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NEWS FROM CAMBRIDGE HEALTH ALLIANCE

April 10, 2007

Hundreds of Inner-City Youths Find New Role Models in Legendary Batson Family of Roxbury

Harvard Medical School's Office for Diversity and Community Partnership Launches Ruth M. Batson Social Justice Award

Boston, Cambridge, MA…… The Ruth M. Batson Social Justice Award launched on April 10, 2007 at Harvard Medical School’s day long Reflection in Action: Building Healthy Communities™ (RIA) celebration. This new permanent award at Harvard Medical School’s Office for Diversity and Community Partnership was named for an inspiring role model. Cambridge Health Alliance, a community partner and a Harvard Medical School teaching affiliate, helped to support this award.

Each year a Ruth M. Batson Social Justice Award will be given to individuals whose actions exemplify a commitment to social justice, civic engagement, the building of community, and the furthering of equity.

The first Ruth M. Batson Social Justice Award was given to her daughter, Susan Batson, at the day long celebration on April 10 with 500 Boston & Cambridge school children in attendance. It was an opportunity for inner-city youths to meet a role model who grew up in Roxbury and attended Boston public schools that participate in RIA every year. On the day of the annual RIA culminating event, students from Boston and Cambridge in grades 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th traveled to Harvard Medical School. In the morning, winners in each category (visual, written and performing arts) were announced and the first-place winners performed their winning entries to a large audience of students, teachers, parents, community members, and Harvard officials. This year the students were introduced to the legendary Batsons, and Susan Batson received the award named for her mother.

Jay Burke, MD, MPH, Chairman and Chief, Department of Psychiatry, Cambridge Health Alliance, and Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School paid tribute to the program’s founder, Joan Y. Reede, MD, MPH, MS, Dean for Diversity and Community Partnership at Harvard Medical School, following which Dean Reede presented the award to Susan Batson.

Background Information:

Ruth M. Batson was one of Boston’s best-known figures in education, healthcare, and civil rights. Her outstanding career began with the NAACP Boston Branch. Her most renowned accomplishment occurred in the early 1960s when she led the challenge to the Boston Public School system for educational equality for African American students in Boston and founded Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO). Ruth M. Batson was a strong believer in the fact that sick children could not adequately learn and therefore was a vocal advocate of medical education for students of color. Born in Roxbury, she spent most of her life in the service of education and healthcare and engaged in a host of organizational, legislative, and legal activities. Batson broke many barriers throughout her career. She was the first black woman on the Democratic National Committee and the first woman elected president of NAACP’s New England Regional Conference, a role in which she served from 1957 to 1960. Upon her retirement from the Boston University School of Medicine Division of Psychiatry, she was a tenured professor of psychiatry. She was a member of the board of visitors of Boston University’s School of Medicine; trustee, Boston City Hospital; member, Corporation of the Massachusetts General Hospital and former member of its board of trustees; and board member of Roxbury Community College Foundation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Batson

Susan Batson began her lifelong excursion into the art of acting at Adele Thane's Boston Children's Theater. She graduated from Emerson College's Theater Arts Program, is a member of the Actor's Studio, and is a recipient of a New York Drama Critics Award, an LA Drama Critics Award, and an Obie. She has consulted with writer/director Spike Lee on several of his films and was a producer of the hugely successful Broadway revival and television production of A Raisin in the Sun (2007) (TV), starring Sean Combs. Actor, writer, director, producer, teacher, and coach, Susan Batson works on film sets all over the world, and in her New York- and Hollywood- based Black Nexxus acting studios, Susan Batson has enjoyed the privilege of working with Nicole Kidman, Juliette Binoche, Tom Cruise, Jennifer Lopez, Chris Rock, Jamie Foxx, Sean 'P. Diddy' Combs, Liv Tyler, Jennifer Connelly, and countless other actors. Susan Batson is the author of the book "Truth: Personas, Needs, and Flaws In The Art of Building Actors and Creating Characters" and has been profiled in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Variety, the Hollywood Reporter, and Backstage. In the spirit of equal opportunity and advancement through education that her mother personified, Black Nexxus remains open 365 days a year, and Susan Batson remains available to her legion of loyal clients twenty-four hours a day. http://blacknexxusinc.com/

RIA is a novel and exciting way to encourage learning about science and health. Boston and Cambridge 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th graders participate in city-wide competitions about health issues that are of particular concern to urban families and individuals. RIA links improvement in individual and community health to engagement in civic action through visual, written, and performing arts, students identify pressing health care needs that are often overlooked and provide a proactive approach to healthy living that focuses on personal empowerment, access and awareness, and good health habits. The two generations of Batsons now tied permanently to RIA are the perfect role models for the youths that RIA recruits.

This year, RIA’s fourth, over 200 submissions in several categories from 377 youths including the performing arts, visual arts, and written entries were reviewed by a team of local “celebrity” judges from Berklee College of Music, Boston Public Health Commission, Cambridge Health Alliance, Delta Dental of Massachusetts, Harvard University, Northeastern University, Simmons College, Positive Teens Magazine, Topf Center for Dance Education, Charles River Publishing, Tailored Communications, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and numerous others. Since its conception RIA has reached more than 600 students in 28 different public and private schools in Boston and Cambridge. RIA contest entry materials are made available to schools, after-school programs and community agencies in the fall. Students are encouraged to be creative as they develop an understanding of how their actions can help build healthy communities. http://www.mfdp.med.harvard.edu/reflectioninaction/

Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) is an innovative, award-winning health system that provides high quality care in Cambridge, Somerville, Everett, Revere, and the surrounding Metro-North communities in Massachusetts. It is a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School and includes three hospitals, more than 20 primary care practices, the Cambridge Public Health Department, and the Network Health plan. With this unique model, CHA is able to offer the finest health services, a diverse working environment, and a premier training experience for those interested in community-based medicine. http://www.challiance.org/

The Ruth M. Batson Social Justice Award was sculpted by Dr. Fay Stevenson-Smith. The Ruth M. Batson Social Justice Award is a sculpture of Ruth. It was sculpted by Dr. Fay Stevenson-Smith, who began sculpting in 1988 while managing a solo practice in Obstetrics and Gynecology in Fairfield County in Connecticut. Dr. Stevenson-Smith retired from medical practice in the year 2000. Her subsequent trips to West Africa inspired new subject matter for her work. Currently Dr. Stevenson-Smith is enjoying the opportunity to focus on her sculpture and finding venues to share her works with the public. She has exhibited at the National Black Fine Arts Show in New York City, the annual African American History Exhibition at the Rich Forum in Stamford, Connecticut, and other numerous venues.