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- 9 - accessHealthNews.net Special Issue 2025 Volume 12 | Issue No. 101 "Each new generation is reared by its predecessor; the latter must therefore improve in order to improve its successor. The movement is circular." - Emile Durkheim, sociologist The Kansas City Health Equity Learning and Action Network (the LAN), led by Health Forward Foundation, has convened the region's health ecosystem for more than two years. This includes federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), community-based health clinics, health systems, physicians, payers, employers, community mental health centers, community-based organizations, and public health departments. The LAN includes a CEO roundtable, a learning cohort, and an action cohort. Aligned with a set of strategic goals, and support from partners KC Health Collaborative (KCHC), and Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), the LAN aims to foster anti-racism and health equity through performance and quality improvement; addressing health disparities through improved chronic disease prevention and management; increased representation of people of color in leadership roles; and increased capacity to deliver social care needs through enhanced health care delivery and payment models. "I always say that equity is both a process and outcome," said Health Forward CEO Qiana Thomason. "So the fact that the LAN has been able, for more than two consistent years, to convene people – many people of different roles and interdisciplinaries who continue to come and thirst for knowledge about health, equity, and racial equity, and who are practicing together is remarkable." Using IHI's Community Transformation Map (CTM), a tool used to assess pre- and post-equity-centered community health improvements, the LAN charted advancements in its members' ability to build equity capability, build quality improvement capability, and build capability to tackle adaptive challenges. "Prior to joining the LAN, members had diminished capability and capacity to understand how to engineer health equity into their systems and workplaces," Thomason said. "And now we see significant percentage points of elevated capacity. LAN members have shared that they now have increased capacity, knowledge, and skills to practice health equity, integrate it into their systems, and engineer it within their workplaces." Read more