HAPPENINGS Below (left to right): James L. Curtis MD ‘46; Prof. Daphne Watkins, Director, Curtis Center; Dean Lynn Videka
CURTIS CENTER FOCUSES ON HEALTH EQUITY RESEARCH AND TRAINING Last November, the Vivian A. and James L. Curtis School of Social Work Center for Health Equity Research and Training was relaunched and renamed. The center’s new focus is health equity for marginalized communities in Michigan and beyond. “We will take care of home, but also go global,” says the center’s new director, Professor Daphne Watkins, “with social justice as our primary aim.” The Curtis Center continues to honor a social worker, Vivian A. Curtis, MSW ’48 (1924–2007), and her husband, James L. Curtis, MD ’46. Both are celebrated figures in U-M history. They met during James Curtis’s residency and were married in December 1948. James Curtis began a career as a clinician, educator and healthcare administrator, and Vivian Curtis became a national leader in social work. “Our ambition,” Dr. Curtis says, “was to create research opportunities for people, regardless of race, gender or family income.” When Watkins was appointed to lead the center last year, she aligned the center’s new mission to fit within the School’s strategic plan by focusing on health equity research and training. Addressing Dr. Curtis at the November celebration, Watkins said: “Thank you for your candor and your commitment to the community. Furthering that commitment is an honor that we don’t take lightly. The center’s mission is to stimulate research, training and outreach opportunities that promote health equity. We support work that deepens our understanding of factors that lead to inequities and strategies that eliminate them.” The re-creation of the Curtis Center joins the School’s research mission to its strong commitment to diversity. “The rededication of the Curtis Center represents wonderful aims for the whole country and progress toward greater health equity,” Dr. Curtis said. The Vivian A. and James L. Curtis School of Social Work Center for Health Equity Research and Training is indeed making the Curtises’ vision a reality for a new generation of “leaders and best.”
ONGOING · Summer 2020 · 37
