By Kharisma McIlwaine
Health is wealth.
This concept has been on the forefront of the push for more people to prioritize their health and wellness. Finding work, school and personal life balance amidst the high levels of stress that often come with adulting can be extremely challenging. Dedicating time to maintain physical and mental health requires intentionality and various methods of support. Dr. Kristin Motley offers that support in the form of the Healthier You Conference.
Motley, a Chester native and founder of the non-profit Health Educated, Inc., created the conference in 2015 as a resource for promoting health and wellness in the community. The Healthier You Conference is set to return on Saturday, November 11 at the Chester Charter Scholars Academy, located at 1500 Highland Ave., in Chester, Pa. Philadelphia’s own Freeway will be the keynote speaker. Motley spoke with the SUN about her mission to offer the necessary tools to assist the community in their health and wellness journeys.
Motley began learning about health disparities within the Black community while attending her alma mater, Florida A&M. That knowledge inspired her to find ways to help.
“We learned about health disparities. I graduated almost 20 years ago, and we’re still talking about the same things. We’re still talking about how Black people die at a higher rate of heart disease, of cancer (breast cancer, prostate cancer) and heart attacks,” Motley said. “With me having the educational background, knowing information and being connected to amazing health care providers, I felt there’s something I can do to help close the gap a little bit, or put a dent in it, because it’s disturbing.”
The higher rates of various health conditions within the Black community can be attributed in part to the mistrust many Black people have of the medical field. Another reason for the conference is to help educate people within the Black community on how to combat those disparities.
“If we don’t know what the problem is, if we don’t talk about what the source of the problem is, we can’t do the right things to resolve it,” Motley said. “So, we absolutely call it out — we call out the racism in health care, the unconscious biases and the micro aggressions. It’s complicated, it’s a lot, and I’m just glad the Lord laid it on my heart to do something to help.”
One of the ways Motley is helping is through the Healthier You Conference. This year marks the fourth installment of the event and the first time the conference is taking place since the pandemic.
“My initial inspiration came when I attended a women’s conference in LA,” Motley said. “It was just an amazing day, and I was able to meet with the woman who started it 20 years prior. I thought, she is just a regular person — I’m just a regular person. If regular people can do amazing things, why can’t I do something like this? So, I started putting the pieces together to formulate it in 2015. 2015 was the first Healthier You Conference. It really came from me going to LA and seeing that regular people can do really amazing things when you have the right partners and the right support around you.”
Motley has handpicked a diverse group of speakers for this year’s conference.
“I knew that it would be important to have Black speakers — people who could talk and bring in their own experiences,” Motley said.. “I reached out to people I knew would kill it in their workshops. Everyone instantly agreed and I’m excited that this year that all the speakers are Black professionals.”
The speakers participating this year include; Rachael Hanible, CFEI, certified financial educator; LaVanté N. Dorsey, LCSW, licensed clinical social worker; Stacey Woodson, MS, RN, LDN, dietitian and author; Christopher Brown, MS, LPC, DAAETS, clinician; Ryan McMillian, LMFT, MDiv, couples therapist; Beth Harwell, PharmD, cannabis educator and pharmacist; Derek Moore, MD, MPH, MBS, family physician; Leon McCrea II, MD, MPH, MBA, family physician; Adia Rushdan, MD, MPH, MBA, family physician; Nada Mays, MS, RDN, LDN, registered dietitian; Deanna Grace, PhD, scientist and health coach; Nicolle D. Surratte, MS, integrative nutrition health coach; Donna Williams, LPN, CASA, parenting consultant; Kathleen E. Walls, PsyD, clinical psychologist consultant and author and Loraine P. Snead, MS MEd, educator and master gardener.
The conference also features Philadelphia’s own Freeway as the keynote speaker and a Q&A moderated by national correspondent and Chester native Dray Clark. Freeway, who is an ambassador for The National Kidney Foundation, has been open about his own health struggles and is an advocate for health consciousness.
“It’s been a pleasure working with Freeway and his manager, they’re very down to earth,” Motley said. “I love how Freeway is being candid about his experience. He has a huge following and a huge voice and I know that he’s making a difference. He’s using his influence to make people think more and be more conscious about their health.”
The conference offers a full day of workshops that offer attendees a wealth of knowledge on a wide variety of subjects regarding health and wellness.
“There are a series of workshops that people can chose from throughout the day,” Motley said. “For each time slot, there are four different workshops that are happening at the same time, so people are going to have to make some tough decisions on which speakers they want to go to.”
This is where you come to get the information from the top experts,” she continued. “We have an amazing financial consultant coming in to talk about how to create a budget, how to start a business and how to get into investing. We have a scientist coming in from Atlanta to talk about cancer prevention. A lot can be done on our part to decrease our risk of having cancer and a lot of it is about what you eat and what you don’t eat. We have three fitness demonstrations that will be going on throughout the day. We have an exhibitor hall with 40 or so organizations to share their products and services with attendees. We also are going to give away a health hero award, which will include a vacation package. We’re taking nominees for people who have made healthy changes in their lives and inspire other people to make changes.”
The conference is free and open to the public and only requires that attendees register in advance. To register and to find out more information about the conference schedule visit: https://healtheducatedinc.org/conference or call: (484) 234-2427. To continue supporting Dr. Kristin Motley on her journey, follow her on IG @docisontheball.
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