Do you know what health equity is?

Not many people do. However, on Oct. 27 Dr. Nandi A. Marshall, a College of Public Health graduate of Georgia Southern and Armstrong University professor, came to change that by fully explaining the meaning of health equity and teaching students how to get involved in spreading awareness in the community.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) defines health equity as “When all people have the opportunity to attain their full health potential, and no one is disadvantaged from achieving this potential because of their social position or other socially determined circumstance.”

Dr. Marshall taught that this can be attained by people in the community lending a helping hand to the elderly or people who do not have the means to get treatments or testing. She encouraged students to host forums so that people can stay informed about public health and what is necessary to live a healthy lifestyle.

If a student or community leader understands the problem and where it stems from, they can create an action plan to help the community change and promote a healthy environment.

After her presentation, Dr. Marshall was asked the following questions and these were responses:

Q: What was your best accomplishment for your community engagement?

A: The action plan for community engagement, because they are now capable of creating their own plan, which they didn’t have before.

Q: How can people be the change?

A: Encourage your community to assess the problem they have and spread knowledge of these problems through forums and so on.

Q: How can people who don’t have or want a degree in public health help the community?

A: Find out where doing what you love fits into helping the community.