plan of West Virginia and the Cabell Huntington Health Department. All of these entities work together to raise funds to support work at the institute. As one of the poorest states in the country, West Virginia has a median household income of $46,000. This affects a family’s economic stability and undoubtedly impacts the overall health of those who are most vulner able. In every category representing the most common chronic diseases among West Virginians — heart dis ease, diabetes and hypertension — African Americans are dispropor tionately impacted. “Although the total population of African Americans stands at 3.6%

— LaDawna Walker-Dean West Virginia Minority Health Initiative

being done at the MHI with both public health and academics. The mission of the collaborative effort is to address health disparities and health equity amongWest Virginia’s minor ity and underserved populations. The staff for the MHI currently occupies four office spaces within the university’s Department of Public Health. An integral part of Woart’s team is LaDawna Walker-Dean, coordinator for the West Virginia Minority Health Initiative. She has been involved in several health ad vocacy initiatives and community

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