When

Thursday, February 24, 2022 at 3:00 p.m. 

Where

Virtual - registration required

Contact info

Karyna Nevarez karynad@vt.edu

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Black Medicine in the Star City

Jordan Bell and N.L. Bishop will provide a historical perspective of health and economics in Roanoke in the mid-20th century, and how segregation, and later desegregation, affected the state of healthcare in the Star City, specifically in the Gainsboro area. 

The presentation is based around the history of black healthcare in Roanoke, Virginia. Through Burrell hospital, Claytor family, and so many more, the medical story of Gainsboro is what really makes Gainsboro a great historical part of Southwest Virginia.

Jordan Bell

Jordan Bell

Jordan Bell is a 2009 William Fleming graduate. He works for Roanoke City Public Schools, Boys and Girls Club and his favorite place to be is as summer camp director with Apple Ridge Farm. He is also the creator of Gator Gents, an organization at Garden City Elementary School that emphasizes becoming a gentleman. Mr. Bell and all the boys in the school wear shirts and ties every Thursday.

Jordan takes pride in being involved in his community. He also is involved with many other organizations such as the Gainsboro Southwest Neighborhood Organization, Dumas Hotel Legacy, Inc., Points of Diversity, NAACP, SCLC, BMOR (Black Millenials of Roanoke), One Valley, and Habitat for Humanity.

Jordan’s biggest accomplishment is being a father. He loves to travel and teach and see his daughter grow. He takes pride and taking care of and helping his family. He is the middle child of three of the late Carlton Bell and his beloved mother Kathryn Bell.

Jordan’s passion is working with young people but also history. His project, Gainsboro Revisited, is a documentary and non-profit on the history of the Gainsboro community and Urban Renewal of the Roanoke Valley. He is in the process of interviewing Black Pioneers of the Roanoke Valley to tell their story and how Urban Renewal impacted the Black Community.

Daily Jordan works with hundreds of children doing what he loves to do and that impacts their lives by teaching them who they are and the power they have within themselves.

NL Bishop

N.L. Bishop

As the senior associate dean for diversity, inclusion, and student vitality for the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine as well as chief diversity officer and senior vice president at Carilion Clinic, Dr. Bishop works with leaders in admissions, student affairs, faculty affairs, and others to enrich the school’s diversity, supportive learning environment, and student quality-of-life, and collaborates with Carilion Clinic on programs and matters that bridge Diversity and Inclusion between our institutions. 

Statement about accessibility and accommodation

The Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine is committed to creating an inclusive and accessible event. All virtual events will have automated captions. Recorded events will have edited captions available soon after the event. If you desire live captioning or a sign language interpreter, please contact the organizer two weeks before the event. 

For in-person events, the main VTCSOM building at Riverside 2 is wheelchair accessible from the elevators inside the parking garage. Blind or visually impaired users may need assistance finding the elevators under the building, or using the stairs in front of the building.

If you need a reasonable accommodation to attend an in-person event, please contact the organizer of the event. All reasonable accommodation requests should be made no less than 2 weeks before the event. We will attempt to fulfill requests made after this date but cannot guarantee they will be met.