"I lead through collaborative advocacy by fostering the talents and strengths of others."
While considering potential future career paths, Candace Robertson-James knew she wanted to combine her passion for health and science with her love for helping others. Growing up, family and friends recommended Candace pursue becoming a medical professional. In college, Candace chose to pursue an undergraduate degree in Biology. However, following college, Candace’s passions drove her to serve others. She taught in South-West Philadelphia, an experience she now reflects on as pivotal in the trajectory of her life. In contrast to the fire drills she experienced in school, she watched her students prepare for gunshot drills.
Candace found herself questioning why her students lived in different circumstances than her own. She wanted to bring experiences to her students that would allow them the opportunity to be kids, a freedom not often granted in their environment.
She chose to do so through science. Candace collected donations of science supplies, organized science-related field trips, and arranged science fairs for her students. As her students shared their everyday realities with Candace, she shared her passions back with them. In turn, she expanded their understanding of possibilities this life had to offer them. The experiences her students gained have had lasting impacts on their futures.
Following this transformative experience, Candace attained a Master of Public Health degree with hopes to positively impact the lives of many more individuals in their community. She then went on to serve as an associate director of the Office of Urban Health Equity, Education and Research at Drexel University College of Medicine, integrating a public health perspective into the program. Candace’s continued involvement in her community outside of academia allowed her to apply practical learning into her curriculum. She invited her students to join her in community service activities and integrated teaching about domestic violence into her instruction on gender disparities in healthcare. Her students benefited from hands-on experience in the community as well as the opportunity to make a tangible difference in the lives of others.
After fourteen years positively impacting the lives of Drexel medical students and the surrounding communities, Candace moved on to La Salle University to direct the undergraduate and graduate public health programs. Recently, she was invited into the exclusive BMe Vanguard Fellowship, a fellowship offered to select, committed Black leaders to expand their leadership development. The primary goal of the fellowship is to encourage the leaders to utilize asset framing (defining people by their assets and skills) to shift societies’ view of the communities that compose the minority.
Through the fellowship, Candace was challenged to reconsider the use of language in public health. There are communities that are discussed solely within the framework of negative statistics- unemployment rate, poverty rate, or even incarceration rates. These communities are unjustly painted as synonymous with their shortcomings in society and, as a result, most people do not know of the successes or accomplishments that occur within these communities, or even that these communities are home to accomplishments worthy of celebration.
Candace has carried asset framing into her workplace through encouraging her colleagues to be deliberate with their use of language. Additionally, she has brought attention to the systemic issues in public health that are impacting communities. Candace has actively been outspoken in advocating for communities. While this past year has brought on many challenges and losses, it has also inspired a reimagining of possibilities for our future. For a leader like Candace, the current circumstances have created the opportunity to build collaborative teams that focus on each member’s strengths. Finding her voice has empowered Candace to become a mechanism for change in her community and field. Candace also recognized the need for a livable work environment through difficult life circumstances and therefore has provided a safe space for all who may need one.
Just as Candace created a broader future for her students as a teacher in Philadelphia, she too has exciting possibilities in her future. Still inspired by her time as a teacher, Candace wrote the children’s book, Reflections of Me, for young girls. Based on her research of the intersections between racism, sexism, and health, Candace hopes to spread messages of positive self-growth through the book. She has witnessed the lack of opportunities for many children to participate in conversations about their strengths. After writing her book, Candace hopes to create youth programs rooted in the lessons of the book. Stemming from her experience encouraging asset framing and as an educator, Candace wants to ensure the next generation is aware of their assets to set them up for success. In her spare time, you will also find Candace out serving her community.
Captured Summer 2021.
Image curtesy of Candace Robertson-James.