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Presidential Address and Plenaries

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Presidential Address

Wednesday, May 31, 2023, 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm, EDT

Chair: Abigail A. Fagan, PhD, Professor of Criminology, Law & Society, Department of Sociology and Criminology & Law, University of Florida

Presenter:

  • Nancy La Vigne, PhD, Director, National Institute of Justice

Abigail A. Fagan, PhD

Abigail A. Fagan received her Ph.D. in Sociology University of Colorado in 2001. Her research focuses on the etiology and prevention of juvenile delinquency and drug use, with an emphasis on using scientific advances to inform crime policy and practice. Dr. Fagan has been a Principal Investigator on research funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute of Justice to study the role of victimization and community influences on juvenile offending. She has worked on the Community Youth Development Study, a randomized trial examining the effectiveness of Communities That Care, which assists community agencies and practitioners to identify and replicate with fidelity effective delinquency prevention programs. Her etiological and applied work has been published in leading journals in criminology, psychology, and public health and shared with scientists, policy makers, and practitioners at conferences and invited presentations. A 2012 study published in the Journal of Criminal Justice Education ranked Dr. Fagan as one of the most productive scholars among Assistant Professors (her rank at the time of the study) in the U.S., measured by the number of published peer-reviewed journal article and citations, H-Index, and m-quotient. She has served on the Society for Prevention Research (SPR) Board of Directors, as SPR President, and on the Advisory Board for the Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development.

Nancy La Vigne, PhD

Nancy La Vigne (Lah Veen) was appointed by President Biden as Director of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the research and technology arm of the U.S Department of Justice, on March 28, 2022.  A nationally recognized criminal justice policy expert, Dr. La Vigne’s research expertise ranges from policing and corrections reform to reentry from prison, criminal justice technologies and evidence-based criminal justice practices. Prior to joining NIJ, she served as executive director of the Council on Criminal Justice’s Task Force on Policing. Before that, La Vigne served as vice president at the Urban Institute (Urban), a nonprofit social policy research organization based in Washington, D.C., where over the course of a decade, she directed Urban’s Justice Policy Center. Her tenure at Urban included serving as executive director of the congressionally-mandated bipartisan Charles Colson Task Force on Federal Corrections Reform.

Dr. La Vigne is not new to NIJ, having been the founding director of the Institute’s Crime Mapping Research Center several years ago, as well as serving as special assistant to Office of Justice Program’s Acting Assistant Attorney General. She holds a Ph.D. in criminal justice from Rutgers University, a master’s degree in public affairs from the LBJ School at the University of Texas-Austin and a bachelor’s degree in government and economics from Smith College.

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PLENARY SESSIONS

Plenary Session I

Wednesday, May 31, 2023, 8:30 am – 10:00 am, EDT

Special theme #1. Structural inequality, marginalized communities, and health equity.  

Co-chairs:  Miguel Cano, PhD, Associate Professor, School of Public Health, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and Nadine Finigan-Carr, PhD, Executive Director, Center for Violence Prevention, University of Maryland, Baltimore

Speakers:

  • Adriana Umaña-Taylor, PhD, Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot Professor of Education Harvard Graduate School of Education
  • Michael Lindsey, PhD, NYU, Dean and Paulette Goddard Professor of Social Work at NYU Silver School of Social Work
  • Darlene Flynn, City of Oakland, Executive Director, City of Oakland, California, Race & Equity Department

Organizers:

  • Miguel Cano, PhD, conference chair
  • Nadine Finigan-Carr, PhD, co-chair
  • Alison Brown, PhD, NIH/NHLBI
  • Jacqueline Lloyd, PhD, NIH/ODP
  • Ruben Parra-Cardona, PhD, SPR Board
  • Paula Smith, PhD, SPR Board
  • Xinzhi Zhang, MD, NIH/NHLBI

Miguel Ángel Cano, PhD

Dr. Miguel Ángel Cano is trained in counseling psychology and conducts research in social epidemiology and prevention science. His program of research concentrates on the etiology and prevention of substance misuse/disorders and poor mental health (e.g., depressive and anxiety symptomatology/disorders), and aims to understand social determinants of health and inequities affecting Hispanic communities and other socially disadvantaged/marginalized groups. His primary research interests are 1) sociocultural stressors (e.g., racial/ethnic discrimination) and coping resources in relation to substance use behavior and mental health, and 2) evidence-based prevention interventions for underserved and socially disadvantaged/marginalized populations. His research program has been supported by funding from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), and the National Institute on Aging (NIA).

Dr. Cano currently serves as a Standing Committee Member in the NIAAA study section for Epidemiology, Prevention and Behavior Research. He also serves on the editorial board of the following journals: Annals of Epidemiology, Behavioral Medicine, American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, Emerging Adulthood, Journal of Clinical Psychology, Journal of Latinx Psychology, Journal of Prevention and Health Promotion, and Journal of Research on Adolescence.

Nadine Finigan-Carr, PhD, MS

Dr. Finigan-Carr is a prevention research scientist focused on the application of behavioral and social science perspectives to research contemporary health problems, especially those that disproportionately affect people of color. Her scholarship is grounded in theories and methods found primarily in the field of health behavior change among individuals and the environments that support or impede chronic disease prevention or management, injury, and violence. She is an internationally recognized expert on human trafficking and sexual exploitation of minors.

She is the principal investigator of research projects at the state and federal levels designed to intervene with system-involved youth — those in foster care or the juvenile justice system. These youth have a double vulnerability — adolescence, a critical stage marked by increased risk for negative social and behavioral outcomes including aggression and sexual risk behaviors, and being removed from their families of origin. Dr. Finigan-Carr is the author of “Linking Health and Education for African American Students’ Success” (Routledge Press). She has served as special guest editor for the Journal of Negro Education (2015), the Journal of Violence and Victims (2020), and Children Youth Services’ Review (2021). She also serves as a commissioner of community relations in the Baltimore City Office of Equity and Civil Rights.

Adriana Umaña-Taylor, PhD

Adriana Umaña-Taylor is the Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her work seeks to apply developmental science in a manner that reduces ethnic-racial disparities in psychological and academic adjustment and, in turn, promotes social justice. Umaña-Taylor has successfully collaborated with school districts for over 20 years to design and implement large-scale, longitudinal, school-based data collection efforts with high school students. She is Principal Investigator of multiple, longitudinal research projects funded by the National Science Foundation, the Institute of Education Sciences, the National Institutes of Health, the William T. Grant Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation. She developed the Identity Project, a school-based intervention curriculum that engages adolescents in the developmental processes of ethnic-racial identity exploration and resolution. Her recent studies focus on testing the efficacy and effectiveness of the Identity Project; developing professional development programming to prepare educators to implement the Identity Project with their students; understanding how adolescents develop their ethnic and racial identities in the context of their peer relationships within the school setting; testing how the negative physiological effects of race-based stress can be reduced by intervening in adolescents’ ethnic-racial identity development; and exploring the universal nature of ethnic-racial identity development as a promotive factor for adolescents in Latin American and European countries. She has published over 200 peer-reviewed journal articles and handbook chapters, and her books include Below the Surface: Talking with Teens about Race, Ethnicity, and Identity (with Rivas-Drake; Princeton University Press, 2019); Studying Ethnic Identity: Methodological and Conceptual Approaches across Disciplines (co-edited with Santos; American Psychological Association, 2015); and Studying Ethnic Minority and Economically Disadvantaged Populations: Methodological Challenges and Best Practices (with Knight and Roosa; American Psychological Association, 2009). Umaña-Taylor has served as associate editor for the Journal of Research on Adolescence, as a member of the Executive Council of the Society for Research on Adolescence, and on the Board of Directors for the National Council on Family Relations. Her contributions to mentorship and student training have been recognized with national awards such as the Outstanding Mentor Award from the Society for Research on Adolescence and the Marie F. Peters Award from the National Council on Family Relations. She is an inducted Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, and the National Council on Family Relations.

Michael A. Lindsey, PhD

Dr. Michael A. Lindsey is a noted scholar in the fields of child and adolescent mental health, as well as a leader in the search for knowledge and solutions to generational poverty and inequality. He is the Dean and Paulette Goddard Professor of Social Work at NYU Silver School of Social Work, and an Aspen Health Innovators Fellow.

Additionally, Dr. Lindsey led the working group of experts supporting the Congressional Black Caucus Emergency Taskforce on Black Youth Suicide and Mental Health, which created the report Ring the Alarm: The Crisis of Black Youth Suicide in America. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the National Academies of Practice (NAP) in Social Work and Fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare. He was also appointed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF).

Prior to being named NYU Silver’s Dean, Dr. Lindsey was the Constance and Martin Silver Professor of Poverty Studies and Executive Director of the NYU McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research.

Dr. Lindsey serves on the editorial boards of the following journals: Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, Psychiatric Services, and School Mental Health. The politics news outlet City & State New York has recognized him in the 2022 and 2023 Higher Education Power 100 lists, as well as the 2021 Mental Health Power 50 list.

He holds a PhD in social work and MPH from the University of Pittsburgh, an MSW from Howard University, and a BA in sociology from Morehouse College. Dr. Lindsey also completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in public health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Darlene Flynn

Darlene Flynn began her career in public service with the City of Seattle, doing policy development and constituent services for then Councilmember and Land Use Chair, James Street. Following opportunities to work for Seattle Public Utilities and Department of Neighborhoods, she joined the Seattle Office for Civil Rights. There she was an early program architect, and was the Policy and Capacity Building Lead from the inception of their ground breaking Race & Social Justice Initiative. In this position, she provided strategic planning, policy design, implementation and training support to the initiative focused on ending institutional racism in City government. Darlene also served four years, 2003 – 2007 on the Seattle School Board and on its Executive committee, first as the At-large member and then as Vice President. In 2016 Darlene accepted the position of Director of the new Department of Race and Equity in Oakland California, where she is currently applying her years of experience public policy and equity expertise to lead and support Oakland’s efforts to create a more just and equitable city.

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Plenary Session II

Thursday, June 1, 2023, 8:15 am – 9:45 am, EDT

Special theme #2. Advancing gender health equity in the context of social justice.

Chair:  JoyAnn Courtney, PhD, Health Scientist Administrator, NIH/Office of Disease Prevention

Speakers:

  • Katherine P. Theall, PhD, Professor, Tulane University, School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine
  • John Blosnich, PhD, Assistant Professor and Director of the Center for LGBTQ+ Health Equity, USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work
  • Goleen Samari, PhD, Assistant Professor of Population and Family Health, Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health

Organizers:

  • Roslyn King, PhD, NIH/NICHD, chair
  • JoyAnn Courtney, PhD, NIH/ODP
  • Dionne Godette-Greer, PhD, NINR
  • Kerry Green, PhD, University of Maryland, Prevention Research mentor/mentee program chair
  • Katrina Debnam, PhD, University of Virginia, SPR Board

JoyAnn (Rohan) Courtney, PhD

Dr. JoyAnn (Rohan) Courtney joined the ODP in January 2022 as a Health Scientist Administrator. In this role, she coordinates and promotes trans-NIH activities to strengthen prevention research that reduces health disparities and achieves health equity.

Prior to joining the ODP, Dr. Courtney served as a Program Director at the Translational Research Program (TRP) within the Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis (DCTD) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) managing Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPOREs) in breast, endometrial, cervical, and ovarian cancers. In addition, she was active on the Cancer Disparities Activities Committee and assisted in the oversight of NCI’s cancer disparities activities across the Institute. She also served as the liaison between TRP and the Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities (CRCHD) and assisted in developing CRCHD funding opportunities.

Before joining TRP, she was a postdoctoral fellow for programs focused on complementary alternative medicine at Morgan State University and minority health and health disparities at Georgetown University. She served as a Project Manager for the Clinical Assay Development Program in the DCTD that supported investigators seeking clinical assay validation resources for assays with clinical utility. She later served as a Scientific Program Manager for the Molecular Characterization Laboratory, NCI Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, with Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc. managing a network of next generation sequencing laboratories, among other activities.

Dr. Courtney obtained her Bachelor of Science in biology from Spelman College and her Ph.D. in molecular and cellular biology from Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Courtney has more than 10 years of experience in both cancer biology research and cancer-related project management for NCI and the extramural communities. Dr. Courtney is committed to research, education, and service in her professional and personal life.

Katherine P. Theall, PhD

As a social epidemiologist, Theall’s research focuses on reducing health inequities by understanding and altering built and social neighborhood environments and social policies for better health in vulnerable populations locally, nationally, and internationally and researching innovative methodologies to do so. She is actively involved in interventions and policies aimed at altering environments for better health in vulnerable populations. Dr. Theall has received funding from the CDC, NIH, HRSA and private foundations such as the Robert Wood Johnson and W.K. Kellogg Foundations. She has published over 100 peer reviewed papers and presented numerous scientific talks in her area of research. As director of an academic center with a strong base in community partnered participatory research aimed at addressing social determinants of women and children’s health and the processes that shape these determinants, she continues to find ways to disseminate her team’s work and turn it into action.

John R. Blosnich, PhD

John R. Blosnich is an assistant professor and director of the Center for LGBTQ+ Health Equity at the Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work. His primary area of expertise is disparities in suicide risk and prevention among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals, with a specific emphasis on social determinants of health. He has conducted numerous studies to capitalize on secondary analyses of existing survey data, helping to fill gaps in knowledge about LGBT health. Prior to joining the faculty at USC, Dr. Blosnich spent nine years working with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA); first with the VISN2 Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention in Canandaigua, NY and more recently with the Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion in Pittsburgh, PA. At the VA, he led foundational research about transgender veterans’ health and health care utilization, with a specific focus in suicide risk, mortality, and social determinants of health. He garnered the VA’s first research award focused on transgender veterans, and served on several national VA committees charged with developing guidance and clinical education and training about LGBT veterans receiving health care through the VA. In addition to VA-supported research, he has conducted LGBT-focused research supported by competitive awards from foundations and the National Institutes of Health. Over the last five years, he has worked on efforts to improve LGBT health equity research in the US by addressing the lack of sexual orientation and gender identity data in mortality surveillance.

Goleen Samari, PhD

Goleen Samari is a population health demographer whose research focuses on social inequities and health. She examines how racism, gender inequities, and migration-based inequities shape population and reproductive health both domestically and globally with a particular focus on communities in or from the Middle East and North Africa. She focuses on issues related to immigrant health, women’s health, and sexual and reproductive health and rights. She was the first to draw attention to racialization of religious minorities and Islamophobia as a public health issue. She is also one of a handful of public health researchers examining women’s empowerment, gender equity, and reproductive health in the Middle East and North Africa. Her recent work includes a measure of structural xenophobia in the U.S. at the state level, the Immigrant Policy Climate index, that can be leveraged to understand the health implications of exclusionary and inclusive immigration contexts. Her research remains focused on understanding and alleviating intersectional structural determinants of health. Cutting across all her research areas is an interest in the way social science constructs are measured and mixed methods that guide the research process. Her research has been published in several journals including Social Science & Medicine and the American Journal of Public Health, and her editorials and Op-Eds have been published in local and national newspapers. She is recognized as a thought leader on the population and reproductive health effects of discrimination for Muslim, Middle Eastern, and immigrant communities and has received a few notable honors for her contributions to health equity research.

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Plenary Session III

Thursday, June 1, 2023, 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm, EDT

Special theme #3. Addressing the impacts of global climate change on health equity in the context of social justice.

Chair: Brenda Miller, PhD, Senior Research Scientist, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation

Speakers:

  • Wael Al-delaimy, MD, PhD, Professor, Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health & Human Longevity Science, UC San Diego
  • Don Edmondson, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor of Behavioral Medicine and Director of the Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health, Columbia University, Department of Psychiatry
  • Donald Warne, MD, MPH, Co-Director, Johns Hopkins University Center for Indigenous Health

Organizers:

  • Brenda Miller, PhD, PIRE, International Committee, and chair of the Prevention Science International Workgroup on Climate Change
  • Tonya Agurs-Collins, PhD, NIH/NCI
  • Elena Gervilla, PhD, Professor, SPR International committee
  • Elizabeth Ginexi, PhD, NIH/NCCIH
  • Aleta Meyer, PhD, ACF
  • Amanda Nguyen, PhD, SPR International committee chair
  • Denise Stredrick, PhD, NIH/OD

Brenda A. Miller, PhD

Since 2002, Brenda A. Miller, Ph.D., has been conducting research as a Senior Research Scientist at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation at the Prevention Research Center (PRC) in California.

Current Research

She is currently funded by National Institute of Drug Abuse and National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, at the National Institutes of Health, as the Principal Investigator to conduct the following research studies:

  1. Prevention of Young Adult Drug Use in Club Settings (R01DA018770)—which focuses on the development, implementation, and testing of environmental strategies to reduce drug use and increase safety in night clubs that attract young adults;
  2. Web-based Family Prevention of Alcohol and Risky Sex for Older Teens (R01AA020977)— which is an interactive family based approach for engaging older teens and their parents to improve communication and to develop safety strategies around these types of high risk behaviors.

International Work

Dr. Miller has engaged in research studies in Thailand, India, and Brazil that focus on family-based strategies to reduce adolescent use of alcohol and drugs, and risky sex. She also serves as the Chair of the Society for Prevention Research’s (SPR), International Task Force. This task force organizes the yearly International Networking Forum at the SPR Annual Meetings, collaborates with external organizations to improve networking and communication among international colleagues interested in prevention science, and actively identifies opportunities for supporting the research to practice to policy nexus with scientifically based findings and research. Dr. Miller actively participates as a mentor in the PRC post-doctoral program. She has published extensively in these areas of research.

Prior Research

Dr. Miller’s earlier work has also included studies on violence and victimization, drinking and driving, and crime/social justice, environmental strategies and group-based prevention efforts. Prior to 2002, she was the Janet B. Wattles Endowed Professor and Director of the Center for Research on Urban Social Work Practice at the University at Buffalo (1998-2002). From 1996-1998, she served in as Director at the Research Institute on Addictions in Buffalo, New York, where she was also was also Deputy Director (1988-1998) and Senior Scientist (1981-1998). Dr. Miller is a member of the American Society of Criminology, the Prevention Research Society, and the Research Society on Alcoholism. She received her Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from the University of Albany.

Dr. Miller’s publications are listed on NIH’s National Library of Medicine site and on our publications page as well.

Wael Al-Delaimy, MD, PhD

Dr. Al-Delaimy is a multidisciplinary epidemiologist focused on health of vulnerable populations. Between 1991 and 1995 he practiced medicine in his native Iraq and then in Jordan before deciding to be dedicated to public health and finishing his PhD in epidemiology from Otago University in New Zealand in 2000. He was a Research Fellow and Research Associate at Harvard School of Public Health between 2000-2004, a scientist with the International Agency for Research on Cancer in 2003, and a faculty member at UCSD since 2004 as an Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor. His global research activities are in non-communicable diseases, including mental health, climate change, tobacco, ethics and human rights, and refugee health. He is also involved in academic and research development in the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa. His work involved engagement of indigenous populations, refugees and immigrants, minorities, and populations in low and middle income countries.

Global environmental health is a focus of Al-Delaimy where he worked in the US/Mexico border area on pesticide biomarkers, and soil and water contamination as Co-director of Community Engagement Core for the UCSD Superfund Project. He introduced Climate Change to Health Sciences as part of the UCSD Strategic Initiative in 2014 (see featured video tab) which led to the hiring of new faculty in this discipline and a focus of the UCSD Institute for Public Health. Health policy and community engagement in climate change is one of his areas of focus and current interest and he co-led the highly downloaded Springer Nature e-book Health of People, Health of Planet, and Our responsibility (see websites tab for a link to the book)

He is Director of the NIH Fogarty International Center Training Program in International Research Ethics based in Jordan which is focused on building research methods capacity in Jordan the Middle East Region, with a focus on research ethics, non-communicable diseases and epidemiology. The program trained more than 120 researchers from the region as Fellows in Research Ethics and now transformed into a masters in bioethics degree, the first in the region.

He led the State-wide California Tobacco Surveys (see websites tab) 2005-2017) and now leads the California American Indian Tobacco Initiative Evaluation (see websites tab). He is internationally recognized for pioneering tobacco exposure biomarkers of toenail nicotine as well hair nicotine and utilized them for policy, behavioral change and prediction of disease outcomes. Hookah and e-cigarette use and trends is another tobacco-related area of research he has developed and published.

Research on chronic diseases and health of refugees in San Diego and Jordan has been developed by Al-Delaimy and local and international collaborators. In San Diego, an ongoing collaboration on the assessment of mental health among Iraqi refugees and Hispanic immigrants aims at understanding the prevalence and risk factors of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression among mothers and their children. This work extended to the Middle East through the Global Mental Health Initiative (see websites tab)

See his faculty research programs and groups
https://hwsph.ucsd.edu/research/programs-groups/programs-groups-faculty-research.html#Wael-Al-Delaimy-Research-Group

Donald Edmondson, PhD

Dr. Donald Edmondson is an Associate Professor of Behavioral Medicine (with tenure) at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC), and the Director of the Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health (CBCH) at CUMC. He has received more than $20M in funding from the National Institutes of Health to conduct research focused on cardiovascular disease (CVD) patients, examining the development of PTSD due to CVD events and its association with secondary CVD risk after acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and stroke. He is also the principal investigator of the Resource and Coordinating Center (RCC) for the NIH Science of Behavior Change (SOBC) program, which promotes the application of the experimental medicine approach to identify the underlying mechanisms of behavior change. He received the 2018 American Psychological Association award for Distinguished Scientific Contribution in Early Career, for theoretical and empirical contributions to health psychology for work in CVD patients. Previously, he won the 2014 Neal Miller award for early career contributions to behavioral medicine from the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, for research showing that hospital environment factors and perceived threat during emergency department evaluation influence psychological stress and secondary risk in CVD patients.

Dr. Edmondson’s primary goal is to support research at CBCH by further developing the collectivist approach to science and the work of research that has been pioneered by CBCH scientists. From grant writing and research design, through team-based research management and budgeting, the CBCH collectivist approach attempts to reflect the actual behaviors of team-based science in budgeting and management decisions. The result is a culture of incentivized collaboration and mentorship, as well as financial security, for CBCH, and the faculty and staff that form its core. CBCH scientists secured a historic number of new NIH research grants in the past year, with tenure track faculty and early career scientists leading the way. Many of those awards represented new directions for CBCH, which had been identified in prior years’ strategic planning (e.g., cardiac arrest survivorship, LGBTQ health, telemedicine). Further, in 2020, junior scientists and staff members led a collective effort to evaluate CBCH’s values and actions with respect to racial and ethnic equity, diversity, and inclusion, which delivered CBCH’s first EDI Mission Statement and a roadmap for aligning CBCH processes with its values.

Donald Warne, MD, MPH

Donald Warne, MD, MPH, joined the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health as Co-Director on September 1, 2022. He is an acclaimed physician, one of the world’s preeminent scholars in Indigenous health, health education, policy and equity as well as a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe from Pine Ridge, South Dakota. Dr. Warne will also serve as Johns Hopkins University’s new Provost Fellow for Indigenous Health Policy.

Warne comes from a long line of traditional healers and medicine men, and is a celebrated researcher of chronic health inequities. He is also an educational leader who created the first Indigenous health-focused Master of Public Health and PhD programs in the U.S. or Canada at the North Dakota State University and the University of North Dakota, respectively. Warne previously served at the University of North Dakota as professor of Family and Community Medicine and associate dean of diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as director of the Indians Into Medicine and Public Health programs at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

Warne’s career is informed by rich work and life experiences. He served the Pima Indian population in Arizona as a primary care physician and later worked as a staff clinician with the NIH. He has also served as Health Policy Research director for the Inter-Tribal Council of Arizona, executive director of the Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Health Board, and faculty member at the Indian Legal Program of the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University.

Warne has received many awards recognizing his research accomplishments, educational leadership, and service work, including the American Public Health Association’s Helen Rodríguez-Trías Award for Social Justice and the Explorer’s Club 50 People Changing the World. Warne received a Bachelor of Science degree from Arizona State University, Doctor of Medicine degree from Stanford University’s School of Medicine, and a Master of Public Health degree from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

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Plenary Session IV – New for 2023!

Friday June 2, 2023, 10:45 am – 12:00 pm, EDT

Conducting Prevention Research & Teaching to Achieve Social Justice and Health Equity in Politicized Times: A Critical Dialogue.

Please join panelists from Plenary Sessions I, II, and III who will tie-in content from their plenary sessions with a guided discussion and Q&A from the audience.

Chair: Miguel Cano, PhD, Associate Professor, School of Public Health, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Moderator: Karsonya Wise Whitehead, PhD, Loyola University Maryland

Panelists:

Plenary Session I. Structural inequality, marginalized communities, and health equity.  

  • Darlene Flynn, City of Oakland, Executive Director, City of Oakland, California, Race & Equity Department

Plenary Session II. Advancing gender health equity in the context of social justice.

  • John Blosnich, PhD, Assistant Professor and Director of the Center for LGBTQ+ Health Equity, USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work
  • Goleen Samari, PhD, Assistant Professor of Population and Family Health, Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health
  • Katherine P. Theall, PhD, Professor, Tulane University, School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine

Plenary Session III. Addressing the impacts of global climate change on health equity in the context of social justice.

  • Wael Al-delaimy, MD, PhD, Professor, Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health & Human Longevity Science, UC San Diego
  • Don Edmondson, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor of Behavioral Medicine and Director of the Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health, Columbia University, Department of Psychiatry

Karsonya (Kaye) Wise Whitehead, PhD

Karsonya (Kaye) Wise Whitehead, Ph.D., professor of communication and African and African American Studies, is a three-time New York Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker and the award-winning radio host of Today with Dr. Kaye on WEAA 88.9FM. She is also the founder and executive director of the Karson Institute for Race, Peace, and Social Justice, and the founding executive director of the Emilie Frances Davis Center for Education, Research, and Culture. Her scholarship examines the ways race, class, and gender coalesce in American classrooms as well as in political and social environments. Her work and her scholarship in activism, race, and African American history have garnered national attention and awards, including the Gilder Lehrman Preserve America Maryland History Teacher of the Year Award (2006), the Gilder Lehrman Fellowship in American History (2012), and the Collegium Visionary Award (2019); she has won several prestigious honors for her scholarly and activist work as the @blackmommyactivist. Named one of Essence magazine’s 2019 “Woke 100 Women” changing the world, the “Best Radio Host” in Baltimore by the Baltimore Sun; one of the “Top 100 Women” in Maryland by the Daily Record, and one of “25 Women to Watch” by the Baltimore Sun, she is one of the most sought-after keynote speakers in the country.

A K-12 Master Teacher in African American History, Dr. Whitehead has worked with more than one thousand teachers to become culturally responsive educators in diverse environments—and has served as a historical consultant for a series of documentaries on Philadelphia. A decorated author, Dr. Whitehead has published articles, essays, book chapters, and opinion-editorials on issues that face the Black community. Her 2014 book, Notes from A Colored Girl: The Civil War Pocket Diaries of Emilie Frances Davis, won the Darlene Clark Hine Book Award (2015) from the Organization of American Historians as the best book written in African American women’s and gender history, as well as the Letitia Woods Brown Book Award from the Association of Black Women Historians (2014).

https://www.loyola.edu/about/community/faculty/whitehead

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