Professor
University of Alabama, Birmingham
Dr. Ronit Elk is a Professor in the Center for Palliative and Supportive Care, Division of Geriatrics, Gerontology and Palliative Care, Department of Medicine, University of Alabama, Birmingham. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Care.Throughout her almost 30-year research career, her focus has always been on researching strategies to achieve health equity. With grant funding from the NIH, she has partnered with minoritized communities in developing culturally-concordant health care programs for older adults with serious illness. Using a social justice-based approach, these programs are developed in full partnership with members of the community, based on that community’s cultural values and lived experiences. Two examples:
1. In partnership with southern, rural, African American and white community members, her team developed the first ever culturally based palliative care consult intervention in the US.
2. In partnership with another southern, African American community, her team developed a training program for clinicians providing healthcare to older African Americans with serious illness, “African American Communities Speak to Healthcare Providers.” Over 400 healthcare providers from over 50 institutions around the US have completed this training, and as a result, most have changed their practice to follow the recommendations of the African American community.
Dr. Elk highlights the importance of partnering with the communities we serve, “hear the voices of the community” if we are to achieve health equity. Every year she and her team provide a training to healthcare providers and researchers in this approach, and following the training, she serves as mentor all who want to develop their own programs using this approach.
For her work towards achieving health equity, Dr. Elk has been awarded the Richard Payne Outstanding Achievement in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award, from the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.
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Friday, March 6, 2026
1:30pm - 1:55pm PST
Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose