Reinvigorating Democracy with Dr. Tony Iton

The Other 80

For Dr. Tony Iton, we have to understand the past before we can shape the future. Our history of racism and exclusion laid the foundation for poor health in America. The way out is not simply delivering more and better services – it is building the voice and power of communities. Tony led The California Endowment’s nearly $2 billion and decade-long investment to test this approach.

He shares his journey from Canada to the US to attend medical school and his eye-opening awakening to the stark disparities in Baltimore that led him to coin the phrase “your zip code is more important than your genetic code in determining health.”

We discuss:

• The ABC’s of health equity in California: agency, belonging and fundamental conditions
• The power of narrative to shape policy choices towards either belonging or exclusion
• How California communities applied this framework to dramatically change school climate and reduce suspensions

Tony calls on public health to move away from medicine and towards its community-oriented roots:

“[Public health has] essentially tried to mimic the healthcare delivery system. And it doesn't belong on that stage, it's a very different kind of entity. Where public health actually proves itself to be authentic, is when it's in direct partnership with community. And it's about bringing the people who are closest to the pain into these decision making processes, so that we get true equity, we get solutions that are grounded in an understanding of how these things play out in people's lives. That's where public health is operating at its best and highest purpose.“

Relevant Links

• Building community power to dismantle policy-based structural inequity in health
• Building healthy communities: Five drivers of change
• Shifting from technocratic to democratic solutions: A radical vision for health and racial equality
• Unnatural Causes documentary

About Our Guest

Dr. Tony Iton is a Senior Vice President for Healthy Communities at The California Endowment. In the fall of 2009, he began to oversee the organization’s 10-Year, multimillion-dollar statewide commitment to advance policies and forge partnerships to build healthy communities and a healthy California. Iton serves on the board of directors of the Public Health Institute, the Public Health Trust, the Prevention Institute and Jobs For The Future. He is also an Advisor to the Dean and Lecturer at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health.

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