Suburban Mosaic: Glenview doctor lauded as Outstanding Physician of the Year
"I'm in the business of taking care of people," says Glenview's Paramjit "Romi" Chopra, the recipient of the Outstanding Physician of the Year 2021 award.
Chopra, a Sikh American, was chosen for the honor by U.S. Rep. Danny Davis' Illinois 7th District Multi-Ethnic Advisory Task Force. He will receive the award at the 11th annual Congressional Global Community Oscars Awards Gala on Saturday at The Yellow Box Theater in Naperville.
"I'm humbled and honored," said Chopra, a 60-year-old interventional radiologist and associate professor of radiology at Rush University in Chicago. "It's all God's gift."
The awards honor international and local heroes who have had a major impact on empowering ethnic communities through social, educational, cultural, political, health, economic and youth initiatives.
Chopra is CEO of Midwest Institute for Minimally Invasive Therapies (MIMIT) Health. He previously was honored with the Distinguished Physician Award and the U.S. Congressional Medal For Outstanding Contributions And Excellence In Patient Care And Teaching in 2018.
Chopra started MIMIT Health with the goal of providing more patient-centered, minimally invasive surgical services. The multi-specialty group has nine clinics throughout the Chicago area, including in Des Plaines, Hinsdale, Glen Ellyn and Wood Dale.
"We want to put the care back in health care," he said. "My main focus is how do I take care of a human being at the physical, intellectual ... and spiritual level. I even teach patients how to meditate. It's about helping (them) live their best life."
Juneteenth holiday
Aurora made history last week by designating Juneteenth an official holiday for city employees.
The city council voted unanimously to approve a resolution making June 19 a paid city holiday starting this year. Nonemergency city offices will be closed that day if it falls on a weekday. If it falls on a Saturday, the holiday will be celebrated on the Friday before. If the date falls on a Sunday, like this year, the holiday will be celebrated the Monday after. In 2018, Aurora took similar action to make Martin Luther King Day a paid city holiday. The city's population is 10% Black, according to census data.
Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, about 2½ years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863.
It became a federal and state holiday last year.
Empowering Asian women
Naperville-based Chinese American Women in Action will host its first virtual event Sunday as a meet-and-greet with local Asian candidates.
Lucy Chang Evans, who is running for DuPage County Board District 3, will be a guest speaker during the Zoom event at 7 p.m.
"We are a group of Chinese American women in Naperville who came together to effect change in the wake of rising discrimination and violence against our fellow Chinese and Asian Americans during the COVID pandemic," said Nancy Chen of Naperville, a Chinese community leader and advisory board member of United Chinese Americans Illinois Chapter.
Group members are a mix of native-born and immigrant women, and working and retired executives and professionals.
"The anti-Asian racism and xenophobia resurfaced a disturbing sentiment that Asian Americans are still considered foreigners no matter how many generations have called this their only home over the past 150 years," Chen said. "We have formed Chinese American Women in Action to show that we belong."
The group's purpose is to educate and empower Chinese American women in Illinois through education, advocacy, networking and mentoring to engage in civic and community activities. It also aims to partner with government officials, civic and business leaders to change attitudes, increase visibility and achieve a "sense of belonging."
Register for the Zoom event at bit.ly/3sxOhMo.
Black history and the YMCA
The North Suburban YMCA will celebrate Black History Month with a virtual presentation about "African Americans and the YMCA," at 7 p.m. Thursday.
The event is sponsored by the North Suburban YMCA's diversity, equity and inclusion committee and the YMCA Education Series. It will showcase African American contributions throughout the history of the organization, focusing on how during its inception, the YMCA struggled with racial segregation and how African Americans helped make it more inclusive.
The program is free and open to the public. Register at conta.cc/3LqyGGX.
Muslim action day
This year's Illinois Muslim Action Day, hosted by the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago, will be held virtually from 5 to 7 p.m. March 23.
Democratic U.S. Reps. Jan Schakowsky of Evanston and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota will lead a keynote panel discussion on combating intolerance in all its forms, whether racial, religious or ethnic. They also will talk about the House passage of the Combating International Islamaphobia Act, sponsored by Omar.
For details, visit ciogc.org/civic/imad/.
Black studies
Elgin Area School District U-46 is developing a new African American studies course that will be offered at all five district high schools, tentatively starting in the 2022-23 school year.
Work on the curriculum began in the fall of 2020. The idea for a new African American studies course gained momentum after the school board adopted a resolution and call to action for equity in June 2020, in the wake of George Floyd's murder and nationwide Black Lives Matter protests.
Jacob VandeMoortel, U-46 coordinator for K-12 social studies and world languages, said the idea for the course predates the formation of the Illinois Black History Curriculum Task Force, which released its report last April with the goal of improving how Black history is taught in schools.
U-46's new course combines language arts and social studies instruction, and is designed as a high school elective for all students, irrespective of race or background, to engage in the history, literature, identity and experience of African Americans in the United States.
The course will be reviewed by U-46 administrators this spring and go before the school board in early June.
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