5:30 – 6:30 PM Reception
6:30 – 7:30 PM Film Screening: A Road Out
7:30 – 8:15 PM Panel discussion and Q&A

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Unlikely as it may sound, public health in the American South was profoundly shaped by a handful of progressive doctors in flight from apartheid South Africa. Their ideas lie at the heart of this film.

A Road Out explores how the experiences of these community-focused clinicians in deeply divided societies changed our understanding of the ways that race, poverty, and socioeconomic status shape health outcomes. This transmission of ideas from South Africa to the American South occurred amidst the Civil Rights Movement and U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty.

Director:
Dr. Karin Shapiro is a professor in the Department of African & African American Studies at Duke University, where she teaches courses on the histories of the American South and South Africa. She has a long-standing interest in public history, with film as a powerful medium. She has previously directed short documentary films including Double Vision, about the South African diaspora in North Carolina, and John Henry Lives On: Sherman James and the John Henryism Hypothesis, highlighting groundbreaking research into social health disparities. A Road Out is her first full-length documentary.

Panelists:
Dr. Gary G. Bennett, Ph.D. is Dean of Trinity College of Arts & Sciences at Duke University and the Bishop-MacDermott Family Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience, Global Health, Medicine, and Nursing. A behavioral scientist, Dr. Bennett developed one of the first digital health research programs focused on obesity interventions.

Dr. Geni Eng, DrPH, MPH is Professor Emerita of Health Behavior at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at UNC–Chapel Hill. She is nationally recognized as a leader in community-based participatory research, integrating community engagement into public health practice to address health disparities.

Dr. Sherman A. James, Ph.D. is the Susan B. King Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Public Policy at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. A social epidemiologist, Dr. James is known for research on the social determinants of health and for originating the “John Henryism” hypothesis linking sustained high-effort coping with adversity to hypertension and health disparities.

Dr. Lloyd Michener, M.D. is Professor Emeritus of Family Medicine and Community Health at Duke University School of Medicine. Dr. Michener has led innovative programs that bridge healthcare and public health.