Changing the Status Quo

Trina Parks, MHA ’04, FACHE, is working on reducing healthcare disparities across New Jersey.

As part of her undergraduate studies, Trina Parks visited a psychiatric hospital, meeting with patients and journaling their experiences. The project was transformative, giving her an up-close view of both healthcare disparities and the stigma around behavioral health, which she found isn’t always viewed in the same light as other healthcare disciplines. “The hospital had a decrepit infrastructure and didn’t seem like a place I would want to go if I needed help,” she says. “There wasn’t a gift shop with balloons and cards. On my weekly excursions, I saw hardly any visitors, and the patients seemed forgotten.” Many patients, she says, felt like they weren’t heard or seen due to staff or systemic biases. Determined to create meaningful change, Parks completed a Master of Healthcare Administration degree from Seton Hall University, and has since become a leader who works tirelessly to quash healthcare disparities in communities throughout New Jersey.

Parks says all patients should receive the same level of care and respect—regardless of their diagnosis, ethnicity, age, gender identity or other facet. In the past two decades, she has

taken her cause to inpatient units, emergency rooms, correctional facilities, residential homes and corporate settings.

At East Orange General Hospital, as Vice President of Behavioral Health and Forensics Services, she led the charge to build—and helped design—a new state-of-the-art psychiatric inpatient unit. “This new unit,

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION 2020 which I did not experience as a student 24 years earlier, was leading-edge and modern in appearance with five group and activity rooms, new rooms and furnishings, individual bathrooms and showers for each patient, calming colors throughout the unit, and artwork and murals,” Parks says. “Our goal was to create an environment that promotes healing for patients and their loved ones to visit, where clinicians could provide the highest level of self-care to help patients live successful and productive lives. I still have and treasure a picture with the staff cutting the ribbon, all of them wearing green polo shirts to reinforce our support for people living with mental illness.” In 2016, Parks became Corporate Senior Vice President and Chief Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Officer for RWJBarnabas Health, which serves over 5 million people throughout New Jersey. “Our goal ultimately is to use meaningful data to implement the appropriate preventive measures that will reduce disparities in health and care delivery to our diverse patients and communities,” she says.

Since her arrival, RWJBarnabas has on-boarded eight Diversity and Inclusion site