The inaugural SOPHE summit on eliminating racial and ethnic health disparities.

As we break the 20-year mark for the release of the 1985 Secretary's Task Force Report on Black and Minority Health by the Department of Health and Human Services, the disparity gap measured by excess death has widened. Although we continue to recognize the importance of setting disparity goals based on excess death reduction, we believe there is a greater need to focus on the social contexts that create vulnerability to disease from which minorities die in disproportionate numbers. This theme issue focuses on articles written mostly by scholars who were invited to participate at the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) inaugural summit to develop a transdisciplinary research agenda on eliminating racial and ethnic health disparities.