PROGRAM

Our senior leaders have led us through a year of events that have shaken our state, region, nation and our globe. The power and resilience of our communities, students, staff and faculty have supported our response with dedicated purpose. This conversation will focus on lessons learned to inform a better and stronger path forward for the public’s health and well-being: through research, through education, through community-academic partnerships, through service.

Moderator
Boris Lushniak, MD, MPH, Dean and Professor, University of Maryland School of Public Health
Jay Magaziner, PhD, MSHyg, Professor and Chair, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine

Senior Leaders
Jay A. Perman, MD, Chancellor of the University System of Maryland
Bruce E. Jarrell, MD, FACS, President, University of Maryland, Baltimore
Darryll Pines, MS, PhD, President, University of Maryland, College Park
E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and Dean of the School of Medicine
Laurie Locascio, PhD, Vice President for Research, University of Maryland

This panel examines why and how public misinformation is affecting hotly-debated public health issues, such as COVID-19 mitigation, vaccination rates and e-cigarette and medical marijuana use. The panel will also consider tools and methods to identify misinformation for a wide range of public health topics. Panelists will discuss causes of misinformation, how misinformation has affected public policies, programs and opinions, and actions to counter misinformation and provide accurate information.

Co-Moderators

Cynthia Baur, PhD, Director, Horowitz Center for Health Literacy and Horowitz Endowed Chair in Health Literacy, University of Maryland School of Public Health
William Tilburg, JD, MPH, Executive Director, Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission

Panel Presenters
Nicol Turner-Lee, PhD, MA, Senior Fellow, Governance Studies and Director, Center for Technology Innovation, Brookings Institution
Kathleen Hoke, JD, Professor, Maryland Carey Law and Director, Network for Public Health Law-Eastern Region
Gunther Eysenbach, MD, MPH, FACMI, Adjunct Professor, University of Victoria and CEO, Executive Editor at JMIR Publications
Michelle LaRue, MD, Director of Health and Human Services I CASA

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed how our public health infrastructure, which has contributed to longer and healthier lives for millions of people, is badly fraying. This was true even before the Trump Administration’s rollbacks of public health and environmental standards and enforcement. A weak regulatory regime permitted the widespread usage of e-cigarettes by millions of teenagers and crashes of two crashes of a new model jet. Workplace and environmental exposure standards are weak or non-existent for many chemicals. In addition to COVID-19, we face numerous public health crises including climate change and increasingly severe weather events, a devastating epidemic of opioid overdoses and the possibility of a new infectious disease pandemic. Racial inequity and injustice exacerbate widespread health disparities. Because of the pandemic, repairing our public health infrastructure has become a national priority. Now is the time to examine the lessons of the past in order to boldly re-imagine our system and rebuild it in a way that will best protect the public’s health and environment.

This past year has disrupted our pre-pandemic strategic plans, programs, and research activities. Although new priorities have emerged, they intersect with perpetual wicked problems, such as diabetes, opioid addiction, cancer, and maternal and infant mortality. Reflecting on these and other conditions, panel members will discuss these emerging challenges, innovations, and needed research in the context of our current public health crisis of COVID and the ongoing public health crisis of racism.

Co-Moderators
Cheryl Duncan De Pinto, MD, MPH, FAAP, Director, Office of Population Health Improvement, Maryland Department of Health
Marie Thoma, PhD, MHS, Assistant Professor, Department of Family Science, University of Maryland School of Public Health

Panel Presenters
E. Oscar Alleyne, DrPH, MPH, Chief of Programs and Services, National Association of County and City Health Officials
George L. Askew, MD, FAAP, Deputy Chief Administrative Officer for Health, Human Services and Education for Prince George's County, Marylands
Lara D. Wilson, MS, Executive Director, Maryland Rural Health Association

This panel will address national reports (Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans; The National Youth Sports Strategy), the 2030 Healthy People Physical Activity Objectives, and recent research into youth physical activity, before and during the pandemic.

Co-moderators
Erin R. Hager, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Epidemiology and Public Health and Director, Program in Health Equity and Population Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine
Bradley D. Hatfield, PhD, Professor and Chair, Department of Kinesiology, University of Maryland School of Public Health

Panel Presenters
Jay Goldstein, PhD, Lecturer, Kinesiology, University of Maryland School of Public Health
Maureen Black, PhD, Professor, Department of Pediatrics, University of Maryland School of Medicine
Erin R. Hager, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Epidemiology and Public Health and Director, Program in Health Equity and Population Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine
Katrina L. Piercy, PhD, RD, ACSM-CEP, Physical Activity and Nutrition Advisor, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, US Department of Health