Epilogue.

In 1985, the Report of the Secretary's Task Force on Black and Minority Health was published after the federal government convened the first group of health experts to analyze racial/ethnic health disparities among minorities. This analysis, also known as the Heckler report, revealed higher illness and death rates among minorities. The year 2015 marks the 30th anniversary of the Heckler Report and presents an opportunity to evaluate and continue to improve minority health at the national, state, tribal, territorial, and local levels.

Sustaining a Focus on Health Equity at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Through Organizational Structures and Functions.

The public health infrastructure required for achieving health equity is multidimensional and complex. The infrastructure should be responsive to current and emerging priorities and capable of providing the foundation for developing, planning, implementing, and evaluating health initiatives. This article discusses these infrastructure requirements by examining how they are operationalized in the organizational infrastructure for promoting health equity at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, utilizing the nation's premier public health agency as a lens. Examples from the history of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's work in health equity from its centers, institute, and offices are provided to identify those structures and functions that are critical to achieving health equity. Challenges and facilitators to sustaining a health equity organizational infrastructure, as gleaned from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's experience, are noted. Finally, we provide additional considerations for expanding and sustaining a health equity infrastructure, which the authors hope will serve as "food for thought" for practitioners in state, tribal, or local health departments, community-based organizations, or nongovernmental organizations striving to create or maintain an impactful infrastructure to achieve health equity.

Increasing Diversity in the Health Professions: Reflections on Student Pipeline Programs.

Despite major advances and technological improvements in public health and medicine, health disparities persist by race and ethnicity, income and educational attainment, and in some cases are increasing (Jackson & Garcia, 2014). These health disparities among these populations have even worsened or remained about the same since the landmark 1985 Report of the Secretary's Task Force on Black & Minority Health released by then Secretary Margaret M. Heckler. Ensuring diverse public health and healthcare workforces to provide services to diverse populations, in combination with other strategies, can increase access to and quality of healthcare for vulnerable populations and decrease healthcare disparities. One mechanism for achieving a diverse public health and healthcare workforce is to establish, promote, and conduct student training programs in public health. The Office of Minority Health and Health Equity, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has partnered with institutions, colleges, universities, foundations, national organizations and associations to form and implement student training programs. This paper highlights a session "Public Health Professions Enhancement Programs" that was held during the 2015 symposium titled "National Negro Health Week to National Minority Health Month: 100 Years of Moving Public Health Forward" in Atlanta, Georgia. Presenters at the symposium consisted of interns and fellows who had participated in student programs in the Office of Minority Health and Health Equity at the CDC.

Epilogue.

As racial and ethnic minorities constitute ever larger percentages of the U.S. population, the overall health statistics of the nation increasingly reflect the health status of these groups. Overcoming persistent health and health-care disparities that affect racial/ethnic minorities benefits the entire society. For example, the economic well-being of a nation relies on the health of its populace. According to one report, "The nation's dependence on an increasingly minority workforce means that healthy communities of color are vital to the nation's economic fortunes". Other U.S. population groups, such as persons with disabilities or special health-care needs, persons living in certain geographic locations, and persons with certain sexual identities or sexual orientations, also have higher rates of preventable morbidity and premature death, and efforts should be directed toward improving their health outcomes and eliminating health disparities.

Potential strategies to eliminate built environment disparities for disadvantaged and vulnerable communities.

In 2006, the Federal Collaboration on Health Disparities Research (FCHDR) identified the built environment as a priority for eliminating health disparities, and charged the Built Environment Workgroup with identifying ways to eliminate health disparities and improve health outcomes. Despite extensive research and the development of a new conceptual health factors framework, gaps in knowledge exist in areas such as disproportionate environmental and community hazards, individual and cumulative risks, and other factors. The FCHDR provides the structure and opportunity to mobilize and partner with built environment stakeholders, federal partners, and interest groups to develop tools, practices, and policies for translating and disseminating the best available science to reduce health disparities.