Let’s Learn: What Does Justice Look Like?
Betty Clark, MDiv and her mentee, Jessica Zitter, MD, share notes from the medical field in combating inequities. Chaplain Clark and Dr. Zitter have worked together for over a decade at Highland Hospital in Oakland, California. They are united in transforming how healthcare is delivered within their community and across the United States. Pastor Corey L. Kennard, Reimagine Board Chair, pastor, and health care activist, will guide the discussion. The program features a sneak peak of Dr. Zitter’s documentary film-in-progress The Chaplain of Oakland, the story of the once adversarial, now symbiotic relationship between two charismatic and powerful women: a deeply community-rooted Black chaplain and her protege, a fiery Jewish doctor. From within the walls of Oakland California’s Highland Hospital, these committed allies work to transform how Black people die in America.
Chaplain Betty Clark has a Master of Divinity degree from the Graduate Theological Union, in Berkeley California. She has worked as a Hospice Chaplain for 16 years and a Palliative Care Chaplain at Alameda Health system for 12 years. She has certificates in Palliative Care Chaplaincy, Managing Spiritual Care and Grief Counseling. Chaplain Clark is the founder of the Church Without Walls where she has partnered with Rev. Eugene Williams for 25 years. She is the founder of The East Bay Community End of Life Coalition. Chaplain Clark is the first woman to be the president of The Saint Lukes Society. She is currently the President of the Board of the ARC of the East Bay. She loves her work with the patients and staff at Alameda Health System. She believes that we are all wounded healers traveling this path together that leads to wholeness. That no one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care. Chaplain Clark feels that she receives as much as she gives.
Jessica Zitter, MD, MPH is a physician, documentary filmmaker, and writer working to improve how we die in America. Dr. Zitter was part of the team that created the Oscar and Emmy-nominated Netflix documentary, Extremis (2017), which featured her work in the ICU. After founding her own production company, Reel Medicine Media, she went on to create the award-winning documentary, Caregiver: A Love Story (2020), which examines the national crisis of family caregiver burden. Dr. Zitter’s book, Extreme Measures: Finding a Better Path to the End of Life (2017), describes her evolution from being a physician focused on medical protocols to one focused on the human being. She was recently named one of Next Avenue’s 2021 “Influencers in Aging.” Dr. Zitter practices both Critical Care and Palliative Care at Highland Hospital, the public hospital in Oakland, California.
Corey L. Kennard is Pastor of Amplify Christian Church, healthcare activist, spiritual life coach, and serves as Board Chair at Reimagine. Corey has been involved in the healthcare field for over 20 years with over a decade of experience in the areas of palliative care and hospice. His holistic approach serves as the foundation for his desire to see all human beings treated with dignity, honor, and respect in all facets of life. He currently seeks to enhance the patient and family experience in healthcare settings.
Corey was instrumental in creating a teaching module for understanding spirituality at the end of life for African-Americans for Duke University's Institute on Care at the End Of Life (ICEOL) national training program. Corey served as a National Advisory Board Member for The Hospice Foundation of America, and was a co-director of a Community Faith "Advance Care Planning'' Project for the University of Virginia. He was the recipient of the Michigan Chronicle's Men of Excellence Award as being one of the Top 50 Most Influential African-American Men in the Metropolitan Detroit Region.
Corey is the author of Goliath Must Fall and Hamburgers and a Holy Man. You can connect with Corey on Twitter, and Instagram.
About Reimagine and the Series "The Pursuit of Justice: From Inequity to Integrity”
Reimagine is a nonprofit organization catalyzing a uniquely powerful community–people of different backgrounds, ages, races, and faiths (and no faith) coming together in the hopes of healing ourselves and the world. We specifically support each other in facing adversity, loss, and mortality and–at our own pace– actively channeling life's biggest challenges into meaningful action and growth. www.letsreimagine.org
Building a more just and equitable society is an act of service and an act of love. In our communities and across the globe, taking steps to end violence, discrimination, poverty, food insecurity, homelessness, healthcare disparities, and other injustices not only can help repair a broken world, but can also help reduce despair, improve our wellbeing, and appreciate the humanity that connects all of us.
In this three-part series, palliative care providers, spiritual leaders, writers, filmmakers, and activists will share stories of grief and loss, and how their struggles with systemic and structural inequities have transformed their personal and professional lives. Register now and reimagine a world in which we all take steps to restore wholeness and set things right.
