Dr. Onye Nnorom takes a community-centred approach to public health
March 18, 2021
Experiencing racism at a very young age empowered Dr. Oyne Nnorom who takes a community-centred approach to public health.
When her Grade Two teacher assumed she was a below-level student, mom stepped in.
“The assumption was made because of race as there was no other explanation,” Nnorom said. “My mother was an advocate for me, but at the same time she empowered me. So, facing racism in the classroom from other students and this teacher, I learnt about slavery, Martin Luther King, Nigeria’s ancient Nok society and the sculptures that came through there. At a very young age, I was learning about community activism and social justice.”
Eugene and Patricia Nnorom migrated from Nigeria and Trinidad & Tobago respectively in the mid-1970s and settled in Montreal. He was a maintenance worker and his wife was an administrative assistant and personal support worker.
“My parents weren’t activists, but they were very engaged in their community,” said their daughter. “The way I coped with the racism I experienced was to learn about my own history in like a Pan-African way and the power of community action and speaking up against racism. I was speaking up against apartheid in Grade Three, so that has always been a part of my life largely because of my parents influence.”
Enrolled in a Gifted Camp summer program in Grade Four ignited Nnorom’s interest in science.
But it was the exposure to mentorship in her second year at Concordia University that turned her on to Medicine.
Noticing the consistent under-representation of Black students at McGill University, Dr. Eric Laryea established a mentorship program.
“My mom went to see him about something and he asked about me,” recounted Nnorom who was recognized with a University of Toronto (U of T ) Woman of Purpose of Award in 2019. “Though I was a reluctant recruit, I saw other Black medical students and that was what changed it for me.”
They included Dr. Ewurabena Simpson who was a first-year medical student at McGill University.
“I remember meeting with her and telling myself I can do this,” said Nnorom who is the President of the Black Physicians Association of Ontario of which Simpson is a Member-at-Large. “I had the grades and the background and so I applied to do Medicine.”
She completed her medical degree at McGill University in 2007 and a Master’s of Public Health (Epidemiology) and residency training at the U of T and was a temporary Family Physician with Women’s Health in Women’s Hands Community Health Centre and NorWest Community Health Centre in Thunder Bay before joining TAIBU Community Health Centre as a Family Physician & Chronic Disease Prevention Lead.
TAIBU was established in 2008 to provide quality and culturally appropriate primary health care and related services to the Black communities in the Greater Toronto Area as its priority population and Malvern residents.
“I got to TAIBU not long after I had finished medical school which, for the most part, teaches you – particularly back then – nothing about Black people or they teach you that something is wrong with our genetics or our culture,” Nnorom said. “I went to TAIBU to help create programs and fix the community because I am a doctor. The Executive Director (Liben Gebremikael) let me now that it wasn’t for me to come in thinking I was going to fix the community. He said if there were any challenges the community was facing, they have the answers and I have to listen.”
She’s also the clinical consultant for the Nictoine Dependence Clinic at the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health.
In February, 2020, Nnorom was appointed the University of Toronto Department of Family & Community Medicine (DFCM) first Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) Lead.
She’s playing a critical role in advancing EDI by providing advice and making recommendations to the DCFM Chair and Core Executive Leadership on matters of policy relating to policy interpretation and practice when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion for faculty, residents, students and staff.
In the past few years, companies have made public commitments to increase diversity, equity and inclusion in their workplaces with the creation of EDI positions.
“The establishment of these EDI roles are, on the one hand, potentially a sign of institutions realizing the need for change,” she said. “But at the same time, the lack of foresight in the way in which these roles have been incorporated without providing authority to those who are in these roles and critical thought into how social injustice and oppression play a role in creating inequities that actually have to be addressed within institutions may have made it problematic.”
Named one of Best Health Magazine’s 2020 Women of the Year, Nnorom is hopeful she can create meaningful change.
The DCFM is within the university’s Faculty of Medicine.
“We have seen the increase in the number of Black medical students and we have seen a change in policies, structures and practises with regards to admission, the creation of programs that do outreach at a younger age and level the playing field even before you get to the Black Student Application Program (BSAP),” she noted.
“Seeing changes occur in a sustainable way has given me hope that in other areas in the Faculty of Medicine and the Department of Family Medicine that we can start to see change, not only in our numbers as far as diversity and not only with regards to those of us who are not been given the opportunity to be in these spaces, but also inclusion and the fact that the culture and policy is required to make it a safe space for Black learners and create that culture shift so that health care becomes safer for Black patients.”
With Blacks and other racialized people in Canada facing health disparities, Nnorom isn’t surprised that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on that population.
“It exposed what we already knew which was that this pandemic wasn’t going to be a great equalizer and was going to devastate the Black community,” said Nnorom who is an Assistant Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and in the Faculty of Medicine’s Department of Family & Community Medicine. “We know that we are the people who tend to be frontline, we are the people who are the Personal Support Workers, we are the people doing precarious work, we are the people living in multi-generational homes and can’t self-isolate and we bear the brunt of chronic diseases like hypertension and diabetes all of which have their roots in systemic racism.
“The other thing that it also makes obvious is this idea of Black suffering being highly tolerated. For many of us, there was a lot of advocacy for the collection of race-based data. But the data in itself isn’t all. When we have that information, it’s not just to map out hot spots of where Black and racialized people are, but to actually think about the factors that put us at risk and then figuring out the ways to address the systems issues that are putting us at higher risk which hasn’t happened yet. The lack of action that we have seen either to collect the data or to do something about it when they have seen the data is also a manifestation of anti-Black racism because that’s how it works. You tolerate the inequities that exist for a particular group.”
Dr. Onye Nnorom (Photo contributed)
Nnorom conceived the idea for a podcast, ‘Race Health & Happiness’, aimed at helping racialized people stay well, thrive and find joy.
Enlisting the help of Dalla Lana alumni staff and students, including Dr. Karl Kabasele, Bhayna Samtani, Obadiah George and Semipe Oni to produce the podcast, she interviews guests who are overcoming overt and institutionalized racism to achieve their professional goals while creating healthy and fulfilling lives.
“My work really focuses on the impact of racism on health, particularly how it can add an extra layer of stress to our everyday lives, but also because of these issues of where we are denied opportunities for advancement,” she said. “So I go into places and spaces where there are usually largely White politicians, educators, physicians and different audiences to talk about the health impact of racism. After my talks, racialized people approached me saying, ‘We appreciate you coming to our organization to tell people how harmful racism is, but I am racialized and how do I cope knowing that all of this takes its toll over time’. It has been really interesting listening to different people who have been successful in their respective fields. It’s about how we thrive and survive in this racialized world. It is unfair and we have to continue to disrupt these systems of racism. But in our day-to-day lives, we still need to find joy and love and connection and succeed where possible and find ways to succeed and advance ourselves.”
The podcast is available at racehealthhappiness.com and on all hosting platforms.
Married since 2011 to Samuel Oduneye who is a senior public servant in the provincial government, the couple has two sons.
Nnorom has a brother, Ebere, who is a youth program co-ordinator with the Boys & Girls Club of East Scarborough.
