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New Upstate president inaugurated, calls for symposiums on health issues

Ellen Abbott
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WRVO News (file photo)
Dr. Danielle Laraque-Arena was inaugurted as the president of SUNY Upstate Medical University on Friday.

SUNY Upstate Medical University’s new president will be holding a series of symposiums to look for solutions to issues that face health care providers in central New York. Dr. Danielle Laraque-Arena hopes a studying issues like poverty and mental health can help the medical community deal with them.

"Help me succeed in connecting us in a joint purpose in improving lives. Our region is small enough so that anonymity is not a problem. We can know each other and learn to problem solve together,” said Laraque-Arena.

Credit Ellen Abbott / WRVO News
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WRVO News

Laraque-Arena, who was officially installed as Upstate Medical University’s seventh president on Friday, says only the community working together can solve problems. She says central New York is surrounded by bitter statistics that need attention.

"A concentration of poverty. An epidemic of drug use. An epidemic of penetrating trauma, where, each week, we witness the loss of destruction of life, lives lost to violence, homicide, suicide and caught in the crossfire,” she said.

Themes of some of the seminars include eradication of poverty, gender and equity in medicine, and mental health care for all segments of society

Ellen produces news reports and features related to events that occur in the greater Syracuse area and throughout Onondaga County. Her reports are heard regularly in regional updates in Morning Edition and All Things Considered.