Speak Life! 2026: Stronger Together—a day of culture, courage, and community-building
From the first beat of the drum to the final words from our new CEO, this year’s Speak Life! Health Equity Conference invited our region to do more than talk about equity—it gave participants the opportunity to feel it, to practice it, and to leave with new relationships to move the work forward. This year’s theme—Stronger Together!—was more than a slogan—it was a clear call to action with organizers urging participants to “make a new connection with someone to collaborate with in improving the health of our region.”
Presented by the African American Health Coalition, Indigenous Health Coalition, Latino Health Coalition, and the New American Health Advisory Group, the day blended evidence, lived experience, and cultural grounding in a way that made health equity tangible—something you could hear in a story, see in a dance, and carry into your work the next day.
A morning grounded in place, culture, and welcome
The conference was centered with welcome remarks from Health Coalition leaders, a land acknowledgment—which included the reading of an original poem by Health Coalitions Program Coordinator Anika Griffiths—and the first of several cultural performances.
“This poem is a wish,” began Griffiths, then invited the audience to listen to the “eyewitness testimony of this land,” to acknowledge its “ache,” to honor its “scars,” and to confront the histories that shaped Rochester and the region. The poem ended not in despair, but in a wish for freedom, “for us to set you and one another free.”
The Allegany River Seneca Dancers then set the tone for what became a defining feature of this year’s conference: a new addition designed to ground Speak Life! in the cultural traditions that sustain health and well-being across communities. As the day unfolded, we were awed, entertained, and honored by performances from the Atebayilla Drum and Dance Group, Grupo Cultural de Latinos en Rochester, and singer/dutar player Jawad Hussaini.
Rather than serving as breaks, these moments became anchors—reminders that health equity is not only realized through policy and systems change, but also by honoring belonging, identity, tradition, and collective resilience. One attendee put it this way: “This year [I] felt a true togetherness with the organization and the entire program. Learning about other cultures, music, and customs was fantastic.”
Keynote: “What does it mean to speak life?”
The conference’s keynote—delivered by Dr. Anthony Jimenez, associate professor of sociology at RIT—asked a question that stayed with many participants long after the session ended: “What does it mean to speak life?”
Dr. Jimenez challenged us to name what is often normalized: that violence can be invisible when it is, intentionally or not, embedded in policy, systems, or business as usual. He urged the audience to see health as fundamentally social—shaped by conditions like housing, food security, belonging, stability, and freedom from persecution. That resonated with one University of Rochester medical student, who reflected on the day’s reminder that health is bigger than what happens in a clinic: “There’s so much more to health than just the biomedical aspect. There’s the community, the neighborhoods that you live in, access, and education.”
Jimenez’s words went beyond diagnosis. In a moment that resonated across the day’s sessions, he called for bold change through creation and collective courage: “Abolition isn’t necessarily about destruction. It’s also about creation. It’s about the imagination and the courage to do things you’ve never done before, to build things that you’ve never thought yourself capable of building.”
The message was both sobering and hopeful: we can create new forms of care because, in many ways, we already have—through mutual aid, relationship-building, and community resilience.
Practicing the work: Racial Healing Circle—learning to listen
After the keynote and a moving performance by the Atebayilla Drum and Dance Group, participants got the opportunity to listen to one another during the Racial Healing Circle led by Pete Hill of the Indigenous Health Coalition.
The structure of the session embodied the theme Stronger Together: participants were encouraged to sit with people they didn’t know and grow their community—“even if it’s just by one person.” The goal wasn’t simply networking; it was building a circle of relationships people can lean on and elevate as they work to meet community needs.
Candace Cabral, a panelist and Healthi Kids parent leader, described how impactful those conversations were—how the circle created space to learn why people are in this work and what their communities are carrying. “I heard so many people’s reasons for being there—why they’re in this work, who they’re doing it for, what their community is trying to heal from. Having the opportunity to share those stories and really listen to each other is what we need if we’re going to move forward together.”
That same idea resonated with another attendee, who, in response to the conference survey, said, “I really liked the healing circle conversations. I think it is very rare that we let people talk for two minutes without interjecting or thinking about what to say.
What emerged was a powerful reminder that equity is not only what we build—it’s how we build it, together.
Awards: honoring leadership, advocacy, and coalition commitment
Speak Life! has a tradition of pausing to celebrate those whose leadership strengthens the region’s health equity work.
The Dr. Constantino Fernandez Leadership and Advocacy Award recognizes an individual whose leadership, advocacy, and community engagement positively impacts the health of marginalized racial and ethnic groups in the Finger Lakes region. This year’s recipient, Michele Lloyd, program director with Action for a Better Community, Inc., was described by a nominator as “a tireless advocate for her clients, her staff, and the community as a whole,” who uses lived experience to “break stigma, uplift others, and create safe, empowering spaces for women facing health and social barriers.”
The Edgar Santa Cruz Outstanding Coalition Member Award honors a coalition member who demonstrates deep commitment to the mission and values of their coalition, elevating the work through networks, relationships, and consistent engagement. This year’s recipient, Angelina Hilton, founder of Native Made, was recognized for sustained energy, visibility-building for Indigenous communities, and for “always walking the walk… when it comes to improving health equity for indigenous communities today and for the next 7 generations and beyond.”
Panel: what communities are facing—and what’s working
The afternoon panel, moderated by Laura Sugarwala (University of Rochester School of Medicine Center for Community Health and Prevention), brought the day’s themes into sharp focus with frontline insights from Dr. Mike Hudson (Regional Health Reach), Mai Abdullah (Refugees Helping Refugees), Candace Cabral (Foodlink benefit navigator/Healthi Kids parent leader), Dr. Seanelle Hawkins (Urban League of Rochester/Daystar), and Devon Reynolds (community health educator; owner of Brothers and Sisters Unisex Salon).
Across different sectors, panelists returned to core truths: that basic needs like housing and food security are health equity issues; that fear and lack of trust can shape whether people seek care; and that authentic collaboration requires listening to community members as experts of their own lives.
One message landed with simplicity and power: for neighbors who often go ignored—for example, those experiencing homelessness—small actions can be transformative. As Dr. Hudson put it: “Make eye contact. Please say hi. Validate and recognize the human being that is in front of you.”
Several attendees shared that Speak Life!, especially alive in the panel discussion, made room for both the weight of the work and the hope that comes from doing it together. As one nurse practitioner puts it, “The integration of spirit and action and evidence base. It’s just so powerful, so motivating, so heartbreaking and yet hopeful at the same time.”
Closing: CEO Carol Tegas on dignity—and the work we can’t do alone
The day ended as it began: grounded in humanity.
In her closing remarks, Carol Tegas, CEO of the newly combined entity of Common Ground Health, Finger Lakes Performing Provider System (FLPPS), and Rochester Regional Health Information Organization (Rochester RHIO), shared personal experiences as a lifelong translator for family members in healthcare settings—stories that underscored how often care becomes inaccessible when systems aren’t designed for language, culture, and real life.
“Growing up, I saw the barriers of what it was like to not have access to health care in your own language,” she said. “I was the translator for all of my extended family’s doctor visits. At 12 years old, I was the translator when my baba had her first heart attack. At 38 years old, I was a translator for my parents when my dad was diagnosed with stage 4 kidney cancer. At 61 years old, I am still the translator.”
Her message was clear and direct: “We cannot do this work alone,” and we are “stronger when we work together.” She emphasized that health equity cannot be treated as optional or taboo—repeating the phrase with intention and refusing to let it be erased by discomfort.
She also pointed to what comes next: the combined entity of Common Ground Health, FLPPS, and Rochester RHIO, coming together after more than a decade of collaboration to pool resources, networks, and teams in service of greater regional impact.
And she returned the conversation to a human truth that echoed Anika’s poem and Dr. Jimenez’s keynote: “We all deserve a health care system that humanizes us.” Sometimes that begins not with a sweeping reform, but with a culturally responsive moment of connection—providers asking about a patient’s life and culture, building trust with a question, a look, or a gesture that says: I see you.
Thank you to our sponsors
With deep gratitude, we thank the organizations whose support helped make this year’s Speak Life! Health Equity Conference possible:
Rochester Regional Health
Genentech, Inc.
Excellus BlueCross BlueShield
Greater Rochester Health Foundation
Anthony L. Jordan Health Corporation
Helio Health
MVP Health Care
The William & Sheila Konar Foundation
Ibero-American Action League
BIPOC PEEEEEEK
Trillium Health
DePaul/NCADD-RA
Climate Solutions Accelerator of the Genesee-Finger Lakes Region
URMC Wilmot Cancer Institute
URMC Center for Community Health & Prevention
Alzheimer’s Association Rochester & Finger Lakes Region Chapter
Molina Healthcare, Inc.