What If … Public Health Had to Be Built From Scratch? Revisiting 19th-Century Debates
Join us on Wednesday, February 25th for the Department of Epidemiology seminar series featuring Dr. Alfredo Morabia discussing What If … Public Health Had to Be Built From Scratch? Revisiting 19th-Century Debates.
Abstract: What would public health look like if it had to be invented today, without assuming the institutions, divisions, and categories we inherited? This lecture revisits the formative debates of the 19th century, when scientific public health first took shape. By examining the tensions between competing visions, particularly between approaches centered on specific causes of disease and those focused on the broader conditions of life, I show that public health emerged not as a single, inevitable model but as the outcome of choices. Situating epidemiology and the early schools of public health within these debates, I argue that some options were abandoned rather than disproven. Revisiting these debates allows us to think more clearly about what public health could be today, not by returning to the past, but by recovering the range of possibilities that once existed.
Bio: Alfredo Morabia is a Professor of Epidemiology at the Barry Commoner Center for Health and the Environment, Queens College, CUNY and a Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at the Department of Epidemiology, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health. As Principal Investigator of the World Trade Center-Heart cohort study, funded by NIOSH, he examines the long-term cardiovascular effects of 9/11 on first responders. A historian of epidemiology, he explores the evolution of methods and concepts used to study and improve population health. His last book, The Public Health Approach: Population Thinking from the Black Death to COVID-19 (2023), traces the evolution of public health methods from past pandemics to modern crises. He has been Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Public Health from June 2015 to June 2025.
Speaker Information
Alfredo Morabia, MD, PhD, MPH
Organizers
Quantitative Bias Analysis: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Join us on Wednesday, February 11th for a Department of Epidemiology seminar featuring Dr. Timothy Lash discussing Quantitative Bias Analysis: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
Abstract: Quantitative bias analysis encompasses all methods used to estimate the direction, magnitude, and uncertainty from non-randomized research. Many of these methods have been well known for decades, but are still not routinely implemented. This talk will review the methods, their utility, where there are shortcomings, and how they are sometimes used (intentionally or unintentionally) against their best purposes.
Bio: Timothy L. Lash is the O. Wayne Rollins Distinguished Professor of Epidemiology and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health, and Associate Director of Population Science at Emory’s Winship Cancer Institute. His research focuses on predictive and prognostic markers of breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer recurrence. His longstanding collaborations in Denmark have involved multiple projects to study molecular markers of recurrence and to study whether concomitant use of prescription drugs affect recurrence risk. He is currently funded by the US NCI to begin adding recurrence data to the Georgia Cancer Registry. Dr. Lash’s methodological interest focuses on developing and implementing methods to quantify the influence of systematic errors on epidemiologic research. Funding from the National Library of Medicine supports his work to develop methods that quantify the influence of systematic errors on the reproducibility of epidemiologic study results. He teaches a course on quantitative bias analysis and leads the doctoral students’ journal club. He is Editor-in-Chief of EPIDEMIOLOGY, a leading general interest epidemiology journal, and coauthor of multiple editions of two epidemiology textbooks: Applying Quantitative Bias Analysis to Epidemiologic Research, 2nd edition and Modern Epidemiology, 4th edition.
Speaker Information
Timothy L. Lash, DSc, MPH
Organizers
Art@Countway Exhibition Closing Ceremony: Call & Response
As the art exhibition “Call and Response: A Narrative of Reverence to our Foremothers in Gynecology” comes to a close at Countway Library, we invite you to celebrate the show’s impact with artists, organizers, and fellow community members.
This multimedia art exhibition, developed by the Resilient Sisterhood Project, sheds light on the exploitation of enslaved Black women in the origins of modern gynecology and its enduring implications for public health. Centering the lives of Anarcha, Betsey, and Lucy, three women subjected to repeated experimental surgeries by Dr. J. Marion Sims in the 1840s, the exhibition’s powerful narrative inspires us to unearth history, confront the present, and imagine a more just future for reproductive health.
We are committed to making this event accessible to all participants. The space is wheelchair accessible, microphones will be used for speakers, and assistive listening devices are available for use. Please reach out to countwayoutreach@hms.harvard.edu if you have any accessibility needs or questions.
Please register in advance here.
Speaker Information
Jules Authur
Dr. Michele David
Dr. Yvonne Gomez-Carrion
Michelle Hartney
Lilly Marcelin
Dr. Rose Molina
Organizers
Center Member Research Presentation: Jessica Harder, MD
Join us for a Center Member Research Presentation by Dr. Jessica Harder on Environmental endocrine disrupting chemicals and neuropsychiatric outcomes in women. Following a brief presentation, there will be time for all participants to engage in a cross-disciplinary discussion with Dr. Harder and each other.
About the speaker: Jessica Harder, MD, is a neuropsychiatrist in the Department of Psychiatry at Mass General Brigham and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Harder’s research focuses on how environmental exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals affects neuropsychiatric symptoms in women across the lifespan, with an interest in how biological mechanisms, including gonadal hormone disruption and inflammatory signaling pathways, mediate these relationships. She holds an MD from Weill Cornell Medical College, completed psychiatry residency at Harvard Longwood, and fellowship in Behavioral Neurology and Neuropsychiatry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s Center for Brain/Mind Medicine.
This event will be held in person in HSPH Bldg. 1, 1302 and via Zoom. Register here
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Organizers
Developments in Postmarketing Safety Surveillance of Medical Products: Reflections from the FDA Sentinel Innovation Center
Join us on Wednesday, January 28th for a Department of Epidemiology seminar featuring Dr. Rishi Desai discussing Developments in Postmarketing Safety Surveillance of Medical Products: Reflections from the FDA Sentinel Innovation Center.
Abstract: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Sentinel Initiative—launched in 2008 under the FDA Amendments Act as the first national active-surveillance system for medical-product safety—has grown from a proof-of-concept pilot into the nation’s flagship regulatory grade evidence generation engine for pressing drug safety questions. In 2019, the FDA the US Food and Drug Administration prioritized more extensive electronic health records (EHR) integration to the existing claims-based Sentinel Distributed Databases and methodological innovations leveraging cutting edge data science approaches. This talk will provide an overview of the progress made by Sentinel’s Innovation Center in various domains including data infrastructure, information extraction, computable phenotyping, and confounding adjustment. Exemplary case studies will be discussed to highlight challenges and opportunities in applying the methodological innovations to inferential studies of medication safety.
Bio: Rishi J Desai, MS, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard (HMS/HSPH) and an Epidemiologist in the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. His research focuses on understanding the use of medications and resulting outcomes in routine care patients with chronic diseases. He has a special interest in methodological investigations to improve inference from non-randomized studies of medication effects. He is currently the Operations Lead for the FDA Sentinel Innovation Center. His work has been funded by the National Institute on Aging, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and the Food and Drug Administration. He has authored >185 original research publications.
Speaker Information
Rishi Desai, MS, PhD
Organizers
Complex Mixtures Working Group
Join the Harvard Chan NIEHS Center’s working group on complex mixtures, held the last Monday of each month in HSPH Bldg. 1, 1302!
This monthly working group meeting is held in person. Members discuss a wide range of issues related to analyzing health effects of complex mixtures of exposures in environmental health. During the 2025-2026 academic year, the group will also work through complex mixtures challenges faced by individual members.
Please email niehsctr@hsph.harvard.edu to RSVP!
Speaker Information
Organizers
Leading public health schools today and tomorrow: A conversation with Deans Megan Ranney and Andrea Baccarelli
In this fireside chat, two deans of leading schools of public health will explore how to navigate a rapidly evolving landscape in public health education. Megan Ranney, Dean of Yale School of Public Health, will join Andrea Baccarelli, Dean of Harvard Chan School, to discuss preparing—and learning from—the next generation of public health students. From modeling constructive dialogue across diverse audiences, to examining the role of generative AI in classrooms and research, to equipping graduates for a shifting job market, the deans will share real-world insights.
Speaker Information
Megan Ranney
About the Organizers
Community-Engaged Research Working Group in Environmental Health
Join the Harvard Chan NIEHS Center’s working group on community-engaged research in environmental health!
This working group brings together faculty, trainees, students, and staff to discuss the methods and practice of conducting community-engaged research with a focus on environmental health.
We’ll meet in person in Building 1, 1302 on January 5, 1-1:50 pm.
January agenda: Present and select project ideas to receive Harvard Chan NIEHS Center Community Action Funds (up to $3,000)! Come to present or to select! If you have a project idea, complete this brief interest form by January 4, 11:59 pm ET, and come to the meeting ready to share your idea!
Please email niehsctr@hsph.harvard.edu to RSVP!
Speaker Information
Organizers
Annual ERC Pilot Project Symposium
The Harvard Chan Education and Research Center (ERC) for Occupational Safety and Health invites you to the annual ERC Pilot Project Symposium to learn about recently completed Pilot Projects. These NIOSH-funded projects address concerns in one or more of the occupational safety and health areas of occupational hygiene, occupational epidemiology, occupational health services, occupational medicine, or occupational health nursing. Learn more.
This year’s presenters and topics:
- “Using Data for Injury and Violence Prevention Among Massachusetts Healthcare Workers,” by Devan Hawkins, ScD, Assistant Professor of Public Health, Director of Public Health Program, School of Arts and Sciences, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
- “Building a Requiem for Rikers Island: Examining the Carceral Harms Experienced by People within New York City’s Penal Colony,” by Jasmine Graves, PhD candidate in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
- “Thriving from Work: Assessment and Impact of Older Worker Preferences,” by Maren Wright Voss, ScD, PhD, Instructor, Harvard Extension School
- “Quality of Life and Return to Work in Lung Cancer Survivors,” by Mi-Sun Lee, PhD, Research Scientist in the Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Location: Building 1, Room 1302 and Zoom.
Register: Click here to register.
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Organizers
Bacterial quorum sensing controls the CD8+ T cell response to skin commensals
Title Talk
“Bacterial quorum sensing controls the CD8+ T cell response to skin commensals”
THIS SPEAKER WILL BE IN PERSON IN FXB 301.
The event will be hybrid.
Speaker Information
Some strains of Staphylococcus can elicit a CD8+ T cell response upon skin colonization, without infection or inflammation. Colonizing skin with engineered versions of these strains can redirect the host T cells against any antigen of choice, protecting the host from cancer or systemic infection. We now dissect the bacterial and host molecular mechanisms underlying this unusual commensal-specific T cell response. We aim to understand the fundamental mechanisms of skin microbiome-immune crosstalk and engineer this crosstalk into novel immunotherapies.