21st Kolokotrones Symposium
21st Kolokotrones Symposium – a CAUSALab event in Collaboration with the Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Center for Outcomes Research
CAUSALab is thrilled to invite you to the 21st Kolokotrones Symposium at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
“External Controls for Causal Inference: Study Design and Analysis” features four expert talks and a panel discussion.
The symposium will provide an introduction to external control arms and explore methodology and study design for causal inference. The symposium will conclude with an expert panel that will consider the question: where do we go from here?
Speakers & panelists:
⭐ Christina Lalani (Moderator) (Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Center for Outcomes Research)
⭐ Dhruv Kazi (Moderator) (Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Center for Outcomes Research)
⭐ Sonia Hernández-Díaz (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health)
⭐Lorenzo Trippa (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health)
⭐ Daniel Burkhoff (CRF, PV Loops, Columbia University)
⭐ Issa Dahabreh (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health)
⭐ Robert Yeh (Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Center for Outcomes Research)
⭐ Laura Mauri (Medtronic)
⭐ Rafael Cavalcante (Boston Scientific)
In person and online attendance free and open to the public. Limited spots available, so please register now to reserve your spot. Zoom link will be distributed to all virtual attendees the week leading up to the event. Additional information can be found on causalab.org.
Speakers’ remarks are based on their own scholarship and experience. As such, they speak for themselves, and not for Harvard University.
This event is hybrid, you can join in person or online by registering in advance.
Organizers
Brown Bag Seminar: Rethinking rehabilitation in public and global health: Lessons from Japan and adaptation in Uzbekistan
Kaori Yamaguchi, PhD, OTR, is a Takemi Fellow at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a senior researcher at the National Institute of Public Health (NIPH), Japan, the research arm of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW). Her work focuses on rehabilitation within public and global health, while also encompassing health policy and health systems research, including health and long-term care insurance and community-based integrated care in Japan and across Asia. She has also conducted research in social epidemiology, with a focus on aging populations. She is particularly passionate about advancing health equity by addressing both individual-level determinants and broader social and health system contexts.
Speaker Information
Organizers
Monday Nutrition Seminar | Food Environment Interventions to Reduce Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption: Updates from California
Please join the Department of Nutrition for the Monday Nutrition Seminar featuring Professor Laura Schmidt from the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Schmidt’s talk—”Food Environment Interventions to Reduce Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption: Updates from California”—will take place on April 6 at 1:00pm ET in FXB G-13 and via Zoom (registration is required).
Healthy snacks will be provided, thanks to the generous support of the Wellbeing Project Fund from the Office of the Associate Provost for Student Affairs.
The Monday Nutrition Seminar Series is free and open to the public. If you plan to attend this event and do not have an active HUID, please fill out the registration form by 3:00 p.m. ET on the Friday before the seminar to request a visitor pass to access the building.
Seminar speakers share their perspectives, they do not speak for Harvard.
Speaker Information
Organizers
Monday Nutrition Seminar | Front-of-package labeling in the United States: The latest evidence informing policy
Please join the Department of Nutrition for the Monday Nutrition Seminar featuring Aviva A. Musicus, ScD, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Nutrition at HSPH. Dr. Musicus’s talk—”Front-of-package labeling in the United States: The latest evidence informing policy”—will take place on March 30 at 1:00pm ET in FXB G-13 and via Zoom (registration is required).
Healthy snacks will be provided, thanks to the generous support of the Wellbeing Project Fund from the Office of the Associate Provost for Student Affairs.
The Monday Nutrition Seminar Series is free and open to the public. If you plan to attend this event and do not have an active HUID, please fill out the registration form by 3:00 p.m. ET on the Friday before the seminar to request a visitor pass to access the building.
Seminar speakers share their perspectives, they do not speak for Harvard.
Speaker Information
Organizers
Housing and homelessness: Solutions at the intersection of public health and public safety
Presented jointly with the Initiative on Health and Homelessness
As the cost of living rises across the United States, a record number of people experienced homelessness in 2024*, and shelter, housing, and support services are struggling to meet the need. Join leaders across public health and public safety for a conversation that moves beyond emergency response toward prevention, housing-first strategies, and long-term solutions. Grounded in lived experience and evidence, this panel explores cross-sector solutions with a focus on dignity, safety, and sustainable housing.
*Data according to National Alliance to End Homelessness State of Homelessness: 2025 edition
Register for free to submit your questions.
An on-demand video will be posted after the event.
Speakers
Monica Bharel
Leslie Credle
Gil Kerlikowske
Peter Koutoujian
Moderator
About The Studio
Discovery to intervention: The Healthy Life Trajectories Initiative with Stephen G. Matthews, PhD, FCAHS
Please join the Harvard Chan NIEHS Center for Environmental Health and the Department of Environmental Health for a talk by Stephen G. Matthews, PhD, FCAHS, Canada Research Chair in Early Development and Health and Professor of Physiology, Ob-Gyn and Medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr. Matthews will discuss “Discovery to intervention: The Healthy Life Trajectories Initiative.”
This event will be held in person (HSPH Bldg. 1, 1302) and via Zoom. Lunch and refreshments provided! Register here
Trainee meeting for students and postdocs immediately following the seminar, 2-3 pm, in 1306A! Come in-person to discuss research interests, career plans, and funding opportunities. RSVP here!
Abstract
It is well established that the environment during pregnancy can have a long-term impact on cardiometabolic and neurodevelopmental outcomes in offspring and increase risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in later life. There is growing evidence from preclinical studies and some clinical studies that the preconception period in both females and males and the early pregnancy phase are periods of high sensitivity to environmental perturbation. The Healthy Life Trajectories Initiative (HeLTI) was developed to translate new knowledge in the area of developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) and improve the health of mothers, infants and children. The HeLTI consortium includes harmonized trials in Canada, China, India and South Africa designed to evaluate the impact of an integrated evidence-based intervention package, delivered through the preconception, pregnancy and postnatal period on, 1) reducing adiposity and obesity, and improving neurodevelopmental and cardiometabolic development in infants and children to 5-years of age and, 2) improving maternal health and pregnancy outcomes. All trials have completed recruitment and combine harmonized data and biospecimen collection. The HeLTI-India trial will be described in detail. Findings from the HeLTI studies will have profound implications for public health policy but will also allow determination of the mechanisms that underlie intergenerational transmission. HeLTI is funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and International funding agencies (India, China and South Africa) and is partnered with WHO.
About the speaker
Stephen Matthews, PhD, FCAHS, is Canada Research Chair in Early Development and Health, Professor of Physiology, Ob-Gyn and Medicine at the University of Toronto and a Senior Scientist at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health. He served as Chair of the Department of Physiology (UofT; 2007-2014). He is currently Director of Research at the Alliance for Human Development, LTRI, and Director of the Ontario Birth Study. Matthews is also the Canadian lead PI of the CIHR/DBT-funded Healthy Life Trajectories (HeLTI) trial in India.
His fundamental research program is determining mechanisms by which early interventions and exposures can impact long-term neurologic and endocrine function in offspring across multiple generations. With a focus on epigenetics, his research team is determining the molecular mechanisms by which this occurs. In a parallel program, his group is investigating drug and hormone transport mechanisms in the placenta and fetal brain, with a focus on developing novel treatments to protect the developing fetal brain.
Professor Matthews is committed to translating fundamental research to improve human health. In addition to leadership of the HeLTI-India trial and the Ontario Birth Study, he co-founded the MAVAN program, which followed neurocognitive development in children following adverse early experience. He has secured over $40M in research funding, published 265 full papers and has received >300 invitations to present his work around the world. He was elected a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (2019). He has served as elected President of the Society for Reproductive Investigation. In 2015, he co-founded DOHaD Canada and served as elected President (2018-23).
Speaker Information
Organizers
Nature and Health with Dr. Susan Abookire
The Climate Change & Planetary Health Concentration invites you to their next Brown Bag Lunch Seminar, featuring Dr. Susan Abookire discussing the health benefits of nature.
Topic: Nature and Health
Speaker: Susan Abookire, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School; & Founder, Nature Systems Institute
Date: April 8, 2026 at 1:00 p.m.
Location: FXB G-12, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
You can read more about Dr. Abookire’s work in this recent Washington Post article, “Forest Bathing: Why Harvard doctors are seeking out this natural remedy for themselves.”
The Climate Change and Planetary Health concentration helps students understand the consequences of the current planetary health crisis, including the effects on food, water, air, extreme weather events, heat, migration, and political stability and their subsequent impacts on infectious diseases, non-communicable diseases, nutrition, and mental health. Each month, the concentration hosts a seminar, open to all students and faculty at Harvard Chan, featuring a special guest discussing their work at the intersections of climate and health. Learn more.
Speaker Information
Susan Abookire
Organizers
Forging better futures: Solutions-based science to address extreme weather with Rachel Morello-Frosch, PhD, MPH
Please join the Harvard Chan NIEHS Center for Environmental Health and the Department of Environmental Health for a talk by Rachel Morello-Frosch, PhD, MPH, Professor, UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Dr. Morello-Frosch will discuss “Forging better futures: Solutions-based science to address extreme weather.”
This event will be held in person (HSPH Bldg. 1, 1302) and via Zoom. Lunch and refreshments provided! Register here
Trainee meeting for students and postdocs immediately following the seminar, 2-3 pm! Come in-person to discuss research interests, career plans, and funding opportunities. RSVP here!
About the speaker
Rachel Morello-Frosch, PhD, MPH, is an environmental health scientist, epidemiologist, and professor at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health and Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management. For over 25 years, her research has examined structural determinants of environmental health and how co-exposures to chemical and non-chemical stressors impact health. Much of her work has examined this question in the context of exposures to ambient air pollution, drinking water contaminants, endocrine disrupting chemicals, extreme weather, and effects on perinatal and developmental outcomes. In addition to using community-engaged approaches in her work, Rachel also collaborates with regulatory agencies to develop science-policy tools to assess the cumulative impacts of multiple environmental and social factors that inform regulatory decision-making. Morello-Frosch is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and a 2025-26 Harvard Radcliffe Fellow.
Speaker Information
Organizers
Crochet Workshop at Harvard Chan
Join us for a beginner crochet workshop.
All material provided. Free snacks and coffee/tea.
Event hosted by Office for Student Affairs
14th Annual Roma Conference | Mapping Romani futures: Connected local histories and global realities
International Roma Day has been celebrated by Romani communities around the world for decades. This year marks the 55th anniversary of the First World Roma Congress, a historic gathering at which Roma Day, the Romani flag, and the anthem “Gelem, Gelem” were adopted as key symbols of the global Roma diaspora.
Across regions, neighborhoods, organizations, and institutions use this anniversary to highlight Romani heritage through concerts, exhibitions, film screenings, conferences, and media events. Many leaders and scholars also observe Roma Day with commemorations that honor victims of anti-Roma racism and reflect on progress in social, political, cultural, and economic life.
Since 2013, the annual Harvard Roma Conference has provided a forum to examine and address anti-Roma racism—its origins, history, drivers, protectors, and global manifestations, with particular attention to children and youth. The conference has worked to strengthen data collection on Roma (especially youth and children), improve research methods, promote participatory action research with Romani youth, and critically revisit histories, policies, and practices affecting Romani communities. A central goal has been to amplify and center Romani voices and experiences in global scholarship.
On April 10, 2026, the 14th Harvard Roma Conference, Mapping Romani Futures: Connected Local Histories and Global Realities, will once again mark Roma Day. This year’s event examines Romani histories and present-day realities to help shape more equitable futures for Romani children, youth, and generations to come, situating these discussions within a global context of rising human rights abuses, wars, extremism, and climate and digital threats.
This year’s program includes:
Keynote panel on global and regional trends and threats affecting Romani children and youth, especially in the context of escalating human rights abuses, wars, extremism, and climate and digital risks.
Panel 1 – Connected Futures, Histories, and Realities: Exploring connections and continuities in Romani histories and lived realities, and how these shape the lives, inequities, and identities of Romani children, youth, and future generations.
Panel 2 – Intersectionality and Intersecting Stories: Examining often overlooked and marginal axes of inequity in narratives of Romani histories, realities, and futures.
Book talk: Continuing a recent tradition, the conference will close with a book talk highlighting recent monographs on Romani people, with emphasis on works that advance global scholarship.