Dr. Jean Accius of Creating Healthier Communities On 5 Steps We Must Take To Truly Create An Inclusive, Representative, and Equitable Society

We have really big problems to solve, and we cannot and should not go back to our old normal. That normal excluded entire communities, income brackets, ages, education levels, and races. The old normal deprived many people of life’s basic necessities. Disparities and inequity were widespread before the pandemic, and these disparities didn’t happen by chance. We know that it’s not your genetic code but your ZIP code that determines how long you’ll live in the U.S. We are now at a crossroads where we need to reassess, redefine, and reprioritize what we collectively value and what we collectively indicate matters.

As part of our series about ‘5 Steps We Must Take To Truly Create An Inclusive, Representative, and Equitable Society’ I had the pleasure of interviewing Jean Accius, the CEO of Creating Healthier Communities, a national nonprofit in Washington, D.C.

As president and CEO of Creating Healthier Communities (CHC), Jean Accius is a transformative leader in health equity and longevity. Accius has long been passionate about equity, the contributions of women to society, and improving the world around him. Accius is a graduate of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Program on Health Reform and Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business Corporate Innovation Program; a certified director with the National Association of Corporate Directors; a fellow with the Executive Leadership Council; and holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Florida State University and a Ph.D. from American University.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you. Can you tell us a bit about how you grew up?

When I was one month old, my mother realized that neither she nor my father were able to fully care for me. She made the difficult, life-changing decision to place me in my grandmother’s care. My grandmother, Anouca, took on this unexpected new responsibility with grace, dignity, and fierce determination. She worked extremely hard and sacrificed to ensure I had a strong foundation to reach my fullest potential. When I was four years old, my father provided the opportunity for us to emigrate from Haiti to the United States, and we lived in Florida. Although my grandmother is now 99 years old with dementia, she continues to be the epitome of strength. I am forever grateful for her inspiring work ethic, grit, and the values that she instilled which shaped me into the person I am today.

Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

My favorite books are “Travels with Charley” and “East of Eden” by John Steinbeck. I am a big fan of Steinbeck because he gets at the core humanity of issues, including empathy and our relationship with each other, wealth injustice and disparities, and the overall human condition.

Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life or your work?

One of my favorite quotes is from Equal Justice Initiative founder Bryan Stevenson who said, “You cannot be an effective problem solver from a distance. There are details and nuances to problems that you will miss unless you are close enough to observe those details.” These words are important to me because we must always be mindful to embed people and communities in our work. We must listen to people’s stories and lived experience so we can co-create together. I firmly believe that each of us has the power to be agents of change and address the inequities that deprive people of the opportunity to achieve their life aspirations. But we must be brave enough to want it, confident enough to plan it, and proactive and courageous enough to make it happen.

How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?

Leadership means inspiring others to understand their why and align their natural-born talents with their work and service. When we know *why*, our *what* has more impact. We come to work every day with a renewed purpose to tackle a magnitude of challenges that impact families and communities. What we can accomplish together is limitless when we know our *why*. As a leader, I don’t tell the team what to do, I help shape the vision of what our future can look like together. As I leader, I need to be focused on results and stewarding resources. And I believe in the power of empathy, inclusion, curiosity, innovation, building trust, and partnering every step of the way.

Ok, thank you for all that. Now let’s move to the main focus of our interview. In the summer of 2020, the United States faced a very important self-reckoning about race, diversity, equality, and inclusion. This is of course a huge topic. But briefly, can you share your view on what made the events of 2020 different from racial reckonings in the past?

There is no doubt this pandemic turned our world upside down. Loss of life and loss of the everyday things we took for granted will leave lasting, traumatic scars no matter how resilient we are. The glaring events of 2020 were an inflection point for our nation and forced us to confront our own brokenness, our values, and the type of society we want to be moving forward. It showed — in no uncertain terms — that while we were all collectively going through the same storms, we were not in the same boat.

We have really big problems to solve, and we cannot and should not go back to our old normal. That normal excluded entire communities, income brackets, ages, education levels, and races. The old normal deprived many people of life’s basic necessities. Disparities and inequity were widespread before the pandemic, and these disparities didn’t happen by chance. We know that it’s not your genetic code but your ZIP code that determines how long you’ll live in the U.S. We are now at a crossroads where we need to reassess, redefine, and reprioritize what we collectively value and what we collectively indicate matters.

We must commit to “re-imagining” what communities in the United States would look like — could look like — if we didn’t think of ourselves as having to achieve something by breaking through barriers or overcoming hurdles. What if we actually began the work to build new systems, programs, and processes with no barriers or hurdles to begin with? If we did that, just think about the possibilities … the opportunities … the equality … the healing … the power … and the prosperity that would fuel our economic, educational, physical, and emotional engines.

I firmly believe that we each hold the power to be agents of change and transform this moment into the best of times. After all, this pandemic has clearly demonstrated that we are an interconnected society. This is one of the reasons I sought out the position of CEO for CHC: Creating Healthier Communities, because I wanted to help lead this change in a real, systemic, life-changing way. Deloitte and the World Economic Forum reported that over $320 billion is lost every year because of health disparities alone. Imagine the possibilities if we solved this.

Can you tell our readers a bit about your experience working with initiatives to promote Diversity and Inclusion? Can you share a story with us?

My goal is always to find common ground and bring diverse stakeholders together to advance systemic change that improves life for all of us. Solving today’s problems will require the adoption of a new, more dynamic narrative around diversity, equity, and inclusion. We cannot allow ourselves to be governed by fear and anger. If we allow this to happen, then we actually start to tolerate things we should never tolerate, and we accept things that are unacceptable.

Over the years, I’ve worked on Medicaid programs for low-income Americans; created and led AARP’s strategy to address the health and wealth disparities in the workplace, marketplace and workforce; directed research and programs on rural, urban, and suburban health equity; and led teams that ensured those whom our programs served were included in developing solutions.

While data drives narratives, we also need to be sure we’re including communities and individuals in our work, no matter what we do. Diversity and inclusion isn’t just checking the box to make sure we have a certain number of people with specific demographics on a project or team. It’s ensuring we have diversity and inclusion of experiences, ideologies, and abilities as well. Bringing diverse stakeholders together is the way we make systemic change. Because no community should be left behind, and we can act now so that all people can live healthier, more productive lives.

This may be obvious to you, but it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you articulate to our readers a few reasons why it is so important for a business or organization to have a diverse executive team?

Organizational leadership must reflect the people they serve. And those individuals are diverse, no matter how you look at it — whether it’s race, age, education level, ability, or myriad other factors including diverse backgrounds, experiences and insights. At CHC, we have more than 50% women and people of color on both our board of directors and our executive team.

From time to time, we do “Inside My World” presentations where our board and staff share presentations, photos, and stories of the things that are important to them and that have shaped their worldview. It’s powerful to witness, and it makes us stronger collaborators together.

Our diversity is intentional and it’s important because we’re working to drive systemic change. We’re partnering with on-the-ground organizations so that every person in every community can live their healthiest life. We can’t have healthy communities without healthy people. And that takes all of us, working together toward a common goal, understanding and respecting the things that make us uniquely ourselves.

Ok. Here is the main question of our discussion. You are an influential business leader. Can you please share your “5 Steps We Must Take To Truly Create An Inclusive, Representative, and Equitable Society”? Kindly share a story or example for each.

1. We must be active listeners. Listening is not the same thing as waiting for your turn to talk. We must listen to people, to communities, and really hear what they are saying … or not saying. We must listen to build trust. We must listen to be able to hear stories that reveal patterns or habits we can systemically address in collaboration with those we serve. Our hustle culture has taught us to believe that the best speakers are the best leaders, but I’m here to tell you that the real leaders that make change happen are the strong, active listeners.
2. We must ensure that communities are in the driver seat in solving their own challenges. Similar to prototyping new products and services by ensuring the consumer has been engaged in the design and providing feedback, we have to remember to include those in the margins in solving problems and building anew. Business leaders must adopt an “asset lens” by first looking at the strengths of various communities rather than what they lack and then co-creating solutions that meet their preferences, goals, and aspirations.
3. We need to understand and accept that inaction is unsustainable. We cannot afford not to act. In fact, action is a decision. Eliminating disparities means closing a longevity gap. It means creating time and ensuring everyone in America has equal access to opportunity. And business leaders have an important role to play in closing these gaps. This will require an intentional focus on equity as a core business strategy to address the disparities within the organization as well as how those strategies filter out to the broader society in addressing the social drivers of health.
4. We need to find, cultivate, and sustain traditional and nontraditional partners. This work can’t be done with a piecemeal approach anymore. Great movements happen because somewhere, somehow, someone decides it’s time to pivot from inertia or resistance to action. We are in the midst of unprecedented change and disruption in our country. What we need right now are strategic risk takers to do the work to build new policy and programmatic systems that benefit all. No sector or organization can solve the magnitude of the challenges in isolation. Building an equitable and more inclusive society requires a multisector approach and must involve all sectors — public, private, and nonprofit. It includes engaging with healthcare systems, technology companies and other businesses to find new ways to better leverage the use of technology to mitigate health disparities across diverse demographics, geographies, and communities.
5. We need to invest and provide an infusion of support at the local level. Presidential and congressional elections get all the airtime, but investing in local candidates and local issues is incredibly important. Identifying, fostering, mentoring, supporting, and funding smart, results-minded, collaborative leaders to run for local office is critical to the future of this country. Local elected officials create laws and policies that matter in neighborhoods and communities. They can solve problems in real, tangible ways that can be scaled and replicated. Those local officials can choose to run for state-wide office. State laws matter on so many issues related to healthcare, disability, transportation, business, real estate, and other social drivers of health and wellbeing. Investing in strong candidates who can get the job done on the local and state level can do wonders to shape an inclusive, equitable, and representative society.

We are going through a rough period now. What makes you optimistic about the future of the US? Can you please explain?

Personally, my kids and their friends make me optimistic about the future of our country and our world. Our dinner table conversations are so different from the ones I had at their age. I’m in awe of how aware they are of the world around them and how differently they talk about their feelings, fears, and hope than generations before them. When I listen to what they talk about with their friends, it’s clear the respect, support, and sense of community, inclusion, and belonging is strong. They’re growing up in a time that is so different, fast-evolving, and fluid, and I can’t wait to see their impact on the world.

The well-respected 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer showed declining trust and increased polarization in the U.S. I’m not surprised. But rather than lament this finding, I actually see it as an opportunity. When we dig into the data, we see people trust their communities, their friends and neighbors, their coworkers and CEO. Those are the people we have regular, in-person interactions with. And those ties were strengthened during the pandemic because we came together in a time of struggle and fear and leaned on one another, building and deepening trust.

At CHC, we partner with and fund organizations with strong, on-the-ground local impact. I feel optimistic about the future because I know the power of local connectivity and strength.

Is there a person in the world, or in the U.S., with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)

I would like to have a delicious and bountiful breakfast in the sunshine next to the sound of gentle ocean waves with Sidney Poitier, Maya Angelou, Bernice King and three other guests of their choosing. I’d like to ask them three questions:

• “How are we doing?”
• “Are we carving a helpful path for those who come after us?”
• “Why did you select this guest to bring to breakfast, and what do you admire most about them?”

… and then I just want to listen. I want to listen to their perspectives and their insights on the impact my generation has had and their hopes for the future. I want to learn about what they admire in people. And I would like them to meet my kids and their friends to see where our future is headed and the tremendous hope and strength I see in the next generation.

How can our readers follow you online?

I welcome you to follow me on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/accius4/ and Twitter/X @JeanAccius, and of course follow CHC: Creating Healthier Communities at @chcimpact on LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Facebook and Instagram. You can find our social media handles on our website: chcimpact.org.

This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!