(a)  The purpose of the commission for health advocacy and equity shall be:

(1)  To advocate for the integration of all relevant activities of the state to achieve health equity;

(2)  To provide direct advice to the director of health, and indirect advice to the department’s senior administrators and planners through the director, regarding issues of racial, ethnic, cultural, or socio-economic health disparities;

(3)  To develop and facilitate coordination of the expertise and experience of the state’s health and human services systems, housing, transportation, education, environment, community development, and labor systems in developing a comprehensive health equity plan addressing the social determinants of health;

(4)  To set goals for health equity and prepare a plan for Rhode Island to achieve health equity in alignment with any other statewide planning activities; and

(5)  to educate state agencies in Rhode Island on disparities, including social factors that play a role in creating or maintaining disparities.

(b)  In furtherance of this purpose, the commission shall study the range of issues that may impact an individual’s, family’s or community’s health and propose recommendations to address these issues and ensure quality integration and evaluation of any program or policy designed to reduce or eliminate racial or ethnic health disparities. Such recommendations may be developed with input from other agencies and the resulting plan shall be broadly disseminated as advisory to other state agencies.