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In honor of Black History Month, Dr. Ro-Jay Reid from the Division of General Internal Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine shared how his work is transforming our understanding of healthy aging, especially for communities historically impacted by health disparities. His commitment began with early experiences that showed how deeply social conditions shape long-term health.
After volunteering in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake, Dr. Reid encountered many individuals with advanced and untreated chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, glaucoma and rheumatoid arthritis who were able to receive medical care only because the disaster brought temporary resources to their communities. This experience highlighted the powerful role that poverty, limited access to healthcare and structural barriers plays in shaping health outcomes.
During his medical residency in the United States, he saw similar challenges. Patients were often labeled “nonadherent,” yet many struggled with taking time off from work, finding reliable transportation or maintaining stable housing. These insights led Dr. Reid to focus on how community support, economic stability and neighborhood environments shape healthy aging for older adults managing chronic disease.
Dr. Reid’s current study follows 130 adults in New York City living with heart failure and osteoarthritis. Pain is common in this group, yet often undertreated. His research examines how pain and social conditions together influence longterm health, mobility and independence.
His earlier research showed that avoiding pain was central to how participants defined “aging well.” It also revealed that feeling connected and supported in one’s neighborhood helped people cope with financial strain and health-related stress.
Dr. Reid also collaborates with the REGARDS study (Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke), a national dataset designed to examine racial and geographic differences in stroke and cardiovascular health. With a large sample of adults aged 45 and older and intentional oversampling of Black participants and individuals in the U.S. Southeast, the study offers a unique view of disparities often missed in other datasets.
Its extensive data on cardiovascular events, functional status and social and behavioral factors helps researchers understand how chronic pain, cardiovascular risk and social conditions interact over time.
A key part of Dr. Reid’s work is developing a Community-Partnered Research Training curriculum that brings community members directly into the research process. This approach reflects a long tradition of leadership, empowerment and advocacy within Black communities.
The curriculum pairs research fellows with community mentors who have deep local ties. It also includes the Cornell Center for Health Equity’s Racial Allyship Training to help fellows understand the experiences of the communities they serve and strengthen their ability to build trust. These partnerships support authentic relationships and collaboration that extend beyond a research project. Community mentors offer insight that helps ensure studies are culturally grounded, ethically responsive and more effective at reducing health disparities.
Dr. Reid shared his reflection that “Black History Month is a celebration of resilience and community strength. It reminds us that progress in reducing health disparities happens when every voice is valued and every community is included.” He traced this legacy from Frederick Douglass, whose oratory fueled abolition to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who championed nonviolent resistance and urged students to pursue every task with dignity and excellence. He then pointed to cultural and political leaders like Bob Marley, whose music called for justice and unity and Nelson Mandela, who emerged from 27 years in prison to lead South Africa and help dismantle apartheid. He concluded that Black History Month endures because the real danger is not remembering too little but forgetting entirely.
