More Than 2,220 Attend 

First Summit Packs the House 

By Nathan Stinson, Jr., PhD, MD, MPH


Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health


Closing the Gap, First Summit Packs the House • January/February 2003


On behalf of the U.S. Department of Health and 

Human Services, I thank each and every one 

who participated in the first National Leadership Summit on Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities 

in Health! More than 2,200 of you attended and thousands more viewed selected sessions on the Web. 

This convocation of Federal, Tribal, state, local, and 

community leaders in minority health was too long in 

coming. 

We packed a lot into three days—five major plenary 

sessions, more than 70 workshops, 57 poster sessions, three 

public hearings, and a play dramatizing cancer issues. We 

distributed more than 2,200 copies of a Community Resource Toolkit that is available on the web, and which we 

will be updating in January. More than 100 exhibitors 

shared their information and services with our participants. Kaisernetwork.org produced video webcasts of 

three major plenaries. 

I am pleased that the evaluation forms show high 

levels of satisfaction with the breadth and content of the 

workshops, with most agreeing that the topics covered 

were relevant and appropriate, and that they learned things 

they could use in their work. For us in HHS, the bringing 

together of leaders from across the Nation who demonstrate their commitment and devotion to the elimination 

of racial and ethnic disparities in health was an equally 

satisfying endeavor. 

Closing the Gap will devote two expanded issues to 

highlights of the Summit. In this first issue, we have 

featured workshops from each of the Summit tracks. We 

hope to capture the information presented, stimulate interest in areas that may be new to some readers, showcase 

programs that work, and highlight the efforts of individuals who are committed to those populations most in 

need. In an upcoming issue, we will complete our coverage of the Summit by highlighting more workshops of 

interest. We will continue to add to our Summit website 

as well. 

I offer special thanks to the founding members of 

“Out of Many, One.” These individuals took my deep, 

personal belief—that we must work together as one, to 

move the health agenda forward—and developed a united 

action plan that focuses on common health issues while 

respecting the differences among communities of color. I 

trust this message was heard throughout our Summit, 

and that each of you recognizes the power of partnerships. If our Nation is to reach its potential, all groups 

must come to the point where shared interests outweigh 

our differences. We lose too much—in resources, economies of scale, and people power—when we don’t work 

together. And our people suffer for it. 

I extend heartfelt gratitude to my staff at the Office 

of Minority Health for their effort and dedication to making the Summit a success. I thank the members of the 

non-Federal and Federal planning committees, because 

an event such as this could not have been done without 

their hard work and strong advocacy. I offer thanks to our 

public and private sector sponsors for their generous contributions. 

In planning the National Leadership Summit, we 

envisioned a series of three conferences. The July event 

was the first. The second should take place sometime 

around the middle of the decade, in approximately 2005. 

At that time, we hope to perform a reality check, to see if 

what we’ve been doing is working, what has not been 

working, and what we need to do differently. Finally, we 

want to come together again at the end of the decade, to 

evaluate our progress in reaching Healthy People 2010 

goals. 

For those readers unable to attend the first Summit, 

I hope that Closing the Gap provides you with a new look 

at some of the innovative programs being implemented 

today and the wealth of information exchanged at the 

conference. We hope it inspires you to join us and become a part of the discourse between now and 2005. 

Good health to all! 

Nathan Stinson, Jr., PhD, MD, MPH 

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health 

Office of Minority Health Resource Center U.S. Department of Health and Human Services