Honorable Thomas F. Stallworth III

Senior Advisor for Legislative and External Affairs

Office of Governor Gretchen Whitmer

Thomas Stallworth, currently serves as Senior Advisor for Legislative and External Affairs to Michigan’s Governor Gretchen Whitmer and is President of the Stallworth Consulting Group LLC., a strategic government relations and systems change management firm. His role in state government includes acting as the former Director of Michigan’s Coronavirus Racial Disparities Task Force where he led the effort, in support of Lieutenant Governor Gilchrist, to respond to the pandemic and address racial equity gaps in health, education and economic opportunity.

Dawn M. Shanafelt, MPA, BSN, RN

Director of Maternal & Infant Health/Title V Maternal Child Health Block Grant Program

MDHHS

Dawn is the Director of the Division of Maternal & Infant Health and the Title V Maternal Child Health Program for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. She has over thirty years’ experience in maternal and child health in the non-profit sector, local and state government. Dawn possesses undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Nursing from Saginaw Valley State University and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Michigan. She is committed to assuring that the voices of families are heard and has spent her entire professional career fighting for social justice and health equity.

Renee Canady, PhD, MPA

Chief Executive Officer

Michigan Public Health Institute

Dr. Renée Branch Canady serves as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MPHI; a unique public trust dedicated to advancing population health through public health innovation and collaboration. Dr. Canady is recognized as a national thought leader in the areas of health inequities and disparities, cultural competence, and social justice. She has published and presented broadly on these topics and her passion for this work is evident in her personal, academic, and professional life.

Roshanak Mehdipanah, PhD, MS

Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education

University of Michigan School of Public Health

Roshanak Mehdipanah is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education in the School of Public Health. She completed her PhD at the University of Pompeu Fabra, Spain and her M.Sc. from the School of Public Health and Health Systems at the University of Waterloo, Canada. Dr. Mehdipanah has led several projects on housing and health including health evaluations of housing policies on affordability and discrimination within the U.S.A.

Education and Health - Offers a focus on Pre-K-12 education and the mental health impacts caused by a lack of culturally competent practices to address implicit bias, missing ethnic studies, and absent representations of diversity.

Environmental Justice and Health - An exploration of the roles that residential segregation, racial isolation, lack of access to health care, transportation, water quality, environmental harms, and other factors play in shaping health-related disparities.

Social Determinants of Health - A review of systemic conditions shaping poverty, lack of access to health care, education, and other contributing factors of health inequity.

(Photo is of MDCR Director John E. Johnson, Jr behind the podium at the 2022 Civil Rights Summit)

LGBTQ+ and Health - An exploration of the role discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community plays in shaping health inequity.

Disability and Health - A review of issues related to accessible transportation, ADA standards, technology gaps and other challenges that impact people with disabilities and create inequity in health outcomes.

COVID-19 Racial Disparities Task Force - An overview of the work to mitigate racial disparities related to COVID-19, including strategies and lessons learned.

(Photo is of MCRC Chair Portia L. Roberson behind the podium at the 2022 Civil Rights Summit)

The Michigan Department of Civil Rights will make reasonable modifications to policies and practices to ensure that people with disabilities have an equal opportunity to fully participate in all programs, services and activities. ASL interpreters and captioning will be provided for the summit. 

Anyone who requires additional auxiliary aides or services for effective communication, or a modification of policies or procedures should contact Tyra Khan at khant@michigan.gov.  No surcharge will be placed on a particular individual with a disability or any group of individuals with disabilities to cover the cost of providing auxiliary aids/services or reasonable modifications of policy.

(Image is MDCR logo.)

If you or someone you know wants to work to make a better world, now is the time to apply with MDCR! 

Please share the QR code on the right or the link below with your contacts, which will take them directly to MDCR's current openings. 

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By Jerome Reide, J.D., Ph.D.,

MDCR Legislative Liaison

Each month, Jerome Reide, J.D., Ph.D., Legislative Liaison for the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, will bring you updates and analysis of what's happening in the Michigan legislature -- news of legislation, executive orders and ballot initiatives that relate directly to the MDCR mission and impact the people we serve.

(Image is the Michigan Capitol)

On May 16, 2023, Governor Whitmer signed legislation that prohibits discrimination based on an individual’s decision to have an abortion. 

“Today, I signed bills protecting and celebrating our fundamental freedoms as the foundation of our democracy,” said Governor Gretchen Whitmer. “No one in Michigan should face discrimination because they exercised their constitutional rights, including their right to reproductive freedom by having an abortion."

Senate Bill 147 brings state law in line with the passage of Proposal 3 and the repeal of unenforceable abortion laws. It amends the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to prohibit discrimination based on an individual’s decision to end a pregnancy. Currently, the act specifically excludes “a nontherapeutic abortion not intended to save the life of the mother” from medical conditions protected from unequal treatment. Senate Bill 147 removes this exception and brings the act in line with the constitutional amendment passed in November protecting reproductive freedom.

(Image is of Governor Whitmer)

Sponsored by the NAACP State Conference, Divine Nine, and Jack & Jill Mid-Western Region, Legislative Advocacy Day was designed to assemble people from across the state to engage in public policy discussions with legislators and other public servants. As part of the April 26th session, Jerome Reide provided an update on legislation relevant to civil rights issues in Michigan. In addition, the group also heard presentations on criminal justice, education, voting rights, and other critical policy issues. 

(Photo is of a wide shot of event participants listening to a presentation.)