Stronger Together: Health and Justice
Health is shaped by the systems, communities, and policies around us. These TEDMED Talks explore social determinants of health and why equity matters for everyone.
Why your doctor should care about social justice
Mary Bassett
New York City Health Commissioner Mary Bassett shares lessons learned from her broad experience in addressing health disparities and reveals what may be the greatest stumbling block to equitable health care in the US: institutional racism.
More About This TalkAbout Mary Bassett
About Mary
Dr. Mary T. Bassett is a highly respected physician, public health researcher, and lifelong activist who has dedicated her career to fighting for health equity both globally and in the United States. She is currently the Director of the François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center for Health and Human Rights and a Professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Mary’s career in public health spans more than 40 years. She spent 17 years on the medical faculty at the University of Zimbabwe, where she helped develop one of the first HIV awareness and prevention programs. This experience provided her with a crucial understanding of how structural issues like poverty and racism drive health disparities. She has served twice as a top health official in New York, first as the New York City Health Commissioner (2014–2018), where she successfully led responses to outbreaks like Ebola and Legionnaires’ disease. During this time, she made racial justice a key focus, working to close health gaps and implementing bold policies, such as banning artificial trans fats and requiring calorie counts in chain restaurants. In late 2021, she was appointed New York State Health Commissioner to lead the state’s post-COVID recovery before returning to Harvard in late 2022. Mary is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and continues to champion the idea that the medical community must address structural racism to achieve true public health for all.
