Saturday, January 17
10 AM: Ralph Granger Memorial Shabbat in the Charry Service
12:30 PM: Joint Kiddush
1:00-2:30 PM: Afternoon Program
Speaker: Derek M. Griffith, Ph.D.
Navigating Troubled Water to Health Equity
Those committed to pursuing parity in health opportunities and outcomes are facing unprecedented obstacles and challenges, yet the need to remain committed to the work has never been greater. This presentation will discuss ways to name, address, and overcome some of the rhetorical and narrative barriers to the framing of persistently unjust differences in health outcomes, and argue that the work that needs to be done is not just in research, practice, and policy, but in ourselves.
Derek M. Griffith, PhD is the Risa Lavizzo-Mourey Population Health and Health Equity University Professor in the School of Nursing and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. At Penn, he is also a Fellow and Senior Advisor on Health Equity and Anti-Racism for The Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics and the Director of the Program for Research on Men’s Health, anchored in the School of Nursing and Perelman School of Medicine. Outside of Penn, he serves as the Chair of Global Action on Men’s Health – a global men’s health advocacy organization – and Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Men’s Social and Community Health. Recently, he led the first report on the state of men’s health in the United States: the Movember Real Face of Men’s Health 2025 United States report. Trained in psychology and public health, Dr. Griffith’s research focuses on achieving racial, ethnic, and gender equity in health through community-based program and policy interventions to mitigate and undo the effects of structural racism and other forms of oppression. He specializes in anti-racism approaches to organizational and community change, as well as in promoting Black men’s health and well-being. He is an editor of four books, including Racism: Science and Tools for the Public Health Professional, 2nd Edition, which was named a 2025 Outstanding Academic Title by Choice, a publishing unit of the Association of College and Research Librarians. He has been the principal investigator of research grants from the American Cancer Society, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and several institutes within the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Griffith has received several noteworthy honors, including (a) a citation from the president of the American Psychological Association “For his extraordinary leadership in addressing the impacts of racism on the health and well-being of the nation and specifically for African American and Latino men;” (b) the “Lifetime Disruptor Award” from the Society for the Study of African American Public Health Issues for exhibiting “…a lifelong commitment to dismantling structural racism and other intersecting systems of oppression through science and policy…”; and (c) the Inaugural Jimmy Boyd Memorial Award for Leadership in Men’s and Boys’ Health from the American Public Health Association Men’s Health Caucus.
The Granger Memorial Shabbat is generously supported by the Paul and Hilda Minkoff Ralph Granger Memorial Endowment. Many thanks to the Wolfe Family Foundation for their support in all GJC programming.
Childcare is available with advance notice: please contact program@germantownjewishcentre.org.
Each year, Germantown Jewish Centre dedicates a Shabbat to celebrating the life and legacy of Ralph Granger, beloved former custodian of GJC and a role model to our community, and rededicating ourselves to advancing race relations. Ralph Granger was well-loved and respected, a Christian African American who was known for his dignity and love for the synagogue. During his life he served as a role model to our community for valuing and respecting differences in others. The Granger Memorial Shabbat continues to pay tribute to his memory, while focusing on current social issues pertinent to the larger community in which we live.