Design Jam: Preventing Youth Firearm Injuries

As of 2019, firearm-related injuries became the leading cause of death for youth in the United States. Are you interested in coming up with creative solutions to address youth firearm violence? Public Health IDEAS for Preventing Firearm Injuries is making space for engineering students to collaborate with public health students to address firearm violence in the form of a Design Jam.

At this Design Jam you will apply design thinking principles to devise solutions for a persistent public health challenge: How might we utilize public health expertise and principles to lower youth firearm injuries in Michigan communities?

Facilitated by the Center for Socially Engaged Design, you will team up with public health students and representatives from public health departments, community organizing, and those with lived experience to problem-solve and learn together. To be considered for this opportunity, apply by March 21. Space is limited!

Selected applicants will receive an email with more details. Please note that this opportunity is for engineering students.

Application link

Nailed It Film Screening and Panel Discussion

Event Poster showing panel, Nailed It film poster, date, time and location

Description: Join the EHS department for a screening of the documentary, ‘Nailed It’ and panel discussion focused on occupational health and environmental justice as it relates to the beauty industry. Join in-person (at the University of Michigan School of Public Health) or virtually. Details on location and ways to access the movie prior to this event will be shared via email with all registrants.

Panel includes:
Dr. Aurora Le, Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Sciences at UM SPH
Dr. Tran Huynh, Assistant Professor of Environmental & Occupational Health, Drexel University
Minthu Le, Environmental Assistant, San Francisco Environment Department, California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative
Brianna Siracuse, Presidential Management Fellow, US EPA and UM EHS Alumna
Moderated by Khang Huynh, MPH student in EHS at UM

Tackling Industrial Contamination: The Role of Science, Policy, and Activism

28th Annual Environmental Health Sciences Symposium flyer

We are excited to announce the 2023 Annual Environmental Health Sciences Symposium, The symposium will feature talks from Bill Suk, the founding director of the Superfund Research Program; members of the Coalition for Action on Remediation of Dioxane, a local partnership organization focused on mitigating groundwater contamination from 1,4-Dioxane in Washtenaw County; and Robert Bilott, an environmental attorney renowned for his legal victories on PFAS contamination. In addition, there will be student poster presentations. Students from any department with related work are encouraged to submit an abstract. Registration is free and open to the public. Further information can be found at the link above.

Registration link

DEI Reading Circle – Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want (Virtual)

Dr. Ruha Benjamin will be at the University of Michigan on March 14, 2023 to discuss her newest book, Viral Justice. Ahead of her visit, the SPH DEI Office will be distributing copies of her new book, on a first come/first serve basis, and will host two reading circles (one virtual, the other in-person) for the SPH Community. We invite all members of the community (students in all programs, post-docs, staff, & faculty) to take part in these collective reading and discussion opportunities. Learn more about book distribution. This one hour event is open to any and all SPH community members. We invite you to join a conversation with SPH colleagues about Dr. Ruha Benjamin’s newest book Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want. These reading circles will be broad and open-ended conversations and do not require you to have read all of or any specific portion of the book. You are welcome to come with specific passages or questions to discuss or to come to hear what your colleagues are thinking about the book and Dr. Benjamin’s arguments in it. This session is designed to offer you an opportunity to:

reflect on the portions of Viral Justice you may have already read
be in conversation with colleagues across SPH around themes discussed in Viral Justice

In addition to the reading circles, you are encouraged to use this official reading guide from Princeton University Press to help support your reading of the text.

Registration link

Not Just Food Security: Incorporating Food Justice into Public Health

Are you a pre-health student? Want to learn more about food justice? Come discuss food justice and health equity and engage with subject matter guests on this topic. This event will feature interactive activities designed to approach health equity with a justice framework, giving you the tools necessary to approach these topics in your future professions. Food provided. RSVP by January 30th.

Indigenous DNA and data: Community approaches to equity in genomics and health

Krystal Tsosie (Diné/Navajo Nation), PhD, MPH, MA, is an Indigenous geneticist-bioethicist and assistant professor in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University. As an advocate for Indigenous genomic data sovereignty, she co-founded the first US Indigenous-led biobank, a 501c3 nonprofit research institution called the Native BioData Consortium.

Her research can be encapsulated in two main foci: Indigenous population genetics and bioethics. In particular, she focuses on bioethical engagement of Indigenous communities in genomics and data science to build trust. As a whole, her interest is in integrating genomic and data approaches to assess Indigenous variation contributing to health inequities.

She began her research career at the laboratory bench, where she developed and patented a combined targeted ultrasound imaging and chemotherapeutic drug delivery device for treating early metastases in cancer. Upon seeing the disparities in emerging genomics technologies, she switched fields to genetic epidemiology, public health, and bioethics. Her first Master of Arts in bioethics at Arizona State University focused on the cultural implications of genetics in Native American communities. She added biostatistical knowledge and computational programming in large genomics datasets during her second master’s—in public health (genetic epidemiology)—at Vanderbilt University, where she studied disparities in uterine fibroids in African American women. She has co-led an ongoing longitudinal genetics study in a North Dakota Tribal community.

Her research and educational endeavors have received increasing national and international media attention as scientists worldwide are understanding the importance of equitable, community-based engagement models and the importance of Indigenous genomic data sovereignty. Her work has been covered by popular media outlets including PBS NOVA, The Washington Post, NPR, New York Times, The Atlantic, Forbes, and Boston Globe. She currently serves on the Government Policy and Advocacy Committee for the American Society of Human Genetics and the National Academy of Medicine Announces Committee on Emerging Science, Technology, and Innovation. She is a current global chair in ENRICH (Equity for Indigenous Research and Innovation Coordinating Hub), which focuses on enhancing Indigenous rights to develop, control, and govern Indigenous data and supports participation in STEM and in digitally‐enabled futures.

Registration link

Water & Public Health: Inequity & Affordability

Please join us for the “Residents & Researchers” Tuesday talks on environment, health and community with Monica Lewis-Patrick, President and CEO of We the People of Detroit, Mary Grant, Public Water for All Campaign Director at Food & Water Watch and Dr. Marcela González Rivas, Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Public Health and International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh. Amy Schulz (M-LEEaD CEC Core Leader, UM SPH) will moderate.

Registration link

Social Policy is health policy: Lessons from the Pandemic

Join Ford School Dean and founding director of the U-M Center for Racial Justice, Celeste Watkins-Hayes and Paula Lantz, James B. Hudak Professor of Health Policy, as they discuss the devastating structural inequities exposed by the COVID pandemic—and why all policymakers must now be equipped with a toolkit for navigating pandemics.

Registration link

Deepening Diversity: A DEI of Public Health Consequence

Although people of color suffering under interlocking systems of oppression — such as impoverished and working-class residents of disinvested urban or rural communities — bear the largest population health burdens in the United States, the magnitude of racialized health inequity is often greatest among college graduates. Whether predominantly white universities are simply failing to address the greater structurally-rooted health needs of students of color or are — however inadvertently — contributing to them, new holistic DEI efforts have an urgent role to play toward promoting health equity.

ABOUT THE AWARD
The James S. Jackson Distinguished Career Award for Diversity Scholarship recognizes a senior faculty member at the University of Michigan who has made important contributions to understanding diversity, equity, and inclusion through research, scholarship and creative endeavors, who has an outstanding record as an educator in teaching and mentoring, and whose work has focused on issues of importance to underrepresented communities.

RSVP in-person

RSVP virtual

Global Health Community Special Event

The Life and Legacy of Dr. Paul Farmer Flier

Physician. Advocate. Humanitarian. Dr. Paul Farmer, co-founder of Partners in Health, was these things and more. Join friends from across the institution for a special event examining Dr. Farmer’s life, legacy, and impact on health disparities around the world.

Led by U-M colleagues who knew, worked with and learned from Dr. Farmer, our discussion will be interspersed with clips of the documentary Bending the Arc, which details the history of Partners in Health https://www.pih.org/) from its founding in Haiti through its later work in Peru and Rwanda. Panelists will discuss how they came to know Dr. Farmer, lessons learned from him, and his outsized influence on the work in their fields.

Featuring:

John Ayanian, MD, MPP (https://ihpi.umich.edu/director-john-z-ayanian-md-mpp)
Professor of Internal Medicine and Health Management and Policy
Director, Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation
College classmate, medical school contemporary and lifelong friend of Dr. Farmer

Michele Heisler, MD, MPP (https://sph.umich.edu/faculty-profiles/heisler-michele.html)
Professor of Internal Medicine Health Behavior and Health Education Medical
Director, Physicians for Human Rights
Former Student and mentee of Dr. Farmer

V Koski-Karrell, MPH
MD/PhD Anthropology Candidate, U-M Medical School
Former Partners in Health Research Assistant and mentee of Dr. Farmer

School of Nursing Clinical Instructor Megan Eagle, MSN, MPH, FNP-BC, (https://nursing.umich.edu/faculty-staff/faculty/megan-j-eagle) will moderate.

About Dr. Farmer:

Paul Farmer, MD, PhD, was Kolokotrones university professor and chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and co-founder and chief strategist of Partners In Health, where he pioneered community-based treatment strategies that demonstrated the delivery of high-quality health care in resource-poor settings.

About Bending the Arc:

Released in 2017, the full-length documentary (https://bendingthearcfilm.com/) tells the story Dr. Farmer and his Partners in Health co-founders, Yong Kim and Ophelia Dahl, and the groundbreaking global health movement they established. The film is available to stream via Netflix (https://www.netflix.com/title/80170312) and is also available to U-M community members to stream on demand via the University of Michigan library (requires U-M authentication): https://video.alexanderstreet.com/watch/bending-the-arc.

EVENT INFORMATION:

This event will be hosted in person at the U-M School of Nursing 426 NIB, Room 2250 with virtual access to live streaming. Please register below and indicate if you will join us in-person or virtually.

Questions? Contact: Global Health Film Series Organizing Committee ghfilmseries@umich.edu

Sponsored by:
U-M School of Nursing, U-M School of Public Health, U-M Center for Global Health Equity, U-M Taubman Health Sciences Library

Co-sponsored by:
U-M African Studies Center
U-M Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center
U-M International Institute
Partners in Health Engage at the University of Michigan