GRAND ROUNDS
About the Lecture Series
Sponsored by the School of Public Health and organized by Jalayne Arias, Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Behavioral Sciences, the Grand Rounds Lecture Series brings nationally recognized thought leaders to the Georgia State University School of Public Health for dialogues that contribute to the school’s mission of advancing health equity and solving contemporary and emerging health issues. The lectures are held monthly during fall and spring semesters.
Dustin T. Duncan, ScD, is Associate Dean for Health Equity Research and Associate Professor of Epidemiology at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Duncan is a fierce advocate for the role of higher education in addressing complex global challenges, and addressing structural inequity within and outside of the academy. Duncan is an internationally recognized Social and Spatial Epidemiologist. Duncan is a sought-after global thought leader and innovative researcher. His pioneering research broadly seeks to understand how social and contextual factors especially neighborhood characteristics influence population health. Dr. Duncan’s intersectional and health equity-based research focuses on gay, bisexual and other sexually minoritized men and transgender people of color across the African diaspora including in the U.S., Anglophone Caribbean and East Africa. Dr. Duncan is learning to speak and read Swahili.
At Columbia, Duncan also directs Columbia’s Spatial Epidemiology Lab, co-directs the epidemiology department’s Social and Spatial Epidemiology Unit, and co-directs the Health Equity Core in the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies. In addition, Dr. Duncan sits on the boards of the Council for Black Health, Ronald McDonald House New York, and an eponymous foundation in Harlem, New York, led by his mother Dr. Dionne J. Jones.
Upcoming Grand Rounds Lecture
Tabia Henry Akintobi, Wednesday, April 17, 1 p.m., Student Center Ballroom, House and Senate Salon
Past Lectures
“Misinformation, Law, and Public Health after COVID-19”
Micah Berman is the Stephen F. Loebs Professor in Health Services Management and Policy at The Ohio State University’s College of Public Health. He is also a Professor of Law at The Ohio State University's Michael E. Moritz College of Law. His research explores the intersection between public health research and legal doctrine, and he is a co-author of The New Public Health Law: A Transdisciplinary Approach to Practice and Advocacy (Oxford University Press, 2nd ed. 2022). His research has been funded by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, the National Cancer Institute, the World Health Organization, the American Heart Association, the Ohio Department of Medicaid, and other sources, and he has published extensively in leading public health, medical, and legal journals. In recognition of his outstanding contributions to public health and tobacco control through both research and advocacy, Professor Berman has received the David P. Rall Award for Advocacy in Public Health from the American Public Health Association (2021) and the John Slade Award from the Society for Research on Nicotine & Tobacco (2023).
“Human Trafficking as a Public Health Issue: Where do we need to go from here?”
Hanni Stoklosa, MD, MPH, is co-founder and CMO of HEAL Trafficking, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) with appointments at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. Dr. Stoklosa is an internationally-recognized expert, advocate, researcher, and speaker on the wellbeing of trafficking survivors in the U.S. and internationally through a public health lens. She has advised the United Nations, International Organization for Migration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Department of State, and the National Academy of Medicine on issues of human trafficking and testified as an expert witness multiple times before the U.S. Congress. Moreover, she has conducted research on trafficking and persons facing the most significant social, economic, and health challenges in a diversity of settings including Australia, China, Egypt, Guatemala, India, Liberia, Nepal, Kazakhstan, the Philippines, South Sudan, Taiwan, and Thailand. Among other accolades, Dr. Stoklosa has been honored with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Women's Health Emerging Leader award, the Harvard Medical School Dean's Faculty Community Service award, has been named as an Aspen Health Innovator and National Academy of Medicine Emerging Leader. Her anti-trafficking work has been featured by CNN, the New York Times, National Public Radio, Fortune, Glamour, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, STAT News, and Marketplace. Dr. Stoklosa published the first textbook addressing the public health response to trafficking, "Human Trafficking Is a Public Health Issue, A Paradigm Expansion in the United States."
“Dismantling Structural Racism in Public Health: Challenges and Opportunities”
Ruth Shim, MD, MPH is the Luke & Grace Kim Professor in Cultural Psychiatry and Professor of Clinical Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, Davis. She also serves as Associate Dean of Diverse and Inclusive Education at the University of California, Davis School of Medicine. Dr. Shim received an MPH in health policy from Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University and an MD from Emory University School of Medicine. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Scientific Advisory Council of Bring Change to Mind. She serves on the Research and Evaluation Committee of the California Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission.
“Taking the Science to the Streets: Participatory Research Approaches to Advance Environmental Justice and Health Equity”
Na'Taki Osborne Jelks, who earned her Ph.D. from the GSU SPH, is a nationally recognized leader in engaging urban communities and youth of color in environmental stewardship. In 2001, she co-founded the Earth Tomorrow® Program, the National Wildlife Federation’s multi-cultural youth environmental education and leadership development program.
“Shifting Landscapes in Public Health: A Conversation with Jeffrey Koplan”
Dr. Jeffrey Koplan is Senior Strategic Advisor for CHAMPS, Principal Investigator for IANPHI and the Global Health Institute-China Tobacco Control Partnership. Dr. Koplan founded the Emory Global Health Institute (EGHI) in 2006. He served as the institute's Director and as Emory University's Vice President for Global Health until 2021.
A former Director (1998-2002) and 26-year veteran of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Koplan began his public health career in the early 1970s as a member of the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service. He has worked on virtually every major public health issue, including infectious diseases such as smallpox and HIV/AIDS, environmental issues such as the Bhopal chemical disaster, and the health toll of tobacco and chronic diseases around the globe. From 1994 to 1998, he pursued his interest in enhancing the interactions between clinical medicine and public health by leading the Prudential Center for Health Care Research, a nationally recognized health services research organization.
“Endemic and Emerging Arboviruses: Lessons from Health Surveillance and Cohort Studies in an Urban Epicenter in Brazil”
Dr. Guilherme Ribeiro is an Associate Professor at the Federal University of Bahia School of Medicine and a Public Health Researcher at Fiocruz, both in Brazil. He is also a Visiting Professor at Emory University, supported by scholarships from Fulbright and CAPES. As an infectious disease epidemiologist, he has researched urban health problems that affect the most neglected populations. Since 2009, he has led an interdisciplinary research group investigating the eco-epidemiology and transmission dynamics of arboviral diseases in a large Brazilian city.
"It Doesn’t Have to be ‘1-in-3’: A Public Health Approach to Campus Sexual Violence Prevention"
Jennifer Hirsch, a medical anthropologist and Professor of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University, works at the intersection of public health and social science with a research agenda that examines gender, sexuality and migration, the anthropology of love, social dimensions of HIV and undergraduate well-being, including sexual assault.
"Changing the Conversation About Maternal Health Equity"
Michael Kramer, Ph.D., is a social and maternal and child health epidemiologist, and the Director of the Emory MCH Center of Excellence. His research, teaching, and public health practice focus on the social, spatial, and structural determinants of maternal and infant health. He is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University.
"Just Health: Treating Structural Racism to Heal America"
Dayna Bowen Matthew, JD, PhD, is the Dean and Harold H. Greene Professor of Law at the George Washington University Law School. A leader in public health and civil rights law who focuses on disparities in health, health care, and the social determinants of health, Dean Matthew joined GW Law in 2020. She is the author of the bestselling book “Just Medicine: A Cure for Racial Inequality in American Health Care” and the recently released “Just Health: Treating Structural Racism to Heal America.” She is also the co-author of a case book on public health law, ethics, and policy.
For more information on the Grand Rounds Lecture Series, please contact [email protected].
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