November 30, 2009

CBS’ Byron Pitts at conference on teen health disparities

CBS correspondent and native Baltimorean Byron Pitts will this week join teen-health experts from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and elsewhere for a discussion about health disparities in minority teens.

The Emmy Award–winning chief national correspondent for CBS Evening News rose to prominence as a national news heavyweight from being a functionally illiterate African-American middle-schooler. Pitts describes this triumph-over-adversity trajectory in his memoir, Step Out on Nothing, and will talk about it during his keynote address.

His talk is part of the Johns Hopkins Adolescent Health Leadership Training Program’s second annual conference on health disparities, which will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 4, in Feinstone Hall at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Pitts’ address will be at 2 p.m.

Minority youth have poor access to both primary and specialized medical care and experience worse overall health outcomes than their peers. Conference topics include suicide prevention in urban youth, diagnosis and treatment of teens with eating disorders and the importance of positive role models.