Building Equity and Resilience in Vulnerable Communities

The Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research is hosting a seminar at 12 p.m. on Thursday, December 2, as part of its Brown Bag Seminar Series.

“Building Equity and Resilience in Vulnerable Communities”

Presented by Richard Marlink and Arpita Jindani, Rutgers Global Health Institute

This seminar will include an overview of Rutgers Global Health Institute’s new program, Equitable Recovery for New Jersey’s Small Businesses, which helps small businesses and nonprofit organizations in low-income and minority communities recover and rebuild from the impacts of COVID-19 and develop resilience for the future.

Richard Marlink is the founding director of Rutgers Global Health Institute and the inaugural Henry Rutgers Professor of Global Health. Marlink completed his hematology/oncology fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard Medical School. He received a medical degree from the University of New Mexico and a bachelor’s degree from Brown University. In 2018, building on his decades of involvement in Botswana’s HIV/AIDS response, he worked with the Government of Botswana and the University of Botswana to establish the Botswana-Rutgers Partnership for Health. A medical oncologist, he is leading Rutgers’ efforts to help Botswana build a comprehensive cancer care and prevention program, open its new teaching hospital, and build capacity throughout the health care workforce. The work of the partnership has recently expanded to include support for Botswana’s COVID-19 response.

In New Jersey, Marlink is focused on ensuring equitable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. He is a member of the Newark Reopening and Recovery Strikeforce established by Mayor Ras J. Baraka, where he helped develop the city’s initial COVID-19 testing plan. Along with the city’s partners, he actively participates in Newark’s COVID-19 testing, contact tracing, and supportive isolation working groups. Marlink also is spearheading an initiative, Equitable Recovery for New Jersey’s Small Businesses, to support the safe reopening and operation of small businesses in New Jersey’s low-income and minority communities, and to better prepare those communities for future public health threats.

Arpita Jindani is the manager of education and training for Rutgers Global Health Institute. She leads the development of the institute’s Equitable Recovery program for small businesses and nonprofits in vulnerable communities in New Jersey. She is also responsible for education and training projects across the institute. Previously, she worked for Rutgers’ Global Tuberculosis Institute, where she developed educational programs on tuberculosis for health professionals in the northeastern United States and the Pacific Islands. In an earlier role at the Partnership for Maternal Child Health, she led a successful immunization program that resulted in long-term funding for immunization initiatives across New Jersey. Her educational background includes a master of social work degree from Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai, India, and and a master of arts in health communication degree from Emerson College in Boston.

Online via Zoom

Free and open to the public. Click here to join via Zoom (meeting ID: 951 8141 4494; passcode: 636653). For more information, contact Natalie Tuseth, Institute for Health, at 848-932-8413 or ntuseth@ifh.rutgers.edu.