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Increasing African American Public Health Professionals: Utilizing the Feedfoward Model to Address Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities in the African American Community

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Abstract

African Americans and other minorities (AAOM) are under-represented in careers in medicine, public health, and research. Furthermore, African Americans suffer more disproportionately from racial health disparities across most health indicators. Scholars suggest that the underrepresentation of AAOM public health and medical professionals contributes to the racial and ethnic health disparity trends in the USA. Thus, an increase in African American public health professionals may lead to a decrease in health disparities in African American communities. This manuscript will share a qualitative research study designed to explore motivators to engage African American students into careers in public health. Grounded theory and the feedforward model were used to explore critical career motivators, career decisions, career trajectories, barriers, and methods to overcome barriers among 20 African American public health graduate students and professionals. Eight motivators and six recommendations were identified to engage African Americans into careers in Public Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Human Medicine, Division of Public Health, Michigan State University, 200 East 1st Street, Flint, MI, 48502, USA

    Kent D. Key

  2. Community Based Organization Partners (CBOP), Flint, MI, USA

    Kent D. Key

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  1. Kent D. Key
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Correspondence to Kent D. Key.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1864 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in this study.

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Key, K.D. Increasing African American Public Health Professionals: Utilizing the Feedfoward Model to Address Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities in the African American Community. J Afr Am St 24, 195–209 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-020-09473-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-020-09473-8

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