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 largest private employer, serves patients across New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,300 providers in nearly every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH. Its network of hospitals, outpatient centers, clinics and home care facilities, spans a broad geographical area. Year after year, DHMC is named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and is consistently recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes Dartmouth Cancer Center, northern New England’s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers and one of less than than 60 total nationally; Dartmouth Health Children’s, which includes the state’s only children’s hospital (Children’s Hospital at DHMC/CHaD) and more than 20 locations around the region; eight member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene, Claremont, Hampstead, and New London, NH, and Windsor and Bennington, VT; Dartmouth Health Home Care; Dartmouth Health Connected Care Center for Telehealth, serving patients as far away as Texas; and more than 30 primary and multi-specialty clinics across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its partnership with Dartmouth College, Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine and the White River Junction VA Medical Center, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials with international impact. Dartmouth Health and its more than 16,000 employees are committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in the communities it serves and to providing every patient with exceptional, state-of-the-art, personalized care. Learn more at dartmouth-health.org.