In this episode, Dr. Eloisa Gordon-Mora discusses the connection between our understandings of democracy, and with respect to equity and health care. From her political science formation, she analyzes the notion of “democracy” itself, addressing its historical evolution and from comparative, global perspectives, as well as myths, assumptions and values that are connected to the notion. She gives a brief overview of how other, high-income, developed nations, and other global examples, compare and contrast to the US, regarding their classifications as full-democracies, as well as in their provisioning of health care access, delivery and quality of care.
Eloisa Gordon-Mora, PhD
Since 2019, Dr. Eloisa Gordon-Mora is the inaugural University Diversity and Inclusion Officer (UDIO) at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). She has over 25 years professional experience in the areas of diversity, equity, inclusion, social justice and civic and democratic engagement. Before joining the UNR, she was Dean of the School of Social Science, Humanities and Communication at Universidad Ana G. Méndez (UAGM) and Vice-President for Academic Affairs at Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, both in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Prior to relocating to Puerto Rico, she was Vice-President for Government Affairs at Safe Horizon; the first full-time executive director of the philanthropic organization, Daphne Foundation; and, the executive director of El Barrio Popular Education Program, an academically-recognized, action-based research project of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, at Hunter College—all based in New York City. On a national level, she was selected as one of 35 Outstanding Women in Higher Education by Diverse in Higher Education in 2020. At the regional level, she is one of two Nevada-wide higher-education representatives of the Northwest Commission of Colleges and Universities’ Equity Council, as well as, Equity Leader, at Nevada Complete College Alliance, at the state-level. In 2021, she was invited to join the Boards of both, the Community Foundation of Northern Nevada, as well as Northern Nevada Marches Forward, where she currently serves. As an educator and political scientist, she has focused on poverty and globalization, community organizing and urban politics, post-authoritarian/delegative democracies, and politics in Latin America and the Caribbean and has taught at Bates College in Lewiston, ME; Universidad de la Frontera, Temuco, Chile; Marymount Manhattan College and Eugene Lang College of the New School for Social Research, both in New York City, and at UAGM. Her research interests include higher education, diversity and inclusion, democratic theory, social violence, and post-colonial and post-structuralist literature.
