The CCDE’s programs turn our values into practice. Each one pairs rigorous, community-engaged scholarship with spaces for dialogue, mentorship, and collective action, bringing together UW students, faculty, staff, and community members from across the Puget Sound region.
Our signature programs, Interrupting Privilege and the Health Equity Action Lab (HEAL), share a common approach: listen deeply, build alongside community, and share what we learn in ways that move us toward a more just and equitable world.
Health Equity Action Lab (HEAL)
Founded in 2023 by CCDE Director Dr. Carmen González, the Health Equity Action Lab is an equity-based, coalitional space where researchers, community leaders, policymakers, and practitioners collaborate to advance social health and wellbeing. HEAL takes a holistic view of health, spanning individual, community, and social wellbeing, and grounds its work in academic-community partnerships and participatory methods.
HEAL also serves as a professional development space for graduate students, offering hands-on experience in health equity research, grant writing, publishing, and navigating academia. HEAL’s signature offering, the HEAL Roundtable Series, provides opportunities for health equity researchers, UW faculty, and community members to share insights from their community-based efforts in a live, interactive format.
What we do
- Promote and partake in community-based, participatory health equity research
- Graduate mentorship in research, grant writing, and publishing
- The HEAL Roundtable Series, livestreamed on YouTube
- A resource hub for partners and community members working toward health equity
Interrupting Privilege
For over ten years, Interrupting Privilege, a cornerstone of the CCDE’s public scholarship spearheaded by former CCDE director Dr. Ralina Joseph, brought together students and community members from across Seattle for intergenerational conversations about race, racism, and its intersections. While most discussions of inequality focus on discrimination and disproportionality, Interrupting Privilege expanded further, asking how privilege intersects with race, gender, sexuality, and citizenship status.
At the heart of this program were our Radical Listening Sessions: recorded oral histories centered on lived experiences, played in a space where community members could listen, respond, and reflect. Each year highlighted a new theme, from first experiences of discrimination to “Generation Mixed,” “Black in Seattle,” “Quarantining While Black,” and “Black Capitalism,” building an archive of more than 1,000 recorded conversations. IP archives are available to the public.
Get Involved
Interested in partnering with a CCDE program, joining a Radical Listening Session, or supporting student research? We’d love to hear from you. Reach us at ccde@uw.edu.
