Beyond the Feed: Social Media, Content Creators, Mental Health, and Digital Well-being
Join us for a timely conversation at the intersection of social media and youth well-being. Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders (STRIPED) trainees Katrine Bønneland Tølbøll, MSc, MA, and Yuning Liu, MBBS, MS, will explore how content creators shape online spaces, the implications for mental health, and strategies for fostering healthier digital environments. This seminar will highlight fresh perspectives from emerging scholars and spark dialogue on how to move beyond the feed toward meaningful change.
Date: Thursday, October 30, 2025
Time: 1:00pm – 1:50pm ET
Location: Hybrid; in person & online
In-person location: FXB G13 at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Registration link: Registration required, register here
Cosponsors: STRIPED, Center for Health Communication, and Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Speaker Information
Yuning Liu, MBBS, MS
Katrine Bønneland Tølbøll, MSc, MA
Art Exhibit Opening Reception: Call and Response
Please join us to celebrate the opening of our newest art exhibit: “Call and Response: A Narrative of Reverence to our Foremothers in Gynecology.”
Countway Library is thrilled to host this exhibit, on loan from the Resilient Sisterhood Project through mid-January. “Call and Response” sheds light on the exploitation of enslaved Black women in the origins of modern gynecology, centering the lives of Anarcha, Betsey, and Lucy—three women subjected to repeated experimental surgeries by Dr. J. Marion Sims in the 1840s. Curated by the Resilient Sisterhood Project with artist Jules Arthur, the exhibition blends past and present, honoring these foremothers while highlighting generations of Black women who transformed medicine. This powerful narrative invites us to unearth history, confront the present, and imagine a more just future for reproductive health. Learn more about the exhibit at countway.info/call.
The opening reception will feature artist and curator statements, a panel discussion, the unveiling of the newest addition to the collection, live music by pianist Kimie Han, and light refreshments. All are welcome!
Please register at countway.info/callreception
Speaker Information
Organizers
The Science Behind the Cancer Prevention Studies
Join us on Wednesday, November 12th for a joint seminar of the Department of Epidemiology and the Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, featuring Dr. Alpa Patel discussing The Science Behind the Cancer Prevention Studies.
Abstract: This talk will present a brief history of the Cancer Prevention Studies, a series of large, nationwide prospective cohort studies conducted by the American Cancer Society generationally since the 1950’s. These studies have been instrumental along with other cohorts, such as those conducted at Harvard University, in advancing cancer prevention and control as well as cancer survivorship and outcomes. This talk will present the construct of these cohorts, availability of data and biologic specimens, and key findings from each of the studies.
Bio: Dr. Alpa V. Patel earned her Bachelor of Science from the University of Florida, her Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, and her Doctoral degree in Preventive Medicine with a concentration in Epidemiology from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. She is the Senior Vice President of Population Science at the American Cancer Society and serves as the principal investigator of the Cancer Prevention Studies (CPS) II and 3, two long-term, large-scale, epidemiologic cohort studies established by the American Cancer Society. Combined, these two cohorts include over 1.5 million participants with a variety of over 400,000 biologic samples (such as blood, buccal cells, saliva, stool, and tumor tissue). Additionally, as the co-Principal Investigator, Dr. Patel and team launched the largest ever cancer cohort of Black women in the U.S. aimed to enroll at least 100,000 Black women to understand the multi-level drivers of cancer risk and outcomes in this population. Dr. Patel is a recognized leader in cancer epidemiology with particular emphases on the role of physical inactivity, obesity, sedentary behavior and cancer as well as risk assessment and blood-based markers of cancer detection. She has published nearly 300 scientific articles and book chapters, and her research has contributed significantly to national and international cancer prevention guidelines, such as the US Physical Activity Guidelines for Health and the American Cancer Society’s Nutrition and Physical Activity Guidelines for both cancer prevention and cancer survivorship.
Speaker Information
Alpa Patel, PhD
Organizers
Ben Johnson: Introducing Nature Health
Join us for this exciting opportunity to hear about the new journal Nature Health from its chief editor, Ben Johnson. Ben will discuss the aims, scope, and themes of the journal and will answer questions from the audience.
Ben Johnson trained in infectious diseases, with an undergraduate degree in virology from the University of Warwick, UK, a PhD in influenza virus from Public Health England and the University of Reading, UK, and a postdoc on smallpox vaccines at Imperial College London. Ben has more than 15 years of experience in publishing, journalism, communications and engagement, including as an Associate Publisher at BMC, Head of Communities & Engagement at Springer Nature and Senior Magazine Editor at Nature Medicine, with responsibility for news and opinion content. He has a strong interest in research conducted in resource-limited settings, including in the global south, in how research influences health policy and in equitable strategies to involve patients and communities in research. He is based in the London office.
Visit the Nature Health website to learn more about the new journal.
Speaker Information
Ben Johnson
Organizers
A Dr. Lawrence H. and Roberta Cohn Forum
Drawing on decades of service as a global health leader, physician, and advisor to seven U.S. presidents, Dr. Anthony Fauci joined the Harvard Chan community in September for a conversation on advancing public health. Reflecting on his career, Dr. Fauci shared firsthand insights from navigating global infectious disease threats to communicating complex and evolving science.
Watch the YouTube premiere of the recorded event on October 16, 1pm ET. The video will remain on demand for future viewing.
Speaker
Anthony Fauci
Moderator
Bailey Bowcutt
About The Studio
Social Demography Seminar with Atheendar Venkataramani
Atheendar Venkataramani, PhD, associate professor, medical ethics and health policy, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, presents “Political power and mortality: Heterogeneous effects of the U.S. Voting Rights Act.” This seminar is co-sponsored by the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
The Social Demography Seminar (SDS) series at the Center for Population and Development Studies provides a lively forum for scholars from across the university to discuss in-progress social scientific and population research. Social demography includes work that uses demographic methods to describe and explain the distribution of social goods across populations. The hybrid series offers presentations on a wide variety of topics such as family, gender, race/ethnicity, population health—including mortality, morbidity, and functional health—inequality, immigration, fertility, and the institutional arrangements that shape and respond to population processes.
This event is open to the public. Please RSVP if you plan on attending.
Speaker Information
Atheendar Venkataraman, PhD
Organizers
Harvard Pop Center Social Demography Seminar: “Why have mortality rates become increasingly unequal across U.S. counties?”
Jennifer Karas Montez, PhD, University Professor of Sociology, Syracuse University, presents “Why have mortality rates become increasingly unequal across U.S. counties?”
The Social Demography Seminar (SDS) series at the Center for Population and Development Studies provides a lively forum for scholars from across the university to discuss in-progress social scientific and population research. Social demography includes work that uses demographic methods to describe and explain the distribution of social goods across populations. The hybrid series offers presentations on a wide variety of topics such as family, gender, race/ethnicity, population health—including mortality, morbidity, and functional health—inequality, immigration, fertility, and the institutional arrangements that shape and respond to population processes.
Speaker Information
Jennifer Karas Montez, PhD
Organizers
Harvard Pop Center Social Demography Seminar: “Impacts of post-Dobbs state abortion restrictions on work-related well-being of obstetrician-gynecologists”
Erika Sabbath, ScD, associate professor, School of Social Work, Boston College, presents “Impacts of post-Dobbs state abortion restrictions on the work-related well-being of obstetrician-gynecologists.”
The Social Demography Seminar (SDS) series at the Center for Population and Development Studies provides a lively forum for scholars from across the university to discuss in-progress social scientific and population research. Social demography includes work that uses demographic methods to describe and explain the distribution of social goods across populations. The hybrid series offers presentations on a wide variety of topics such as family, gender, race/ethnicity, population health—including mortality, morbidity, and functional health—inequality, immigration, fertility, and the institutional arrangements that shape and respond to population processes.
Please register in advance to attend this event. This event is open to the public.
Speaker Information
Erika Sabbath, ScD
Organizers
Brown Bag Seminar: The Front Line Indigenous Partnership Program: Addressing Indigenous health care disparities and support for AIAN pathway programs
Valerie Dobiesz, MD, MPH, is an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and emergency physician practicing clinically at Brigham Women’s Hospital, Tsehootsooi Medical Center, and Sage Memorial Hospital on the Navajo Nation. Her current academic responsibilities include directing the Front Line Indigenous Partnership (FLIP) Program based in the Mass General Brigham Department of Emergency Medicine Office of IDEaS (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Social Justice) and serving as core faculty at Harvard Humanitarian Initiative leading the Program on Indigenous Health Disparities.
Dr. Dobiesz is the director of the FLIP Program with a mission to improve American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) health and eliminate existing health disparities through educational, clinical, and administrative partnerships and the development of healthcare career pathway programs. In this capacity, she works clinically and oversees BWH emergency physicians that work at Tribally managed hospitals in the Navajo Nation to increase the clinical capacity and quality of care provided in this rural and historically underserved health care context.
Her research and scholarship have focused on eliminating health disparities for AIAIN populations, developing the AIAN healthcare workforce, simulation medical education, maintaining medical education during war, and improving maternal health in emergency and low resource settings. She currently leads and collaborates on multiple projects focused on mitigating AIAN health disparities such as creating an academic medical center partnership with a Tribally managed hospital as an innovative mutually beneficial healthcare delivery model and studying the impact of healthcare career pathway programs for Native students.
Speaker Information
Valerie Dobiesz
Organizers
Special Book Launch Event for “Inherited Inequality” by Christina Cross
Christina Cross, a former postdoctoral fellow and current faculty member, has authored the newly published book “Inherited Inequality: Why Opportunity Gaps Persist between Black and White Youth Raised in Two-Parent Families.”
Please join us at Harvard Pop Center for a conversation between Lawrence Bobo, W. E. B. Du Bois Professor of the Social Sciences, Harvard University, and author Christina Cross, followed by a reception. (The discussion will also be accessible via Zoom). Limited quantities of the book will be available for purchase (cash only) at a reduced price of $15.00.