The Room to Grow: Journey to Cultural and Linguistic Competency Conference at the Kennedy Krieger is in its fifteenth year. This year’s theme is, “Mentoring to Promote Success in Clinical, Academic, and Research Settings.” The Room to Grow conference began as a product of the 2010 Maryland State Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Bureau Learning Collaborative to Promote Diversity in Training that was co-directed by Dr. Yvonne Bronner (Professor, Morgan State University School of Community Health and Policy) and Dr. Harolyn Belcher (Vice President and Director, Center for Excellence in Public Health Leadership and Professor of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and adjunct faculty in the Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health).

The focus audience was initially MCH trainees and faculty (Psychology, Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Social Work, Nutrition, Nursing, Speech/Language Pathology, Neurodevelopmental Pediatrics, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation) participating in the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (LEND) at the Kennedy Krieger Institute, Bloomberg School of Public Health students, and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine residents. Over the years, the audience has expanded to include community members, undergraduate and graduate students at Morgan State and Coppin State Universities, as well as faculty at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the Bloomberg School of Public Health. The conference is directed by the Center for Excellence in Public Health Leadership at the Kennedy Krieger Institute. It has been sponsored by the Johns Hopkins University Office of the Provost, LEND, Maryland Center for Developmental Disabilities, and the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health. Topics discussed in past conferences have included addressing the complexities of care and advocacy related to individuals with disabilities and other marginalized populations, as well as the social and political determinants of health, justice, and access to healthcare services. The conference aims to support an excellence-driven and informed healthcare workforce that utilizes evidence-based public health practices to promote community- and culturally-relevant care, as well as the elimination of health inequalities.

The 2025 Room to Grow: Journey to Cultural and Linguistic Competency conference theme is “Mentoring to Promote Success in Clinical, Academic, and Research Settings."

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