Brian Smedley is among the inaugural class of equity scholars at Urban, where he’ll continue his policy research to address institutional and structural racism and their role in health and health care inequities. Formerly, Smedley was executive director and a cofounder of the National Collaborative for Health Equity and was codirector of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health Leaders National Program Center. He also served in leadership roles at the American Psychological Association, the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine), and the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.  Among his awards and distinctions, Smedley has been honored by the Congressional Black Caucus, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the American Public Health Association, the American Psychological Association, and the Institute of  Medicine. Smedley serves as a consultant to the Saint Louis University Institute for Healing Justice and Equity’s Anti-Racism Consortium.