David Velasquez – Rappaport

Organization

Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston

Program

Rappaport Public Policy Fellow

Year

2021

Rappaport Public Policy Fellows spend 10 weeks each summer serving within the highest levels of state and municipal governments in the Greater Boston Area. The program includes students from graduate and professional programs at local universities.

Graduate School
Harvard Medical School/Harvard Kennedy School/Harvard Business School

Undergraduate School
University of Southern California

Mentor
Bill Walczak, President and CEO, South End Community Health Center and Andreas Mitchell, Internal Medicine Resident at University of California Medical Center Placement: Massachusetts Department of Public Health

Agency
Massachusetts Department of Public Health

Supervisor
Ben Wood, Director of Division of Community Health and Prevention

Description of Fellowship
David worked with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to identify approaches and methods to address persistent health and racial inequities, how hospitals are considering and addressing upstream factors of social determinants of health, and how hospitals consider structural racism as a contributor to health inequities. Using a series of interviews and background research on hospitals across Massachusetts, David ultimately developed a comprehensive report for internal and external stakeholder use.