Before I was a PhD student & before becoming a policy professional, I dreamed of working at a small state office called The Center for the Elimination of Disproportionality and Disparities. This program, primarily centered around Health Equity, housed social workers, public health doctors, and organizers all toward the mission of making Texas an equitable state by bringing the people most impacted by state policy to the institutional table. Nearly two years later, my dream of working at the CEDD became a reality & that office & the work we did were foundational for me. (One time, I even got to mouth off to the head of all Health & Human Services!)

The office was defunded by the legislature in 2016 & officially closed in 2017. Since then, I haven’t shut the fuck up about how grave a decision it was to defund that program & how it spells death for Black, Latino, & Indigenous Texans.

Though my research has led me in different directions since, this is a cause that is still close to my heart and at the forefront of my mind.

Last week, I contributed a couple of thoughts about the office’s closing & how, now more than ever, we still need a program like that to Michael Barajas at the Texas Observer.

You can read Barajas’ story here: https://www.texasobserver.org/covid-19-racial-disparities-texas-legislature/‬

& here is a link to another feature (for which I was interviewed) by KUT from 2018 about that office’s closure ahead of that year’s legislative session: https://www.kut.org/post/texas-had-state-agency-tackling-institutional-racism-its-now-closed