Vanessa Kerry to deliver Connell School Pinnacle Lecture
Vanessa Kerry, M.D., a leading global public health expert, physician, and CEO of Seed Global Health, will deliver the Connell School of Nursing’s fall Pinnacle Lecture on November 1 at 5 p.m. in the Yawkey Center Murray Room.
As the Dr. Maureen P. McCausland Pinnacle Keynote Speaker, Dr. Kerry will present “From Pandemic Preparedness to Climate Change Resiliency, the Solutions Lie with Our Health Care Professionals.”
Each semester, the Connell School brings a recognized leader to campus to speak on an issue at the forefront of health care. Dr. Kerry’s lecture is free and open to all Boston College students, faculty, staff, and alumni, as well as preceptors and practitioners.
This semester’s Pinnacle event will also celebrate the launch of the new Global Public Health and the Common Good undergraduate major, administered by the Connell School in partnership with the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society. CSON Dean Katherine Gregory and Professor of Biology Philip Landrigan, M.D., the Global Public Health program’s founding director, will offer remarks.
A critical care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Kerry serves as the associate director of partnerships and global initiatives at the MGH Center for Global Health. She directs the Global Public Policy and Social Change program at Harvard Medical School where she has focused on links between security and health. She is co-founder and CEO of Seed Global Health, a nonprofit organization focused on health systems strengthening and transformation through long-term investments and training of the health workforce. Under her leadership, Seed has helped educate more than 34,000 doctors, nurses, and midwives in seven countries, helping to improve health care for more than 73 million people.
Earlier this year, the World Health Organization appointed Dr. Kerry as the first-ever Director-General Special Envoy for Climate Change and Health. In that role, she plays a pivotal part in amplifying WHO’s climate and health messaging and undertakes high-level advocacy. A graduate of Harvard Medical School and the London School of Economics and Political Science, she is known for her writings and talks about the effects of climate change on human health and health systems and the need to integrate a health-centered response into climate change mitigation and adaptation measures.
Dr. Kerry’s Pinnacle Lecture will be followed by an audience Q&A. To register for the event, or learn more about the lecture series, visit the Pinnacle website.