Our History

In late 2003, The Greensboro Health Disparities Collaborative (GHDC)was formed when a group of 25 community leaders and advocates, public health researchers, university faculty and staff, clergy, healthcare professionals and other members of the Greensboro community decided to come together to better understand and reduce racial and ethnic health disparities. The GHDC held its first meeting in February 2004.

In March of 2004, The People's Institute for Survival and Beyond conducted and Undoing Racism workshop at Guilford College for all members of the GHDC and others in the Greensboro community. Later that year, Dr. Eugenia Eng, professor at UNC Chapel Hill, conducted a training session for the GHDC at the Moses Cone Area Health Education Center on Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR). The GHDC members signed a contract to acknowledge the value of the research process as well as the value of all people involved.

The GHDC began work on a grant for The National Institutes of Health (NIH). In February 2005, an abstract was developed for the Cancer Care and Racial Equity Study (CCARES) and the NIH grant application was submitted. The next year, the GHDC was awarded a two-year NIH grant to conduct CCARES.

Currently, the GHDC is working on The Accountability for Cancer Care through Undoing Racism and Equity (ACCURE) study.  
 

In Memoriam

Nettie L. Coad was a founding member and former executive director of The Partnership Project and a founding member of The Greensboro Health Disparities Collaborative. If you knew Nettie, you knew of her tireless commitment to her community, her constant pursuit to involve people in anti-racism work, her tenacious convictions and her loving spirit. As one friend said, "You could not help but feel loved by her." Her accolades and accomplishments were numerous and beyond measure. Her passion and enthusiasm were contagious. Her legacy is not just the work she did, but the work yet to be done by those she inspired. To quote Nettie, "The most important aspect is that (the work) does not stay with me, it is shared."

"Mama Nettie" died on April 10, 2012, but her memory is never far from our minds as we continue to do the work she inspired so many of us to begin.