Skip to main content

FAQs

What is the Minority Health Conference?

The interdisciplinary Minority Health Conference is the largest and longest-running student-led health conference in the nation. The conference raises awareness of health disparities and mobilizes students, academics, and communities to advocate for change. Formed in 1977 and led by the Minority Student Caucus at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health, the Minority Health Conference attracts a variety of attendees that reflect the different lived stories and perspectives in public health, both in-person and via webcast (the 2021 MHC conference is fully virtual).

Who is responsible for conference planning and implementation?

The Planning Committee, a team of student volunteers from diverse backgrounds who self-identify as minority and non-minority students, make this student-led conference a reality.

How was the theme selected?

This year’s theme The Building Blocks to Well-being: Connections Between Health and Stress—selected by the conference co-chairs— with this year’s theme we seek to explore the social determinants of health, the stress they can cause, and their impacts on the short- and long-term well-being of minority communities. We hope that the theme will connect us around shared values of achieving better overall health and well-being that can enable us to build a stronger future for all. 

What does our “hybrid” conference look like?

The 45th Minority Health Conference will be held on February 23rd, 2024. The conference will be held in-person at the Friday Conference Center and will also include speakers, breakout sessions, poster sessions, and exhibits with virtual access. During registration, attendees will choose to attend the conference completely virtual or in-person and will be reflected in the registration price.

Who should attend the conference?

Community members, professionals, students, and researchers are welcomed and encouraged to participate in the conference. Through keynote presentations, networking opportunities, engaging breakout sessions, and informative exhibitors and posters, attendees will gain powerful skills on how to effectively advocate for causes they care about.  

I’m a member of the media. Can I attend the conference?

If you are a member of the media, pre-registration is required to cover the event due to capacity limits. Please contact minorityhealthconference@unc.edu with “Press Registration Request” in the subject.

Why has the cost to attend the conference increased?

The conference has grown substantially since 1977 but we remain true to our roots as a student-run conference.  This challenging commitment  to run the largest and longest student-led health conference in the country, unfortunately, means that we have a limited budget. While we endeavor to keep the conference accessible to students and community members, our fundraising is limited to our small student fundraising committee.

With increased costs for facilities, speakers, and other aspects of the conference, we have set new fees to keep the conference affordable but responsive to increasing financial demands and still maintain the high quality of the conference. We recognize that the conference registration fees are lower than many similar events. We continue to expand our fundraising efforts in hopes to keep conference fees low in upcoming years.