A new effort to counter the disproportionate impacts of the pandemic and the systemic inequalities that long predated the pandemic is underway, with new leadership, in the nation's capital.
Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has appointed the District's first Chief Equity Officer to lead a newly created office in the D.C. government dedicated to racial equity initiatives. Debbie Truong reports the news for DCist.
Amber Hewitt, the director of health equity at Families USA, will take on the new role, charged with the immediate task of leading the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, which has disproportionately hurt Black, Latino and low-income families in the District.
"Hewitt will lead the city’s Office of Racial Equity, which Bowser established earlier this year. The office is responsible for creating processes that insure city programs and policy decisions are evaluated for equity," according to Truong. "The Office of Racial Equity was established through the REACH Act, a sweeping measure passed by the D.C. Council last year to tackle historic inequities in education, health, housing and criminal justice."
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