Inbox MORE BLACK PHYSICIANS Thanks for the great alumni magazine feature on the need for Black physicians. It was wonderful to see so many accomplished Haverford alums (and good friends, in many cases!) highlighted. I wanted to add one more to the list: Dr. Michelle Johnson ’88, a cardiologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. (I am sure that others will be submitted.) Going forward, it seems that it would be important and most timely to have a way to continue to acknowledge all of Haverford’s Black alumni physicians who are changing the face of medicine and health care. Perhaps this could be a larger project for the Koshland Integrated Natural Sciences Center? —Andrea Morris ’91 (former associate professor of biology at Haverford) [Editor’s note: Dr. Michelle Johnson ’88, the recently appointed vice chair, Health Equity, in the Sloan Kettering Department of Medicine, is working on quality of care issues that may be affected by race, ethnicity, and other disparities, and helping to develop strategies for recruiting, mentoring, and retaining future healthcare professionals.]
A Call to Action Student activism drives new diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives
The Magazine of Haverford College
Christina Bradley ‘12 Mental health and the pandemic
Comp Sci Surge The department expands to meet student demand
FALL 2020
Why the U. S. Needs More Black Physicians
between 1992 and 2015 suggest that newborn-physician racial concordance is associated with a significant improvement in mortality for Black infants. Results further suggest that these benefits manifest during more challenging births and in hospitals that deliver more Black babies. We find no significant improvement in maternal mortality when birthing mothers share race with their physician. Black infant mortality is a national shame but the data only suggests that there is improvement when there is racial concordance.
A good article about the need for more —Kinloch Nelson ’65 M.D. Black physicians and the problems they face. I concur 100 percent. But there was a problem in the article. [Its author,] Karen Brooks, wrote that a study published in September 2020 said that Black newborns are three times more likely than white newborns to die in the hospital when their doctors are white. Here is the quote from the abstract: In the United States, Black newborns die at three times the rate of white newborns. Results examining 1.8 million hospital births in the state of Florida The outdoor classroom behind Woodside Cottage. 2
Haverford Magazine
FOSTERING MAGIC ON CAMPUS My wife, Maxine, and I were delighted to see the fall issue of Haverford magazine feature a photo [p. 49] of the outdoor classroom whose creation we supported. A number of years ago, we were giving thought to donating funds to Haverford for the construction of an outdoor venue for classes, discussion sessions, and dramatic presentations. We wanted to memorialize Maxine’s parents—her mother, a longtime teacher, and her father, an avid gardener. In 2014 we approached Bill Astifan, then head of the Arboretum, with various ideas. We both had been auditing courses for a number of years (as we continue to do), with Maxine focusing on English, her major as an undergraduate at Temple University. At Haverford, she has enjoyed several of Professor Maud McInerny’s courses featuring the literature of the Middle Ages. One concept featured in that literature concerns clearings found within (wild) forests. Exotic characters appear in these clearings, and magical events occur there. Maxine viewed the clearing behind Woodside Cottage as an appropriate site for the “magic”—the delight and understanding—that can be experienced in the literature classes at Haverford. Taken with the idea, Bill agreed, and together we worked out a plan for a circle of benches, an arrangement that fosters interchange and conversation. While we were considering the style of the benches, Bill offered to supplement the funds we were donating in order to acquire benches manufactured by the English firm of Gaze Burville, which specializes in bent oak furniture. The result is an unexpected haven set inside a clearing in Haverford’s woods. —David Cook ’64