July 5, 2017 The Skanner Page 3
News
cont’d from pg 1
medical expertise – she
was one of only two Af-
rican American women
in her class at Duke Uni-
versity — are recounted
in her new book, “Hun-
dreds of Interlaced Fin-
gers: A Kidney Doctor’s
Search for the Perfect
Match.”
When she began writ-
ing her intention was to
There are still Blacks and
people of color in gener-
al that are waiting longer,
overall, than Whites to get a
kidney transplant
publish a decision-mak-
ing guide to dialysis
treatment. But through
the suggestion of her lit-
erary agent, she weaved
in her personal heart-
warming story of patient
and donor, and later, hus-
band and wife.
“It makes the book
much more appealing to
more people, and that’s
the point, to get it into the
hands of as many folks as
possible, and to widen
awareness,” said Grubbs.
“It’s very much written
for a general audience,.
This is not just for folks
in medicine.”
“Hundreds
of
In-
terlaced Fingers” is
part-memoir and part-
love story, but also goes
where few books do
through candidly map-
ping out the racial dis-
parities in the kidney
transplant landscape.
African
Americans
and other minorities
continually experience
lengthy delays in the pro-
cess of receiving a new
kidney, from tests to di-
agnosis and treatment.
And while waitlists have
slightly improved — due
to a systematic change
which back-dates pa-
tients to when they start-
ed dialysis — Grubbs said
the situation remains
Farming
all donated kidneys, ac-
cording to Grubbs.
On the other hand,
while White patients
also account for one
third of the waitlist, they
receive every other kid-
ney donated.
“The process should
be more systematic and
not left up to human er-
ror or bias,” said Grubbs.
“There are lots of in-
stances where people
could fall through the
cracks or simply not be
considered.”
While Phillips was
nearing the top of the
transplant list, he re-
ceived no clear answers
from medical profession-
als, which only aggravat-
ed his dire situation.
Discouraged and fear-
ful, Grubbs offered her
boyfriend one of her
own kidneys.
“We had surgery after
nine months of dating,
but I had made the deci-
sion a few months before
that,” explained Grubbs.
“I knew a living kidney
would be the best possi-
ble option for him, and
I knew that I was clearly
very much in love.”
Grubbs has since be-
come a nephrologist.
Read the rest of this story at
TheSkanner.com
Charleena Lyles
Charles Lyles is greeted by people as they leave a public hearing about his daughter Charleena Lyles’ death at the hands of two Seattle
Police officers June 18. The hearing, which was held at Kane Hall at the University of Washington on June 27, was attended by more than
700 people who demanded that things change in the way police interact with the community.
Adair
cont’d from pg 1
Public Schools, where she served
for 47 years. In 2014, she received
the President’s Award from the
Confederation of Oregon School
Administrators.
At the close of the school year,
Adair is one of two African Amer-
ican leaders at PPS to retire last
month.
Adair began her career with
PPS in 1970 as a middle school
teacher, before moving to the
ranks of principal, and finally to
the district level.
Adair leaves PPS as the assis-
tant superintendent in the Office
of Early Learners, Schools and
Student Supports.
Her achievements include lead-
ing key initiatives such as the
PK-8 implementation, supervis-
ing principals in nearly every
cluster of schools, and serving
on the governor’s Early Learning
Council.
Among PPS’s accomplishments
in the work of early learning, she
cites Oregon’s introduction of
full-day kindergarten, as well as
the state’s pioneering of the fed-
eral head start program.
As an unofficial “early learner”
herself, Adair said she has always
believed in educating at a young
age, long before she held a title at
the school district
“If you give the right kind of
“
degree at Portland State Univer-
sity, followed by two master’s de-
grees – one from the University
of Oregon – and a doctorate from
Brigham Young University.
“There was always the chal-
If you give the right kind of energy and
level of support to students when their
mind is malleable, they’ll do all sorts of
phenomenal things...
energy and level of support to
students when their mind is mal-
leable, they’ll do all sorts of phe-
nomenal things at much earlier
ages,” she said.
Her family held that same be-
lief. Originally from San Antonio,
Adair’s parents — both educators
— arrived in Portland when she
was three.
After Vestal, she attended Madi-
son High School.
Of the 721 students in her grad-
uating class, only five were Afri-
can American.
Adair’s drive and intelligence
earned her a bachelor of science
lenge of paying for school, but it
was never a matter of whether
you were going to go,” she said.
With parents that placed a high
value on education, Adair is the
sixth generation in her family
with a master’s degree.
“If you get the right circum-
stances and you set things right,
every kid, every person, can be
more successful at whatever it is
they want to do,” she said.
“That’s how I started and that’s
what’s always been with me.”
Read the full story at
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cont’d from pg 1
and also making sure there are kids’ ac-
tivities nearby for adults who come to
work and learn at the site, since a lack
of child care can be a barrier to volun-
teering for some people.
“We have a really heavy youth and
child engagement direction that we
want to go,” Shavers told The Skanner.
Johnson and Shavers also work at oth-
er sites, assisting with community gar-
dens and teaching gardening classes
throughout the community.
The couple are also cofounders of the
Black Food Sovereignty Council, and
engaging African Americans and other
people of color with their work — in-
cluding advocating for more opportu-
nities for people of color to grow food
and own their own land.
“You don’t see a lot of folks of color in
urban farming,” Johnson said.
Many people who come to volunteer
at the farm, she said, have gardened
in the past but have lost their yards or
community garden spaces due to gen-
trification.
“Everybody’s looking to grow food
because they’re losing that space,”
Johnson said. “Even container gardens
“
We have a really
heavy youth and
child engagement
direction that we
want to go
in apartments are not an option to ev-
eryone.”
Some property managers don’t allow
containers, and other spaces just don’t
afford enough space or light for even
small pots, she said.
In addition to working with youth in
schools, Johnson and Shavers are work-
ing to engage older generations. Mud-
BoneGrown is working with Nathan
McClintock, an associate professor
at Portland State, on a series of inter-
views with older people
about their gardening
practices to document
them for posterity.
“Our elders are dying
off, and I think there’s
a lot to learn from old-
er folks that’s useful to
us,” she said.
MudBone Grown was
launched in 2016, and
was the culmination
of years of sacrifice.
Johnson and Shavers
even moved into a mo-
tor home last winter to
save money for land.
Shantae Johnson, co-owner of MudBone Grown, stands at the Oregon
When they were ap-
Food Bank’s Unity Farm, where her startup — which also provides
proached earlier this
education, outreach and advocacy around food justice and urban
year to partner with the
farming — is now growing food.
Oregon Food Bank, it
the same site.
was a dream come true.
“There’s a lot of healing in the soil that
“It was an honor to be given such a big
can
happen,” Johnson told The Skanner
space,” said Roberta Eaglehorse-Ortiz,
who manages a community garden at News.
PHOTO BY CHRISTEN MCCURDY
“
bleak.
“There are still Blacks
and people of color in
general that are wait-
ing longer, overall, than
Whites to get a kidney
transplant.”
About one third of pa-
tients on a kidney trans-
plant waitlist are African
American, yet they re-
ceive only one in five of
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
Doctor