Eugenia C. South,
MD, MS
Faculty Director
“What season are you in?”
My husband asked me this question often during the early months of the COVID Pandemic - when we were both working from home with no childcare for our 3 young kids, I was working the hardest shifts of my career in the ER, and the world around us seemed to crash and burn.
Going into March 2020, I was on the cusp of career breakthrough – 5 visiting talks lined up, launching 2 recently awarded grants, growing my small team, and on the verge of a ‘yes’ from our health system leaders to launch what would become Deeply Rooted.
The talks got cancelled. The grants stalled. A conditional ‘yes’ turned into a ‘not right now’, which at the time felt like a permanent ‘no’.
My husband’s question was a quiet nudge to take stock of external circumstances beyond my control and figure out how to adjust to meet the moment. To not hold so firmly to the plans I had envisioned and stay open to possibility in the midst of deep uncertainty.
Turns out I was in a season of writing - publishing op-eds on Covid, gun violence, and urban nature in outlets like the New York Times, Washington Post, and NBC News. I was in a season of idea generation, engaging in ongoing conversations with colleagues like Atheen Venkataramani and George Dalembert about how to disrupt the links between structural racism and poor health - ideas that would eventually become IGNITE – an NIH funded study of my dreams (see page XX). And I was in a season of clarifying my purpose, taking a hard look at what I wanted from my career and what it would take to get there – setting boundaries, protecting time to think, and making difficult decision about where to focus my energy.
These shifts ultimately led me to step into a new level of leadership as the faculty director of the Urban Health Lab (UHL) in 2020. Founded in 2013 by my incredible mentor Dr. Charles Branas, UHL had been dormant for several years. During COVID, he invited me to reimagine and rebuild it – and it became the scaffolding for the work you see in this report.
From this foundation, delayed grants were completed. Deeply Rooted grew into a model for authentic, community-driven partnership grounded in trust and shared power. Our team grew, and in the fall of 2023, we launched the Penn Medicine Center for Health Justice, formally joining the Center for Healthcare Transformation and Innovation (CHTI) and extending our work into our health system walls.
Now, we find ourselves in another new season. After 13 years, we are saying goodbye to the Urban Health Lab, as our team fully steps into its identity as the Center for Health Justice. The legacy of the UHL lives in our vision, our values, our team, and our work. We will carry the UHL logo forward in honor of this legacy and as a visual reminder of our history. Learn more about our logo
We are rooted in justice – deeply committed to opportunity and wellbeing for all people – and open to where this next season will take us. Learn more about our work
- Eugenia C. South, MD, MS — Faculty Director