CENTERSTAGE
Photo credit: Center for Youth Wellness
AS WE FACE OFF AGAINST CORONAVIRUS, MEET “THE JOYFUL WARRIOR,”
DR. NADINE BURKE HARRIS
CALIFORNIA’S FIRST SURGEON GENERAL By Contributing Writer, Michael P Coleman
W
hen faced with any battle, it is comforting to know that someone is on the inside, in the trenches, who has the tools, temperament, and abilities needed to get the job done and lead an army to victory.
to his team in January 2019, appointing her as the first California Surgeon General. Neither could have known the public health challenges that marched toward them in the form of the novel coronavirus.
En route to an early April briefing with the governor, Burke Harris checked in with THE HUB to set the record straight on a number of pernicious COVID-19-related myths. During our wide-ranging interview, she also stressed the need to heed recommendations and guidelines from the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention so that OUR OFFICE HAS PUT we can, ultimately, put coronavirus TOGETHER A PLAYBOOK behind us.
In our fight against the novel coronavirus, we have that person in Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, California’s first Surgeon General.
Burke Harris’ distinguished career has led her from her birth home in Jamaica to the Bay Area, where she treated individuals and families while pioneering research on the effects of NOT ONLY FOR ADULTS, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) “I will always be very transparent about BUT FOR KIDS AND on longterm health and wellness. what we know and what we don’t CAREGIVERS. She garnered the attention of Gavin know,” Burke Harris assured. “We don’t Newsom, who was then San Francisco’s have a lot of great data about the racial mayor. After Newsom ascended to the and ethnic breakdowns of infections and governor’s mansion, he recruited Burke Harris deaths related to COVID-19, but what we’re | 8 | T H E HU B MA G A Z I N E
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