Solving America’s housing crisis: A Q&A with Marcia Fudge, Former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

At least 40 million American households—including half of all renters—spend more on housing than they can afford. Many lower-income renters are just scraping by, often sacrificing necessities like food and healthcare to pay the rent. And the number who are homeless is surging: 770,000 people, according to a 2024 count, many of whom have jobs but still can’t afford housing. Join Marcia Fudge, former secretary of Housing and Urban Development, as she talks with Howard Koh, chair of Harvard Chan School’s Initiative on Health and Homelessness, about the forces driving the housing crisis and ways to make housing more affordable.
Register for free to submit your questions.
An on-demand video will be posted after the event.
Presented jointly with the Initiative on Health and Homelessness at Harvard Chan School; Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies; Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative; and the Government Performance Lab at HKS




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About The Studio
The Harvard Chan Studio is the hub for the School’s premier in-person and live-streamed events. We convene global leaders in health policy, advocacy, industry, and research for insightful conversations about public health’s most pressing challenges and most promising solutions.
Eastern Congo Teach-in at FXB

Join us for a teach-in session shedding light on the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where rapid escalation of violence has resulted in the death and abuse of civilians, the massive internal displacement of 7.3 million people-of which 3.7 million are children, and food insecurity affecting 25.4 million people including 13.2 million children.
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How are people suffering from the war? Story of a displaced health professional due to conflict in Myanmar

Join the Department of Global Health and Population for our weekly Thursday Brown Bag Series! On April 3, (Cindy) Su Su Lin, MB, BS, M.Med.Sc., will present “How are people suffering from the war? Story of a displaced health professional due to conflict in Myanmar”. Cindy is LEAD Fellow (2024) at the Harvard Global Health Institute.
The Thursday Brown Bag Series is a weekly seminar series featuring current research of faculty, affiliates, and guests of the department. Any questions regarding the series can be directed to the department at GHP@hsph.harvard.edu.
Speakers will share their own perspectives; they do not speak for Harvard
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Occupational and Environmental Medicine Grand Rounds

Topic: Severe silicosis in a young countertop fabricator
Presenter: Shannel Pegram, DO, First-year resident, Occupational and Environmental Medicine Residency, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health
Discussant: Rose H. Goldman, MD, MPH, AFACMT, Director of Faculty Affairs, Department of Medicine, Cambridge Health Alliance; Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Associate Professor of Environmental Health, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health
Location: Kresge 502 and ZOOM
Learning Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
- Explain the health risks associated with silica exposure,
- Identify the current OSHA regulations on respirable crystalline silica exposure; and
- Analyze recent studies on silicosis prevalence among stone countertop workers.
CMEs will be offered to US licensed physicians:
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Harvard Chan Education and Research Center. The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health designates this live activity for 0.75 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity
Register: Click here to register to attend via Zoom.
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ID Epi Seminar Series – Erin Mordecai

May 8, 2025 | 1-2pm ET | FXB G12
More than warming: climate change is transforming the landscape of vector-borne diseases
Presented by Erin Mordecai, Associate Professor in the Biology Department at Stanford University
Erin Mordecai’s research focuses on the ecology of infectious disease. She is interested in how climate, species interactions, and global change drive infectious disease dynamics in humans and natural ecosystems. This research combines mathematical modeling and empirical work.
Erin finished her PhD in 2012 at the University of California Santa Barbara in Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology. She then completed a 2-year NSF postdoctoral research fellowship in the Intersection of Biology and Mathematical and Physical Sciences and Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University. Erin has been at Stanford since January 2015.

Each spring, the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics hosts an annual seminar series, featuring talks from experts on the latest research in infectious disease epidemiology and modeling.
Speakers will share their own perspectives and do not speak for Harvard.
ID Epi Seminar Series – Amy Wesolowski

May 1, 2025 | 1-2pm ET | Kresge G2
Modeling human behavior to understanding infectious disease dynamics – examples of population-level mobility and injecting behaviors of people who use injection drugs
Presented by Amy Wesolowski, Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Amy Wesolowski is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She obtained her PhD in Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University and was a postdoctoral fellow at HSPH and Princeton University. Her research focuses on understanding human behavior and how it relates to infectious disease transmission. She works on multiple pathogens including malaria, measles, and HCV.

Each spring, the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics hosts an annual seminar series, featuring talks from experts on the latest research in infectious disease epidemiology and modeling.
Speakers will share their own perspectives and do not speak for Harvard.
ID Epi Seminar Series – Trevor Bedford

Apr 24, 2025 | 1-2pm ET | Kresge G3
Fitness flux in SARS-CoV-2 and seasonal influenza H3N2
Presented by Trevor Bedford, Professor at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Trevor Bedford is a Professor in the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and an Affiliate Professor at the University of Washington. His research program focuses on phylodynamic analysis of pathogen sequence data with the goal of making inferences that are actionable to public health. This research program spans both epidemiological and evolutionary questions and spans a number of viral systems including seasonal and avian influenza, Ebola, Zika, MERS-CoV, dengue, mpox and SARS-CoV-2.

Each spring, the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics hosts an annual seminar series, featuring talks from experts on the latest research in infectious disease epidemiology and modeling.
Speakers will share their own perspectives and do not speak for Harvard.
ID Epi Seminar Series – Mathieu Maheu-Giroux

Apr 17, 2025 | 1-2pm ET | Kresge G3
The impact of structural factors on HIV outcomes
Presented by Mathieu Maheu-Giroux, Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McGill University
Mathieu Maheu-Giroux is an Associate Professor in the Dept. of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McGill University where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Population Health Modeling.
Prior to joining McGill, Mathieu received a doctorate in Population Health from Harvard University. He then completed a postdoctoral fellowship in mathematical modeling at Imperial College London.
His research focuses primarily on 1) infectious disease modeling, 2) epidemiology and surveillance, and 3) impact and economic evaluations of public health interventions.

Each spring, the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics hosts an annual seminar series, featuring talks from experts on the latest research in infectious disease epidemiology and modeling.
Speakers will share their own perspectives and do not speak for Harvard.
Radiological Emergency Management

Join us for a webinar on the Radiological Emergency Management program offered by Harvard Chan School Executive and Continuing Education, hosted by Program Director Steven B. Goldman, EdD.
Mr. Goldman will share valuable insights into the program, outlining what participants can expect to learn and achieve. As radiological threats continue to pose global challenges, this program is crafted to prepare leaders to effectively manage such emergencies. Participants will gain skills and strategies to effectively plan for and respond to radiological emergencies at the federal, state, local, or individual facility level.
If you’re looking to enhance your expertise in emergency management and take a proactive role in radiological preparedness, we invite you to attend this webinar to discover how the program can align with your professional goals.
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Unraveling injustice and power structures

In partnership with the Romani Studies Program at Central European University, the Center on Forced Displacement at Boston University, the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Committee and the Women, Gender, and Health (WGH) Concentration and Working Group at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, the Harvard University Committee on Ethnicity, Migration, Rights (EMR), the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University, the Religion, Conflict, and Peace Initiative at the Harvard Divinity School, the Palestine Program for Health and Human Rights, the International Human Rights Clinic at the Harvard Law School, and the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, the Roma Program for Health and Human Rights at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights will host a free, hybrid format conference at Harvard University’s Smith Campus Center (10th Floor) on Friday, April 4, 2025, to mark International Roma Day.
The event aims to unpack and reframe the enduring reproduction of the artificial hierarchy imposed between white Europeans and European Roma people, situating it within the broader global theoretical frameworks related to racism, casteism, racialization, and socio-cultural hierarchies and oppressions. Unraveling injustice and power structures will contribute to and expand upon ongoing global dialogues on racialization.
It will also create opportunities for new inquiries into how caste and/or racial hierarchies are upheld within educational systems beginning in childhood, in violation of several articles of the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
The conference will explore three broad and related topics and questions:
1. The whos, hows, what, and whys of benefiting from the construction and perpetuation of societal hierarchies based on race, ethnicity, ancestry, caste, and other social identities.
2. Is there a global agreement on which groups have historically been targeted by racism and racialization? Are there risks associated with appropriating or misunderstanding the concepts of racism and racialization?
3. In a world where educational systems increasingly undermine diversity, equity, and inclusion, how can we foster curricula and school environments that support all historically marginalized groups?
4. What might a display of global solidarity among historically racialized and oppressed groups look like?