‘I Bring a Public Health Lens to Everything That I Do’.

Grace Lubwama SPH'99 and CEO of YWCA Kalamazoo

Breakfast: African pancakes and tea, especially when it’s cold and snowy outside.

Hometown: Kampala, Uganda.

Extracurriculars: I like spending time with children and dancing and laughing with friends and family.

Prior to the YWCA Kalamazoo, you worked at SPH, Partners in Health, and World Vision. How did your career path lead you to your current position?

Much of my career has focused on health disparities and supporting the most vulnerable populations. I attended BU at a time when public health schools were recruiting students with a medical or science degree, and I was a fine arts major. But I had a passion to do something that would make a difference in people’s lives and the communities in which they lived. Growing up in Uganda during the HIV epidemic gave me an opportunity to better understand how we can protect the health of people, educate them about their health, and assure them that the conditions they live in are healthy. Because of my public health training, I have learned to bring a public health lens to everything that I do, through prevention, protection, and system change.

What are the main priorities of YWCA Kalamazoo, and what is a typical day like for you as the CEO?

For more than 130 years, the YWCA Kalamazoo has been dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women, standing up for social justice, helping families, and strengthening the fabric of the Kalamazoo community. Our strategic focus areas align with supporting women and closing the race and gender disparities that exist with our community. The YWCA Kalamazoo is committed to promoting maternal and child health, improving the lives of children, advancing race and gender equality, and caring for victims of abuse. Twenty percent of women who come into our domestic violence shelter are pregnant or have a child who is 1 year old, so we have to create a coordinated system for families, because a child’s first years are important. We want to make sure they have access to preschool and kindergarten, because our long-term goal is to create a healthy community.

Every day at the YWCA is different. Each day comes with its challenges and stories of victory. The victory lies in the lives and stories of women and their families that have received services through our organization. Unfortunately, the challenges I face every day are embedded in my navigation and evaluation of systems, policies, and laws that create and sustain social injustice within populations and communities. As the CEO, my job is to create long-term strategies that will sustain a healthy community and population. My work focuses on being a voice for the most vulnerable in our community. My hope is that the YWCA can lead the community in creating a more socially just and equitable future for all people, especially the most vulnerable.

Had you worked in an environment that dealt closely with issues of violence before the YWCA?

Professionally, the subject matter of domestic violence and sexual assault as public health issues was very new to me when I joined YWCA Kalamazoo. However, the principles and the fundamental theories of public health with any social issue were not new. I built on those principles to develop strategies to better support families and uplift communities. Domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking have not received as much needed attention within the public health field in the past years. I have learned a lot as a leader on the dynamic of domestic violence by listening and learning from women at the YWCA’s domestic violence shelter. Interacting with these families has helped me become an advocate and understand the crisis of domestic violence that we face as a community and a nation.

Under your leadership, YWCA Kalamazoo is now leading the effort to curb infant mortality in Kalamazoo with an initiative called Cradle Kalamazoo. Can you tell me more about this program?

Infant mortality measures the community’s well-being and how best communities care for the most vulnerable populations, especially mothers and children. If you can’t take care of your children or your most vulnerable populations, you can’t take care of other things. I’m a black woman with two boys, and when I moved to Kalamazoo, I needed to know how I was going to raise my children. I did my own assessment of the community and realized that black babies in Kalamazoo were dying at a rate four times higher than white babies. As a mother, that didn’t sit well with me. The disparity of infant mortality that existed in Kalamazoo were worse than in some developing countries, and for a small community in the US, that did not make sense. As a leader of an organization that is about eliminating racism and empowering women, I needed to do something.

In 2014, I rallied the community to show our commitment to all babies, especially the black babies, in our community. We realized that we had to commit to the full life of all children if we wanted them to be successful in life. So in 2015, I created the Cradle Kalamazoo initiative, a collaboration of local agencies, stakeholders, and community residents with a goal of reducing racial disparities associated with infant mortality. We are working to understand the key elements of the social determinants of health and their association to infant mortality as a public health issue, as well as other issues, such as poverty and institutional racism. 

Is there any aspect of your job that was unexpected?

One of the things that always surprises me is the lack of knowledge and acknowledgement of the vulnerability that some of our populations face, and the need for continued education on understanding disparities that exist in our community. In order for us to achieve goals that support the well-being of everybody, we need to provide constant education to make sure people understand these issues. We still have a lot of work to do in elevating all populations to an equitable level. For me, that is a challenge I face and I think as communities and the nation we all face every day.

—Jillian McKoy