Christian Lawson is a former co-chair of the Patient Advisory Council (PAC) and a current improver and member of the ICN Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee. Christian was nominated by fellow improver, Lisa Pitch, and was awarded the James A. Stockman Lectureship through The American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) Foundation. On October 10, 2021, Christian spoke during the American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference and Exhibition, sharing his experiences as a young Black patient navigating the chronic illness health care system.

Being selected as a patient for the 2021 Stockman Lectureship was the dream of a lifetime. I never expected my story would be able to help anyone else, especially other minorities just like me. Raising my voice for them is the most important thing I can ever do. Our journey as minority patients is hard. Sometimes we run into financial strains, suffer from a lack of proper healthcare education, face distrust with healthcare professionals and so much more. Having this opportunity to share with the American Board of Pediatrics allowed me to be able to not only share my struggles through my journey, it allowed me to empower care providers to know that it is together that we help each other when it comes to racial inequalities in healthcare. We are better together and stronger together. 

Thank you to Christian for sharing his story. We believe #StoriesMatter and they can help us do #BetterTogether 💚💙

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Get #InTheLOOP with more stories by Christian on the ICN blog >>
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