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The University’s inaugural Advancing Research and Scholarship event next Thursday will focus on global public health by highlighting campus research initiatives as well as broader trends in policy, wellness and health care and threats posed by diseases around the world.
“Global Public Health: Policy, Disparity & Disease,” which takes place in the Yawkey Center’s Murray Room, begins with undergraduate research poster sessions at 10:30 a.m. Following a 12:30 p.m. keynote by Mount Sinai School of Medicine Professor Philip J. Landrigan, MD, ’63, will be a series of 15-minute faculty presentations between 2:15 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.
“This will be an annual event that aims to showcase the research and scholarship of Boston College faculty and students by engaging the BC community,” said Vice Provost for Research and Academic Planning Thomas Chiles. “Research is one of the ways in which the University fulfills its mission to unite higher education with service to others.”
The program has been developed by Chiles’ office, as well as the office of Provost and Dean of Faculties David Quigley. Steward Health Care is the event’s lead sponsor.
Chiles said the theme of global public health was a natural choice, given BC’s programmatic and research interests: BC offers the interdisciplinary undergraduate program, Global Public Health, a collaboration between the schools of Education, Nursing, and Social Work.
“First, there is much interest among faculty and students in global public health,” said Chiles, the DeLuca Professor and Biology Department chairman. “Secondly, we chose global public health as our inaugural theme because of its emphasis on equity in health and health care services worldwide.
“Faculty and students across Boston College are also engaged in a range of public health issues such as improving access to health care, controlling infectious disease, and addressing the causes and consequences of violence and substance abuse.”
The scheduled faculty presenters are: Lynch School of Education Professor Rebekah Levine Coley; Associate Professor of Law Dean Hashimoto; Assistant Professor of Social Work Summer Sherburne Hawkins; Professor of Biology Welkin Johnson; and Peter Canisius Professor James F. Keenan, SJ, director of the Jesuit Institute.
Also presenting are: Assistant Professor of Sociology Sara Moorman; Evelyn J. and Robert A. Ferris Professor and Chairman of Physics Michael J. Naughton; Assistant Professor of Social Work Erika Sabbath; Associate Professor of History and African and African Diaspora Studies Program Director Martin Summers; and Assistant Professor of Nursing Melissa Sutherland.
“We hope that bringing together a diverse group of faculty and students from various disciplines will act as a catalyst to ignite new collaborations and ideas. This in turn may lead to scholarly works, such as peer-reviewed publications, books, and importantly, new grant proposals,” said Chiles.
Chiles called keynote speaker Landrigan “one of the world’s leading advocates of children’s health and a highly credible evidence-based advocate for public health, specifically in his focus on reducing the level of children’s exposure to lead and pesticides and for his participation in the World Health Organization’s global campaign to eradicate smallpox.”
The director of the Children’s Environmental Health Center at Mount Sinai Hospital, Landrigan is a previous winner of the US Public Health Service Meritorious Service Medal and is a frequent consultant to the World Health Organization. His talk will focus on policy, disparity and disease in global public health.
For additional information about Advancing Research and Scholarship, or to confirm attendance, see www.bc.edu/research/research-day.