Friends, family, colleagues, and community members gathered at the Audubon Center in Concord on April 29 for Dartmouth Health’s first-annual Community Impact Social Justice Awards. The event was organized by the Dartmouth Health Black Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) Employee Resource Group (ERG) and sponsored by the Dartmouth Health Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB).
The awards recognize leaders of social justice both at Dartmouth Health and in the region the health system serves. The awards were presented in three categories recognizing outstanding achievement in social justice and community advocacy by a Dartmouth Health employee, a youth leader, and a community member. The winners are:
- Alisha Robinson, Employee Award Winner—Robinson serves as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Coordinator and Human Resources Business Partner at Dartmouth Health’s Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital (APD) in Lebanon. She is the leader of the BIPOC ERG and has made many connections to civil and social organizations in the community, uplifting voices in the Upper Valley who are seeking allyship in gender and racial struggles. Outside APD, Robinson has helped to build a coalition of belonging that has fostered a growing sense of community for others.
- Anthony Fosu, Youth Award Winner—A first-generation college student at Dartmouth College (class of ’24), Fosu serves as a senior orientation leader, undergraduate advisor, and vice president of the Dartmouth Minority Pre-Law Association. He helped coordinate the 2021 Black Legacy Month celebration and volunteers with the NAACP’s peer-mentorship program. Motivated by his love for advocacy and passion for equity, Fosu plans to attend law school to pursue a career in education advocacy in the public interest.
- Kile Adumene, Community Member Award Winner—Adumene is the founder of Manchester Community Action Coalition (MCAC), an organization of volunteers who work towards the engagement of grassroots organizations in Manchester and surrounding areas. MCAC works to support communities of color to experience stronger family ties, where children are encouraged to achieve and succeed, and families of color have equal social and economic opportunities. As the founding chair, Adumene is committed to bringing opportunities to underrepresented groups by providing livelihood trainings and platforms to members to showcase their talents and what they can offer as entrepreneurs. She advocates for equity and partners with stakeholders to conduct research on gender equality and fair trade.
“These recipients—and, for that matter, all of the more than 25 nominees—are role models whose courage and strength inspire others to stand up and step up to advocate and be a voice in the community for social justice,” said Joanne M. Conroy, MD, CEO and president of Dartmouth Health, who delivered the closing remarks at the award ceremony. “They bring about positive change in the places where they live, learn, and work.”
About Dartmouth Health
Dartmouth Health, New Hampshire’s only academic health system and the state’s largest private employer, serves patients across northern New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,000 providers in almost every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH, as well as across its wide network of hospitals, clinics and care facilities. DHMC is consistently named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and is recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes Dartmouth Cancer Center, one of only 57 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the nation, and the only such center in northern New England; Dartmouth Health Children’s, which includes the state’s only children’s hospital and multiple locations around the region; member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene, Claremont and New London, NH, and Windsor and Bennington, VT; Visiting Nurse and Hospice for Vermont and New Hampshire; and more than 24 clinics that provide ambulatory and specialty services across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its historical partnership with Dartmouth and the Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually, and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials recognized across the globe with Geisel and the White River Junction VA Medical Center in White River Junction, VT. Dartmouth Health and its more than 13,000 employees are deeply committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in our communities, and to providing each of our patients with exceptional, personal care.