A memoir and guide to medical issues in DEI era

Renée Branch Canady’s book, “Room at the Table,” is part memoir, part self-help guide and part primer on equity and inclusion. It comes out at a time when diversity, equity and inclusion policies are under scrutiny across the country.

Canady, who has a Ph.D. in medical sociology from Michigan State University, uses her more than three decades of experience shepherding and overseeing some of the most difficult public health issues, like HIV/AIDS, syphilis and maternal health, both locally and statewide. She has done so as CEO of the Michigan Public Health Institute, a nonprofit public health initiative based in Okemos, as well as a former faculty member and administrator at MSU’s C.S. Mott Department of Public Health and former health officer and director of the Ingham County Health Department.

Canady’s new book straddles the line between a textbook-style instruction manual and the popular “Dummies” self-help style guides to understanding complex issues. It’s something that has been desperately needed in understanding the complex historiography of diversity, equity and inclusion issues, especially health equity.

The step-by-step guide walks readers through the myriad issues surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion in 11 chapters. Canady uses her personal experiences to make the guide more pragmatic to the average readers trying to understand what health equity means to them.

Canady said a book like this is needed to “help quell the fear and misunderstanding” surrounding health equity issues.

“We need to begin having dialogue to keep each other whole, along with creating authentic relationships so people of color and whites can see eye to eye,” she said.

She believes that “the road to unity is through diversity.”

“We need to advance well-being through public health and equity,” she said.

Canady is only the second CEO of the Michigan Public Health Institute since its founding more than 25 years ago. The organization has been valuable in helping fill needed gaps in public health delivery.

A key component of the new book is that it teaches readers the principles of equity so they can better understand what has become a complex issue fraught with dispute.

“‘Room at the Table’ teaches you the principles of equity so that you can better understand yourself, understand others and make a lasting difference in this world,” Canady writes. “No one has truly come from the same place. You’ll learn to acknowledge difference, not dismiss it.”

In telling these stories, Canady taps into some of her personal experiences of not only growing up in the South (Georgia) but also experiences on the job, including examples of racism that have crept into her professional life. Some are very cringe-worthy.

“I felt very vulnerable in writing the book and found that it is hard to talk about our own faults and weaknesses,” Canady said.

“My goal for the book was to help transform public attitudes,” she said. “After all, we don’t know who is listening.”

As proof, she writes about how something she wrote in a report cited in the U.S. Supreme Court Dobbs’ decision ending Roe vs Wade.

She also reveals an important family experience — that her mother’s birth was the result of her grandmother’s rape by a white man — and how it helped shape her into someone “who desperately seeks to find middle ground and stands as a peacemaker and reconciler and also one whose personal heritage is the direct consequence of a mother’s unimaginable choice.” 

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Save your seat for the literary event of the year: the 2024 Michigan Notable Book Night for Notables, the annual celebration honoring the 20 best books of Michigan published in 2023.

The event is set for April 20 at 5:45 p.m. at the Library of Michigan, 702 W. Kalamazoo St., and costs $75 a ticket, which includes a program, an afterglow reception and book signings with authors. This year’s keynote speaker is Lansing native Stephen Mack Jones, who has written the three August Snow thriller novels set in contemporary Detroit. Ticket information is available online at General 2 — Library of Michigan Foundation.