The editors of the Blood journal will highlight the intersection of hematology and the humanities in a session entitled Blood & Beyond. For this year, in complement to the celebration of the 20^th anniversary of ASH’s Minority Recruitment Initiative, the session: Un-walling Health and Well-Being: Shared Destinies at the San Diego-Tijuana Border will be presented by Teddy Cruz and Fonna Forman and will consider the intersection of diversity, equity and inclusion, migration, and social policy. Fonna Forman and Teddy Cruz will discuss the eco-social impacts of increasing migration across the US-Mexico border region, and how the UCSD Center on Global Justice is responding to the challenge in Tijuana. This includes the construction of emergency housing, and the coordination of education, vocational training, employment, cultural activity, and health services. 

Teddy Cruz and Fonna Forman are principals in Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman, a research-based political and architectural practice in San Diego, CA, transgressing conventional boundaries between theory and practice and merging the fields of architecture and urbanism, political theory, and urban policy. The practice investigates issues of informal urbanization, civic infrastructure, and public culture, with a special emphasis on Latin American cities. Cruz and Forman lead a variety of urban research agendas and civic/public interventions in the San Diego-Tijuana border region, and beyond. From 2012-13, they served as special advisors on civic and urban initiatives for the City of San Diego and led the development of its Civic Innovation Lab. Together, they lead the UCSD Community Stations, a platform for community-engaged research and teaching on poverty and social equity in the border region.