Informational Session for Harvard HealthLab Accelerator
Information session will be held on Sept. 16 at Hawk’s Nest in Smith Campus Center from 6 to 7:15 p.m. Burritos will be offered.
Join in this year’s Harvard HealthLab Accelerators cohort! Application is open now through September 20. If you have an idea for a social impact venture, we’re the accelerator for you! You will have access to mentorship, a network of innovative entrepreneurs, and seed funding. Application link found at https://lpce.college.harvard.edu/h2a and any questions should go to Leslie Coles at lcoles@g.harvard.edu. Apply today!
Organizers
Join us for a webinar on Global Environmental Health, offered by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Advanced Learning Academy and hosted by Program Director Petros Koutrakis.
Professor Koutrakis will provide an overview of the course and what participants can expect to learn from the first course in this 4-course Certificate of Specialization, including the sources and health impacts of air pollution, environmental radiation, exposure, and risk.
If you’re looking to strengthen your understanding of key environmental health challenges and their impact on human health, join us to learn how this flexible, self-paced course can support your professional goals.
Speaker Information
Organizers
Rethinking Sex Differences in Disease: Lessons from Migraine on Biology, Measurement, and Classification
Join us on Wednesday, September 16th for the Department of Epidemiology seminar series featuring Dr. Tobias Kurth.
Abstract: Migraine is substantially more prevalent in women than in men, a difference commonly attributed to biological factors. Yet observed prevalence may also reflect differences in symptom expression and reporting, measurement, and disease classification. Using migraine as a case study, this talk explores how these processes may shape observed female–male differences and considers their broader implications for interpreting sex differences in disease.
Bio: Tobias Kurth is Professor of Public Health and Epidemiology at Charité University Medical Center Berlin and Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. His research focuses on the epidemiology of neurological and cardiovascular diseases, including migraine, stroke, and cognitive aging.
Speaker Information
Organizers
Related Events
Harvard Humanitarian Initiative Meet & Greet
Join us for an in-person gathering to meet the HHI team and learn more about our global work. All members of the Harvard community are welcome to kick off the new semester, build connections, and foster collaboration.
Organizers
Harvard Humanitarian Initiative Virtual Open House
Join us for a virtual gathering to meet the HHI team and learn more about our global work.
Members of the general public, as well as all members of the Harvard community are welcome to join us and kick off the new semester, build connections, and foster collaboration.
Organizers
Two for One Book Authors Event: Nick Freudenberg (CUNY) & John McDonough (HSPH)
Please join us for an exciting conversation with two distinguished authors celebrating their recent book releases: Nick Freudenberg (CUNY) and John McDonough (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health).
Nick Freudenberg will discuss his new book, Fighting for New York: Activism for Health & Social Justice Since the 1960s, which explores decades of activism and the fight for health and social justice in New York City.
John McDonough will discuss his new book, America’s Wrong Turn: US Healthcare in the Neoliberal Era, examining the forces that have shaped the U.S. healthcare system and their implications for health policy today.
Join us for a timely and thought-provoking discussion on health, policy, activism, and social justice.
This will be an in-person event and open to HUID holders only. RSVPs are encouraged for headcount purposes but not required for attendance.
All speakers will share their own perspectives; they do not speak for Harvard.
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Moderator
Celebration of Life: Remembering Robert (Bob) J. Blendon
Thank you for joining us for a gathering to recognize Bob’s pathbreaking career and impact on the field of health policy. Colleagues and mentees from all stages of his career shared reflections on his brilliance, influence, and generosity.
- Keynote: “Bob Before Harvard”
- Presentation: “Bob’s Earliest Work”
- Panel: “Bob Blendon: Lessons and Legacy”
- Closing Remarks: “Concluding Remarks about Bob, Our Friend”
Wednesday, October 28th, 2026
2:00PM – 3:30PM (Reception Following Event), Kresge G1
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Kresge Building, 677 Huntington Ave, Boston MA, 02115
Please note: All speakers share their own perspectives; they do not speak for Harvard.
Bob was a pillar of Harvard’s PhD Program in Health Policy, and his commitment to supporting students was evident throughout the event. In 2025, policy changes at NIH led to the loss of one of the program’s longstanding training grants, and two others are now under threat. As we work to identify alternative grant funding, current use gifts can give the program greater flexibility to support students, help keep their doctoral work on track, fund conference travel, and cover essential research expenses.
If you would like to make a gift to Harvard in Bob’s memory:
- Visit tinyurl.com/InMemoryOfBobBlendon.
- In the Select a Fund dropdown, choose OTHER – Harvard University.
- In the Other Fund Name box, enter Health Policy Initiative: In Memory of Bob Blendon.
Thank you again for being part of this gathering and for helping carry forward Bob’s legacy of generosity and support for the next generation of health policy scholars.
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Closing Remarks
Making Tradeoffs Explicit: Advancing Decision Science for Public Health Policy
Public health decision-making is increasingly complex, involving tradeoffs between competing considerations such as length versus quality of life, health gains versus economic costs, and efficiency versus equity. Health decision science provides structured, transparent approaches to evaluating these tradeoffs and informing decisions in the face of constrained budgets for health care and public health. Dr. Pandya’s research applies and advances health decision science methods to make tradeoffs explicit in difficult health policy decisions. This talk will highlight selected research addressing clinical questions (e.g., how many adults in the US should receive statin therapy?), policy questions (e.g., which quality measures should be prioritized in acute stroke care?), and methodological questions (e.g., how can researchers weigh efficiency-equity tradeoffs?).
The Department of Health Policy and Management will host this event in hybrid format. If you would like to join us by Zoom, please register at the link above to receive the Zoom details. If you plan to join in person, there is no need to RSVP. Thank you!
All speakers share their own perspectives; they do not speak for Harvard.
Speaker Information
Parents today are facing unprecedented levels of stress, with many reporting symptoms of anxiety, depression, burnout, and loneliness. The U.S. Surgeon General’s 2024 advisory calls parental mental health and well-being an urgent public health issue, sighting the effects of parental health on the health and development of children. In this discussion, experts will examine the factors driving parental stress, explore how parental mental health shapes child development and family well-being, and discuss evidence-based strategies to better support parents. Drawing on research in public health, psychology, and child development, panelists will share practical insights for families while considering the policies and community investments needed to help parents—and the next generation—thrive.
Watch the premiere on our YouTube page.
An on-demand video will be posted after the event.
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Moderator
Melody Mendez
The Role of Intuition in Epidemiology
Join us on Wednesday, October 28th for the Department of Epidemiology seminar series featuring Dr. Matthew Fox.
Abstract: Intuition is a necessary part of everyday life, without which we could not make it through a day. Epidemiologists are taught to rely on science, reason, and facts in their work and yet, it is likely that we use intuition all the time. We use it when we make decisions about interpreting the results of studies, about the impact of sources of bias, in the decisions we make in our own research, in our teaching and in our communication with other scientists and the general public. Yet it isn’t clear when this approach is useful and when it causes harm. This talk will focus on the role of intuition in epidemiology with examples of cases where we rely on it too much and cases where we don’t use it enough.
Bio: Matthew Fox, DSc, MPH, is a Professor in the Departments of Epidemiology and Global Health at Boston University. Dr. Fox joined Boston University in 1999. His research interests include treatment outcomes in HIV-treatment programs, infectious disease epidemiology (with specific interests in HIV and pneumonia), and epidemiologic methods. Dr. Fox works on ways to improve retention in HIV-care programs in South Africa from the time of testing HIV-positive through long-term treatment. As part of this work, he is involved in analyses to assess the impact of changes in South Africa’s National Treatment Guidelines for HIV. Dr. Fox also does research on quantitative bias analysis and co-authored a book on these methods, Applying Quantitative Bias Analysis to Epidemiologic Data. He is also the host of a public health journal club podcast called Free Associations designed to help people stay current in the public health literature and think critically about the quality of research studies and a podcast on Epidemiologic Methods called SERious Epi. He currently teaches a third-level epidemiologic methods class, Advanced Epidemiology as well as two other doctoral level epidemiologic methods courses.