Overcoming the Odds, Changing Careers and Developing Resilience with Dr. Wendy Ellis

On the Well Woman Show today I interview Dr. Wendy Ellis, Assistant Professor in Global Health and the Founding Director of the Center for Community Resilience at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University. I met Dr. Ellis at a summit on early childhood, childcare and workplace policy – one of my all time favorite topics. And when I heard her speak about resilience and her take on the Adverse Childhood Experience model (known as ACES), I just knew I had to have her on the show. While the world, and the US in particular, might be in breakdown, there are leaders that are already rebuilding, and actually facilitating the emergence of a new version of the systems and structures that we not build for or by women and certainly not women of color. Dr. Wendy Ellis is one of those leaders.

She is an Assistant Professor in Global Health and the Founding Director of the Center for Community Resilience at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University. Dr. Ellis has spent the last fifteen years developing and working to grow a ‘resilience movement’ to address systemic inequities that contribute to social and health disparities that are often transmitted in families and communities from generation to generation.

The Center for Community Resilience seeks to improve the health of communities by enabling cross-sectoral partners to align policy, program and practice to address adverse childhood experiences in the context of adverse community environments–or as Dr. Ellis has coined it “The Pair of ACEs”. This innovative framing of ACEs, with an explicit focus on equity and prevention, has had a substantial influence on local initiatives, programs, public health initiatives and local, state and federal policy. Using the Pair of ACEs framing, Building Community Resiliencenetworks have successfully led systems and policy change focused on addressing long-standing economic, social and health disparties by partnering with community, integrating service delivery and building political will for change.

The strengths-based approach is aimed at building the infrastructure to disrupt cycles of structural racism, foster equity and promote resilience in communities by improving access to supports and buffers that help individuals ‘bounce back’ and communities thrive.

Leveraging her extensive background in communications, in 2022 Dr. Ellis produced a documentary, “America’s Truth: Cincinnati” that follows her team’s innovative approach to centering conversations on structural racism that galvanized a resilience movement to foster equity through systems and policy change. Dr. Ellis holds several leadership positions in public health including Chair of the National Academy of Sciences, Enhancing Community Resilience in the Gulf States Committee, Scientific Advisor to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Prevention and Injury Center and the National Academy’s Culture of Health Advisory Board. In 2018 Dr. Ellis was selected as an Aspen Institute Ascend Fellow to support her leadership in developing cross-sector strategies to address childhood trauma, foster equity and build community resilience.

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We discuss:

Being unafraid in the face of change.

Betting on yourself when it comes to your dreams and goals.

and

Leading with faith & focus as a leader.

As always, all the links and information are at  wellwomanlife.com/322show

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