Adriana Black
Director, Health Affairs Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs
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About
Adriana Black is a bilingual and bicultural public health educator, health equity researcher, academic administrator, and maternal and child health consultant with over a decade of experience working at the intersection of academia and health. Reporting to the Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs and the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity, and Engagement, she currently serves as the inaugural Director of Health Affairs Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the University of Illinois Chicago and is the Founding Director of the Odehmenan Health Equity Center in the Library of Health Sciences.
Adriana's teaching, research, and administrative work has earned her awards in both mentorship and health equity advocacy. She has held positions at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, Tufts University, and Boston University School of Public Health contributing to both racial justice education and academic administration in health sciences schools and programs. She has developed and taught courses around health equity, community health needs assessments, and systems of oppression. Adriana has also partnered with various organizations including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, University of North Carolina Health Care System, Planned Parenthood, and University of Memphis School of Public Health. Her research interests include childhood flourishing, immigrant cultural capital, Latina maternal health, and racial justice, health equity, and mentorship initiatives in health sciences graduate schools.
Prior to her work in academia, Adriana worked in the clinical field as a Certified Athletic Trainer (ATC) across the Midwest and abroad in Spain. Originally from Venezuela, Adriana grew-up in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois and was a competitive gymnast through her childhood and adolescence. She received a Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science and a Master of Athletic Training (MAT) from Saint Louis University. She received a Master of Public Health (MPH) in Maternal and Child Health and Epidemiology from Boston University.