COVIDCalls

EP #134 - 9.24.2020 - Marked by COVID and the Cry for COVID-19 Justice

Today I speak with the founder of Marked by COVID, Kristin Urquiza.

Kristin Urquiza, is the Co-founder, Chief Activist of Marked by COVID

Kristin is a graduate of Yale University and UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy where she has a Master of Public Affairs. She is an environmental advocate at Mighty Earth, where she works to hold corporations like Cargill accountable to their industrial agricultural practices that displace indigenous people from their lands and drive deforestation in places like the Amazon rainforest and beyond. Additionally, Kristin works closely with Liberation in a Generation, a group working to narrow the wealth gap between people of color and white families in the United States within a generation.

Her grandparents were migrant farmworkers– from Mexico and Oklahoma — and her father worked in the fields as a child. She grew up in the Maryvale community of Phoenix, and is a proud product of public primary education and the first person in her family to go to college. Maryvale is a community of predominantly people of color and immigrants, and is now seeing the highest rates of COVID-19 in the nation, where people are waiting 13 hours to be tested.

EP #133 - 9.23.2020 - Teaching in COVID-19: Disaster Pedagogy in Real Time

Today it is the second of my teaching COVID-19 sessions, today with Sarah Raskin and Nicole Welk-Joerger.

Nicole Welk-Joerger is an interdisciplinary historian, trained in the history of science, technology, and medicine as well as anthropology. Her research focuses on human-animal relationships, particularly those that influence health and welfare as they are broadly construed and constantly redefined by agricultural and medical industries. She is currently a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow at North Carolina State University, teaching courses in U.S. history, agricultural history, and the history of science.   

Sarah Raskin is a medical anthropologist and Assistant Professor in the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs, Virginia Commonwealth University. She draws on her knowledge as a former public health practitioner at local and federal levels to teach urban health, public health emergency preparedness, and health policy across undergraduate and graduate levels. A self described "oral health equity evangelist" and passionate Appalachianist, Sarah collaborates with a multi-disciplinary team that investigates dental disparities and identifies policy and practice-based solutions to drive oral health equity, in close relationship with community partners across the state. She's also a mom and aunt to elementary school-aged kids who are, probably like yours, getting through lessons one Zoom at a time.

EP #132 - 9.22.2020 -Medical Education in the Pandemic

Today I discuss COVID-19 medical education with Charles Cairnes, dean of the Drexel University School of Medicine.

Charles B. Cairns, M.D. is the Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg Dean of the College of Medicine and Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs at Drexel University where he serves as Professor of Medicine and Emergency Medicine.

Dr. Cairns has served as Director of the NIH United States Critical Illness and Injury Trials Group and as Principal Investigator of the National Collaborative for Biopreparedness. He has published over 200 scientific articles and reviews and secured more than $30 million in research funding. Dr. Cairns has received numerous honors and awards, including the ACEP Outstanding Contribution in Research Award, EMF Established Investigator Award, National Foundation of Emergency Medicine Mentor Scholar Award, SCCM Presidential Citation Award and the SAEM John Marx Leadership Award, the highest award in academic emergency medicine.

EP #131 - 9.21.2020 - Counting the Dead

Today I discuss COVID-19 and the difficulties with counting and memorializing the dead in a pandemic with Jacqueline Wernimont.

 

Jacqueline Wernimont is Distinguished Chair of Digital Humanities and Social Engagement & Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Dartmouth College

She is an anti-racist, feminist scholar working toward greater justice in digital cultures and a network weaver across humanities, arts, and sciences.

Her efforts to understand computing cultures and advance more just approaches extends beyond the writing of traditional academic books into public, engaged scholarship. This has included writing for popular outlets, multimedia installations, and leading projects on privacy, intersectional approaches to technology and data, and creative communication of computing infrastructures.

Her first book, Numbered Lives: Life and Death in Quantum Media came out with MIT Press in 2019—it uses a two-part structure to historicize the counting of life and death in Britain and the United States.  She is also the co-editor of the recent Bodies of Information: Intersectional Feminism and Digital Humanities (with Elizabeth Losh).

EP #130 - 9.18.2020 - The Pandemic, Public Health, and the Courts

Today I discuss recent COVID-19 battles in the courts with Kathy Bergin and Lindsay Wiley.

Kathy Bergin is a recognized expert in Disaster Law, she presently teaches at Cornell University Law School—her research extends to humanitarian aid programs and the catastrophic impact of climate change. She has been crucial in promoting Disaster Law as an academic discipline. She is also a successful advocate. Her team in Haiti established binding precedent in a proceeding before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights that reinforced post-disaster human rights obligations. Her work on mass evacuation shelters after Hurricane Katrina is used across the humanitarian sector as a blue-print for protecting displaced survivors. And her knowledge of constitutional standards helped coalition partners in Puerto Rico secure changes in the federal government’s response to Hurricane Maria. She is on the steering committee for Project Blueprint, a policy advocacy organization aimed at promoting a progressive US foreign policy. 

 

Lindsay Wiley is a professor of law and director of the health law and policy program at American University Washington College of Law. She is the author of Public Health Law: Power, Duty, Restraint and Public Health Law and Ethics: A Reader (with Lawrence O. Gostin). Her recent work on the coronavirus pandemic has been published in the Washington Post, Democracy: A Journal, the American Constitution Society’s Expert Forum, and the Harvard Law Review Forum. Professor Wiley is a board member and former president of the American Society of Law, Medicine, and Ethics and a former member of the National Conference of Lawyers and Scientists. She received her JD from Harvard and her MPH from Johns Hopkins.

EP #129 - 9.17.2020 - Compounding disasters: Fire, smoke and COVID-19

Today I discuss the compound disaster of wildland fire and smoke and COVID-19 with Luke Montrose.

 

Dr. Luke Montrose is an environmental toxicologist with research interests in public health, epigenetics, and chronic illness, particularly as it relates to vulnerable and understudied populations.

As an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community and Environmental Health at Boise State University, Dr. Montrose is positioning himself to work collaboratively across campus and across Idaho with relevant stakeholders, including faculty, state and local officials, and community partners. The Montrose Lab leverages expertise in epigenetics, community research, and exposure assessment to better understand the molecular basis of toxicant-induced disease risk throughout the lifecourse.

Dr. Montrose’s research portfolio reflects his passion for studying human health through multiple lenses, ranging from community health to molecular biology. His recent studies have used cutting edge technology to measure exposure-induced epigenetic changes related to diet, air pollution, heavy metals and endocrine disrupting chemicals, and related these changes to humans and animal health effects.

 

EP #128 - 9.16.2020 - Visualizing Disaster with Alex Wellerstein

Today I discuss data visualization, COVID-19, and risk communication with Alex Wellerstein.

Alex Wellerstein is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Science and Technology Studies Program at the Stevens Institute of Technology. He has a PhD in the History of Science, and his research interests are primarily in the history of nuclear technology. His book, Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States, will be available from the University of Chicago Press in early 2021. He is the creator of the NUKEMAP online nuclear weapons simulator, and taught courses on data visualization for social purposes for many years. He is also a co-PI for the Reinventing Civil Defense Project,
sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, which is tasked with developing a holistic approach to nuclear threat
communication.

EP #127- 9.15.2020 - Physicians and COVID-19: A View from Dallas

Today I discuss the pandemic with two physicians based in Texas.

 

Dr. Bonnie Rawot is an Infectious Disease specialist practicing in Dallas, TX since 1996.  She is the Medical Director, Infection Prevention and Control for Medical City Dallas Hospital.  She was the Medical coordinator for our hospital's COVID 19 response.  Medical School: State University of New York at Buffalo 1986-1990.  Residency in Internal Medicine: Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis 1990-1993.  Fellowship in Infectious Disease, Washington University School of Medicine, 1993-1995.

Dr. Chris Straughn practices general pediatrics with Forest Lane Pediatrics in Dallas, Texas.  He has been in practice there since 2003 after completing his pediatrics residency and chief residency at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He attended medical school at Baylor College of Medicine and completed his undergraduate studies at Texas A&M University.  Dr. Straughn served as Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at Medical City Children’s Hospital in 2011 and 2012 and has been selected as one of the best pediatricians in Dallas by D Magazine nine times. He has also been recognized as a Mom-Approved Doctor by DFW Child Magazine since 2012.  Dr. Straughn lives in Lakewood with his wife and four sons. He enjoys golf, reading, cooking, traveling, and being active with his kids as a coach and spectator for their youth sports.

EP #126 - 9.14.2020 - Wildfire and COVID-19

Today I discuss the wildfires in OR and CA with Erica Kuligowski, Jim Whittington, and Erica Fischer.

Erica Fischer, PhD, PE is an Assistant Professor of Civil and Construction Engineering at Oregon State University. Dr. Fischer’s research interests revolve around innovative approaches to improve the resilience and robustness of structural systems affected by natural and man-made hazards. She has led a team of multi-disciplinary scientists in post-wildfire reconnaissance in Paradise, California. Dr. Fischer sits on the Board of Directors of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, and is an active member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Fire Protection Committee.

Dr. Erica Kuligowski is a Sociologist and Fire Protection Engineer. From 2002 to 2020, Dr. Kuligowski worked as a Group Leader, Research Social Scientist and Engineer in the Engineering Laboratory at the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Dr. Kuligowski has expertise in decision-making and response behavior under imminent threat, emergency communications, and evacuation modeling. In October of this year, she will move to Melbourne, Australia and join the Engineering School at RMIT University as a Vice-Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow studying evacuation and bushfires.

Jim Whittington a PIO for over 20 years and now a consultant with Incident Services, has responded to over 90 large and complex wildfires.  He has been the spokesperson for incidents of national and international interest, including the Cerro Grande, Rodeo-Chedeski, Wallow, and Yarnell Hill fires. He also worked with media as part of the Granite Mountain Hot Shots Memorial Service team and led the PIO function for the Iron 44 Memorial Service. 
Whittington is a qualified Lead Instructor for a number of FEMA and National Wildfire Coordinating Group classes. Whittington has worked for the National Archives and Records Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, United States Forest Service, National Park Service, and the BLM.

EP #125 - 9.11.2020 - Investigating the Disaster 9.11 and COVID-19

Today, on September 11, I talk with fire science professor and disaster investigation expert Glenn Corbett.

Glenn Corbett is an Associate Professor of Fire Science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice where he was the former chair of the Department Of Protection Management.   He is a technical editor of Fire Engineering magazine and is a former Assistant Chief of the Waldwick, New Jersey Fire Department. And former president of the New Jersey Society of Fire Service Instructors.

Corbett testified before the 9/11 Commission and the U.S. House of Representatives Science Committee regarding the emergency response and building safety issues of the terrorist attacks of September 11^th, 2001. He served on the Federal Advisory Committee of the National Construction Safety Team which investigated the World Trade Center disaster as well as Station nightclub fire in West Warwick, Rhode Island. In addition, he continues to serve as the chief technical advisor to the Skyscraper Safety Campaign, a building safety advocacy group created by 9/11 family members.

Corbett is a co-author of Brannigan’s Building Construction for the Fire Service, 6^th Edition. In addition, he is the editor of Fire Engineering’s Handbook for Firefighter I and II.  He also has an avid interest in firefighting and history, authoring The Great Paterson Fire of 1902 and co-authoring Historic Fires of New York City.