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Biolegitimacy and Restrictive Abortion Regulations in Latin America: Overview and Perspectives

Dr. González is a renowned international expert and leader in the field of health and sexual and reproductive rights, the right to health, and gender equality. She has held several positions across the spectrum of her profession: as a service provider, policy formulator, researcher, international advisor, activist, and teacher on “health law” at the Faculty of Medicine. Dr. González is the former national public health director in Colombia and co-founder of La Mesa por la Vida y la Salud de las Mujeres and the Medical Group for The Right to Decide in Colombia. She pioneered the Causa Justa movement of Colombia that established the most liberal abortion laws in Latin America and the Caribbean. She is also part of the regional coalition “Articulación Feminista Marcosur” and was recently included as one of the 100 most influential people in the TIME100 list of 2022.

fellowship
student engagement
fellowship
student engagement

Pathways to Global Health with the Harvard 2021 LEAD Fellows for Promoting Women in Global Health

Virtual: Zoom
Meet our 2021 LEAD fellows! During this one-hour event, you’ll meet five incredible leaders in global health who will share their journey into global health and their lessons learned along the way. In an effort to equip and empower more women leaders in global health, HGHI and the Women and Health Initiative at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health offers a transformational fellowship opportunity for established women leaders in global health, who have demonstrated leadership experience and further potential. The 2021 LEAD cohort includes a medical doctor and health columnist from Malawi, a clinical epidemiologist from Namibia, the Founder Dean of the Chitkara School of Health Sciences and director of the Chitkara Global Health Institute from India, a public health ambassador from Uganda, and a registered nurse and community activist from Namibia. This speaker series is geared toward Harvard college students and is a great way to learn from global health professionals in a fun, accessible environment.  
Global Mental Health
Global Mental Health

Lancet-World Psychiatric Association Commission on Depression – Official Launch Webinar

The Lancet-World Psychiatric Association Commission: time for united action on depression is set to be the most comprehensive report on depression to date. Register Here! By aligning knowledge about depression from many fields, the Lancet-World Psychiatric Association Commission on depression has synthesised evidence from diverse contexts and generated action-oriented recommendations for a variety of stakeholders: communities and those affected by depression and their families; clinicians and public health practitioners; researchers who work to understand and address depression; and policy makers and financiers of health care. Join The Lancet’s Richard Horton and Miriam Lewis Sabin for the launch of this Commission where Commission co-Chairs will present the key messages and invited speakers representing these stakeholders will discuss and reflect on the significance and implementation of these recommendations. The session will conclude with a Q&A session with the co-Chairs. Featured speakers: • Afzal Javed, President, World Psychiatric Association (WPA) • Helen Herrman, Chair, The Lancet-WPA Commission on Depression • Vikram Patel, Chair, The Lancet-WPA Commission on Depression • Christian Kieling, Co-Chair, The Lancet-WPA Commission on Depression • Opeyemi Lawal, Director, Asido Foundation for Mental Health • Vivek H. Murthy, U.S. Surgeon General • Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist, World Health Organization • Anna Stavdal, President, World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA)

Global Mental Health
Global Mental Health

Young Mental Health Leaders Series: LGBTQ+ Youth Mental Health

Register here.  A recent report from the Trevor Project showed that almost half of all LGBTQ+ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in 2020. At the same time, only half of the youth surveyed could access wanted mental health care. As we work to build better systems, young people are leading the way in creating conversations and solutions to improve mental health among LGBTQ+ youth. Join Mental Health America and the GlobalMentalHealth@Harvard Initiative for the next 60-minute conversation in our Young Mental Health Leaders Series. In each session, we bring together leading researchers and young mental health advocates to discuss the current challenges and successes in youth mental health.  In this session, activist Juan Acosta will join Trill Project co-founders Ari Sokolov and Georgia Messinger to talk about their experiences as advocates in programs, policy, and organizations. The session will be moderated by Dr. Ana M. Progovac, Instructor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Senior Scientist at the Health Equity Research Lab. Presenters Georgia Messinger (she/her) is a 21-year-old founder and activist who is the current Co-Founder and COO of Trill Project, an anonymous and safe mobile application for mental health peer support. Originally from Los Angeles, CA, Georgia is a rising senior at Harvard University studying psychology and computer science. In addition to social impact technology, she is passionate about venture capital and supports Black founders seeking funding for their startups through her role at Valence. Ari Sokolov (she/her) is a 20-year-old founder, designer, and developer that has won national and international awards from the National Center of Women in Information Technology, the U.S. Congress, South by Southwest, Target, and Apple for her work. Currently, Ari is the Co-Founder and CEO of Trill Project, a mental health application with over 75,000 users. She is also a contributor to mental health technologies in the open-source community and an advocate for minorities in STEM. Juan Acosta (he/him) is an award-winning LGBTQ+, Mental Health Advocate who serves on national committees, speaks at conferences and festivals, and is an NYT Bestselling Author for a book co-authored with Lady Gaga “Channel Kindness”. He drafted a historic LGBTQ+ proclamation for his hometown of Woodland, CA. He currently serves as one of the Regional Managers for the CalHOPE Warm Line. Ana M. Progovac, Ph.D. is an Instructor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Senior Scientist at the Health Equity Research Lab. Her research focuses on improving the quality of mental health care in the U.S., with a focus on reducing disparities for underserved populations. Dr. Progovac’s projects use a variety of research methods, including quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods research, implementation research methods, and community-engaged research. She is interested in approaches to improve mental health that span across systems, and therefore enjoys collaborating with students, community members, other researchers, clinicians, administrators, and policy advocates. She is currently the Primary Investigator on an NIMHD R03 award (and past recipient of a Harvard Catalyst Health Disparities Pilot Award) which both focus on measuring and reducing mental health care disparities for gender minority individuals in the United States. She is also the recipient of a Harvard Medical School Department of Psychiatry Kaplen Award to conduct a mixed-methods analysis of an implementation of a behavioral health home for patients with serious mental illness, as well as its potential for dissemination to additional sites within Cambridge Health Alliance.

health justice
health justice

Decarceration as a Public Health Strategy: Stopping the Spread of COVID-19

The second event in our series will consider prison depopulation or decarceration in response to the threat of COVID-19 in places of incarceration. In response to the growing number of COVID-19 outbreaks in these facilities, public health experts, civil rights attorneys, and advocacy groups have made urgent appeals for decarceration. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, prison decongestion measures have been adopted in over 100 countries worldwide. However, decarceration and prison depopulation isn’t straightforward. It raises a host of questions and challenges around issues such as recidivism, racial equity, and support systems for those reentering society.   To examine these issues, this webinar will bring together a diverse panel of researchers, practitioners, and activists to discuss the role of decarceration as a part of the public health response to COVID-19 and examine current decarceration efforts around the world.   Speakers: Rahul Vanjani Rahul Vanjani (he/him) is Assistant Professor of Medicine at Alpert Medical School of Brown University. Rahul received his MSc at the University of Oxford in Integrated Immunology, and MD at George Washington University School of Medicine. He completed residency in Internal Medicine at Columbia University/New York Presbyterian. Rahul is a primary care physician with board certifications in Internal and Addiction Medicine. His clinical work is based out of the Rhode Island Hospital Center for Primary Care, the academic residency clinic of Brown University’s Internal Medicine residency program. There, he works in the Transitions and Recovery Clinics, where, in partnership with community health workers/peer recovery specialists, he provides primary care and wraparound services to patients with histories of carceral exposure and substance use. Rahul’s clinical practice also includes street medicine outreach once weekly in partnership with peers and case managers from House of Hope. Partnering with and teaching medical students and residents is a central part of his clinical work. =Rahul’s research interests include structural violence with a focus on the intersection between the carceral and medical systems, use of buprenorphine in the treatment of opioid use disorder, the roles and responsibilities of community health workers in health systems, and the public defender-medical partnership. Rahul also directs the Social Medicine course, a month-long clinical elective for third- and fourth-year Brown University medical students with three central tenets: providing housing and other forms of advocacy support to patients via a Social Medicine Assistance Clinic, participating in patient care with peers, social workers and health care providers who practice street outreach and addiction medicine, and engaging in a weekly social medicine reading group that grounds the work in theory.   Madhurima Dhanuka Madhurima Dhanuka is the Programme Head of the Prison Reforms Programme. In this capacity, she leads, manages and develops initiatives of the team in order to improve prison conditions; strengthen prison oversight mechanisms; strengthen pre-trial decision making; ensuring access to prompt and effective legal aid for persons in custody; and protecting rights of vulnerable prisoners including women, transgenders and foreign nationals. She is a lawyer with an LL.M. in Criminal Justice from the University of Nottingham, UK.  She has been associated with CHRI since 2008, and has published numerous studies, reports and resource materials on issues relating to prisoners, legal aid and the criminal justice system.    Lisa Puglisi Lisa Puglisi, MD is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Yale University where she practices primary care and addiction medicine. She is the director of Transitions Clinic-New Haven, a multi-disciplinary clinic that is part of a national network of programs that focus on care of individuals who are returning to the community from incarceration. Her clinical practice includes treatment of addiction and hepatitis C in primary care and she also oversees a medical legal partnership. She has developed specific skills in training, hiring and supervising community health workers and directing interdisciplinary teams of physicians, midlevel providers, community health workers, research personnel and legal colleagues around the work of clinical care and research to improve the health of people with recent incarceration. She is originally from the New Haven area and deeply committed to the community. Lisa received her undergraduate degree from Tufts University, her medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine and completed her medical training at Yale New Haven Hospital. Leslie Credle Leslie Credle was released from Federal Prison in 2018. Since release she has been on a mission to dismantle the carceral system and end incarceration for women and girls. Sadly, while incarcerated, Leslie endured the loss of her beloved daughter, Brianna aka “Breezy” to gun violence. Turning her pain into purpose, utilizing her lived experience, Leslie has become a fierce prison abolitionist and social justice advocate. You can find Leslie advocating for formerly incarcerated individuals and those with a criminal record to obtain sustainable equitable housing.   Through her creative soul, Leslie developed a model, Hands On Defense (HOD), which is designed to disrupt the screening criteria used by Public Housing Authorities, who determine if justice-involved applicants merit housing. Northeastern University Alumni and 2020 Cohort of Columbia University, Women Transcending Collective Leadership Institute, Leslie is someone to pay attention to.  She is destined to be a future leader in the movement to end incarceration of women and girls.  

pandemics
pandemics

Reimagining Pandemic Preparedness: Making Equity a Strategic Priority

Disjointed, nationalist treatment and prevention efforts have largely characterized the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The failure by governments to establish an equitable, coordinated pandemic response has perpetuated oppressive global inequities. Nowhere is this more apparent than with vaccine distribution efforts. Despite the rapid development of life-saving vaccines, nationalist distribution approaches and weak global solidarity have left the most vulnerable populations with inadequate support. Given that global infectious disease outbreaks will only become more common in the future, identifying ways to center equity in pandemic preparedness remains more relevant and critical than ever. Join us on Thursday, April 29th from 9:00 – 10:00 AM EST for a forward-looking discussion with global experts on how we can learn from the failures of the COVID-19 pandemic response to ensure history doesn’t repeat itself. Register here
pandemics
pandemics

Building Vaccine Confidence: Global Trends and Practical Solutions

Despite the rapid development of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines, resistance to immunization threatens to prolong the arc of the pandemic globally. The drivers of vaccine concern are both vast and population-specific, ranging from misinformation and media manipulation campaigns to historical legacies of medical exploitation among marginalized communities. As such, responses must be intentional, data-driven, and account for the full spectrum of motivations that may prompt resistance to immunizations. Addressing a truly multidisciplinary challenge, efforts to build vaccine confidence require engagement from an array of key stakeholders, including civil society, government officials, academics, and the private sector. Join us on Thursday, April 8th from 9:00 – 10:30 AM EST for a timely discussion on the global implications of vaccine concern, sociotechnical drivers of resistance, and strategies for increasing vaccine confidence among the most vulnerable communities. Register here!

COVID-19 Crisis in Prisons, Jails, and Detention Centers: Historical Perspective and Global Context

COVID-19 Crisis in Prisons, Jails, and Detention Centers: Historical Perspective and Global Context is the first event in a new series hosted by the Harvard Global Health Institute in partnership with Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics. This webinar will bring together a diverse set of panelists to address the current state of the COVID-19 virus in places of detention and incarceration around the world, and discuss how historical contexts for present-day carceral conditions, like overcrowding, and current practices, such as solitary confinement, have enabled the virus to spread. By critically examining the history of global carceral systems, we aim to highlight how deliberate design has exacerbated harm to this population, reinforcing inequality and discrimination, and thwarting efforts to respond to the virus. REGISTER HERE Speakers:  Keynote Speaker & Panelist: Bruce Reilly Bruce Reilly, is Deputy Director of both VOTE, and Voters Organized to Educate. He is a writer, and founding member of the Formerly Incarcerated, Convicted People and Families Movement (FICPFM). Bruce provides expert analysis on discrimination in employment, housing, and voting rights. Originally born into foster care, he found his identity as a young jailhouse lawyer for 12 years before his parole, and a 2-hour bus ride to a minimum wage job. Bruce put his knowledge to work by joining Direct Action for Rights & Equality in 2005, and played a vital role in passing significant criminal justice reforms, such as the restoration of voting rights, eliminating mandatory minimums, statewide Ban the Box, the Good Samaritan Overdose Prevention Act, unshackling incarcerated pregnant women, and probation violation reform. In 2011, Bruce moved to New Orleans, team up with VOTE, and enroll in Tulane Law School, despite having no undergrad degree, and graduated in 2014. Bruce co-founded Transcending Through Education Foundation (TTEF) with two friends who also entered prison at a young age, and earned law degrees after being released. He is the author of “Communities, Evictions, and Criminal Convictions,” a foundational report on public housing, and “The Racial History of Felon Disenfranchisement in Louisiana,” which served as a key building block to VOTE v. Louisiana and the re-enfranchisement of 40,000 people, including himself. Bruce serves on the board of All Square, a reentry/restaurant program in Minneapolis; the National Clean Slate Clearinghouse Advisory Committee; Steering Committees for Unanimous Jury Coalition, Louisianans for Prison Alternatives, Power Coalition; the IRB for American Institutes of Research; and advisory board of Prison Policy Initiative.  Bruce is currently a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Interdisciplinary Research Leader, and has also worked as an artist, lighting designer, DJ, and theatre director. Moderator: Salmaan Keshavjee MD, PhD, ScM Salmaan Keshavjee MD, PhD, ScM, is Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Director of Harvard Medical School’s Center for Global Health Delivery.  He is also a physician in the Division of Global Health Equity at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where he is Associate Professor of Medicine. Dr. Keshavjee is a leading expert in tuberculosis treatment and the anthropology of health policy. He is the author of Blind Spot: How neoliberalism infiltrated global health­.  He has worked extensively with the Boston-based non-profit Partners In Health (PIH) on the treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB).  Over the last 20 years, Dr. Keshavjee has conducted clinical and implementation research on MDR-TB in Russia, both in the prison and civilian sectors.  He was Deputy-Director for the Partners In Health’s health programs in Lesotho (2006-2008), launching one of the first community-based treatment programs for multi-drug resistant tuberculosis/HIV co-infection in sub-Saharan Africa. More recently, he has been working with Advance Access & Delivery, a non-governmental organization for which he is a co-founder and clinical advisor for projects in India and South Africa.  His research has resulted in a number of clinical and policy manuscripts on TB and MDR-TB, which have had significant clinical and policy impact. Dr. Keshavjee is the Chair of the Steering Committee for the Zero TB Initiative, a global coalition of implementers, policy-makers and activists working to create islands of tuberculosis elimination in a number of countries worldwide.  He was the Chair of the World Health Organization/Stop TB Partnership’s Green Light Committee for Multidrug-resistant TB from 2007-2010.  He has been involved in a number of global guidelines for tuberculosis treatment including at the World Health Organization and the American Thoracic Society.  During the Covid-19 epidemic he has been involved with the work of the START coalition, committed to using layered technologies to keep public spaces safe from airborne disease transmission. Panelists:  Dr. Rosemary Mhlanga-Gunda Dr. Rosemary Mhlanga-Gunda is a public health specialist and researcher with over 30 years of experience. Her broad experience lies in health systems research, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of public health interventions inclusive of HIV/AIDS, maternal, child and adolescent health. She has conducted evaluations in public health interventions within Zimbabwe and the SADC region. She currently works as a researcher and technical advisor within the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Family Medicine, Global and Public Health Unit, Centre for Evaluation of Public Health Interventions, University of Zimbabwe. In the past seven years she has mainly focused on research on health of people in penal institutions within the Southern African Region. She is a reviewer for the International Journal of Prisoner Health. In 2020 she was appointed a committee member for the World-Wide Prison Health Research and Engagement Network (WEPHREN) Scientific Conference but this was postponed to a date yet to be announced due to Covid-19 global pandemic. Charlene J. Fletcher Historian, educator, and writer, Charlene J. Fletcher, is the Emerging Voices Postdoctoral Research Associate in Slavery and Justice at Brown University. She holds a Ph.D. in History from Indiana University, specializing in 19th century United States and African American history and gender studies. Prior to attending IU, Charlene led a domestic violence/sexual assault program as well as a large reentry initiative in New York City, assisting women and men in their transition from incarceration to society and also served as a lecturer of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York. She currently serves as National Publications Director for the Association of Black Women Historians (ABWH).     Marcelo Bergman Marcelo Bergman is a Professor of Sociology and Criminology at the Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero (UNTREF) in Argentina and writes on a variety of issues related to crime, public security, illegal drugs and public policies in Latin America. Other areas of research include taxation, compliance and rule of law in the region. Bergman is particularly interested in evidence-based research on criminal justice, citizen security and illegal drug polices in Latin America, with a focus on sound data collection. Over the past two decades, he has dedicated much of his work to developing data sets for the analysis of these social issues.