We spoke to Dr. Akwatu Khenti about his work in public health and with the City of Toronto's Black Scientist Task Force on Vaccine Equity. This community-developed initiative is aimed at decreasing the disparity on vaccine infection and hesitancy within Toronto's Black community. His knowledge and experience on this subject are extensive and really sparked my thinking on the wider public health needs of communities of colour, especially Black folks.

Dr. Akwatu Khenti is Special Advisor to the City of Toronto’s COVID 19 equity initiative and Chair of the Black Scientists’ Task Force on Vaccine Equity. He is an affiliate scientist with the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research (IMHPR) at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and an assistant Professor within the Dalla Lana School of Health.  Akwatu is formerly the Assistant Deputy Minister for Ontario’s Anti-Racism Directorate (2017-2020) as well as CAMH’s Director of Transformative Global Health. Dr. Khenti has inspired many local efforts to improve Black mental health across Latin American and Caribbean communities through intensive substance abuse training and management competencies for mental health.   (1997-2017).  He has a PhD in health policy and equity from York University.  His doctoral research chronicled the effects of social determinants of racialized gun violence in Toronto’s 140 neighborhoods from 2004-2014. 

Learn more about the Black Scientist Task Force at read their report on Townhalls in Toronto.

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