NUSOS 2012: Public Health and the Environment
In 2012, we chose to focus our theme on “Public Health and the Environment." In recent years, the links between public health and environmental problems have become increasing apparent. According to the World Health Organization, environmental problems cause a quarter of all diseases worldwide. Recent environmental events, including the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, the aftermath of the Gulf Oil Spill, and rising concerns over the fracking process used to extract natural gas have been accompanied by a number of negative health impacts in the communities in which they occurred. Air pollution, water shortages, food production, and climate change all have large, sweeping impacts on public health. Unfortunately, there is still surprisingly little discussion or research on these connections.
The 2012 NU Summit On Sustainability helped to foster high energy and idea-rich dialogue about our environmental equity responsibilities at a local, national, and international level. It is our hope that participants and audience members left the 2012 conference passionate about a new issue and excited to learn more.
The 2012 NU Summit On Sustainability helped to foster high energy and idea-rich dialogue about our environmental equity responsibilities at a local, national, and international level. It is our hope that participants and audience members left the 2012 conference passionate about a new issue and excited to learn more.
Keynote Speakers
Session Speakers
Craig ColtenCraig E. Colten earned his Ph.D. in geography at Syracuse University and then he began a 10-year affiliation with the state of Illinois supervising research on the historical geography of hazardous wastes. His government service transitioned to a private sector position in Washington, D.C. where he managed litigation-oriented research on hazardous wastes. In 2000 he joined the faculty at Louisiana State University where he is now the Carl O. Sauer Professor of Geography. His recent books include the award-winning An Unnatural Metropolis: Wresting New Orleans from Nature (2005) and Perilous Place, Powerful Storms (2009). He currently serves as the editor for the Geographical Review and is engaged in research in community resilience in the Gulf Coast and also water resources in the American South.
Cassie GreenCassie Green opened Green Grocer Chicago in 2008 after seeing a major void for organic and sustainable food choices in West Town. Before opening the store, Cassie worked for a decade in the corporate world yet realized that her passion was in food and particularly helping to create and further a more sustainable food system. She is extremely passionate about providing excellent customer service and building a community around the idea of better food options. She and her husband/business partner Gary Stephens live just down the street from Green Grocer Chicago. They also just signed a lease to open a second location in Dallas, Texas. When not working on the business, Cassie enjoys spending time with her husband and their friends, cooking, eating, drinking, biking, dancing, reading and playing with their two rambunctious yet loving dogs!
Victoria PerskyDr. Victoria Persky is a Professor of Epidemiology in the School of Public Health, University of Illinois at Chicago. She received her undergraduate degree from Radcliffe College, M.D. from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and completed residencies in Internal Medicine and a one year outpatient cardiology fellowship at University of Alabama in Birmingham, Montefiore Hospital in New York and Northwestern University in Chicago. In addition to her epidemiology research, she practiced medicine part time for 30 years in a community-based health center on the Westside of Chicago. For the last 20 years her research focus has been in asthma and in environmental epidemiology, with grants relating to risk factors for asthma, community based asthma interventions and the endocrine effects of exposures to organochlorines. She is a past member of the Chicago Asthma Consortium Advisory Board and the Safer Pest Control Project, a past member of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Infectious, Reproductive, Asthma and Pulmonary Conditions (IRAP) epidemiology study section, a recent member of the EPA Science Advisory Board reviewing the Draft Report “EPA’s Reanalysis of Key Issues Related to Dioxin Toxicity and Response to NAS Comments” and is a current member of the Board of Mobile C.A.R.E Foundation and the Environmental Justice Journal Editorial Board.
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Peter OrrisPeter Orris, MD, MPH, FACP, FACOEM is Chief of Occupational and Environmental Health at the University of Illinois Hospital and Health Science System. He holds Professorships at University of Illinois School of Public Health (Env and Occ Health Sciences), Rush University College of Medicine (Internal and Preventive Medicine), and in the Department of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. He sits on the Board of Health of the State of Illinois and is an advisor to USEPA Region V. Dr. Orris also serves on a number of professional journal editorial and civic boards including the American Journal of Industrial Medicine. Since 1996 he has been a senior advisor to Health Care Without Harm, an NGO in over 50 countries dedicated to greening the health care industry, and currently Chairs their research collaborative based at UIC.
Mark SheldonMark Sheldon is Assistant Dean at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Distinguished Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and also in the Medical Ethics and Humanities Program, Feinberg School of Medicine. He received his Ph.D. from Brandeis University, where he was awarded a Sachar Fellowship to study at Oxford University. He has served as Adjunct Senior Scholar at the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago, and Senior Policy Analyst at the American Medical Association. Sheldon has published and presented talks on a variety of issues including informed consent, confidentiality, the forced transfusion of children of Jehovah's Witnesses, children as organ donors, disclosure, and the use of Nazi research. He has served as guest editor of two journals - Theoretical Ethics and Bioethics and The Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics. He served a three-year term as a member of the Committee on Philosophy and Medicine of the American Philosophical Association, and is currently co-editor of the APA Newsletter
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