Comprehensive Public Health Initiative

In response to the urgent needs created by COVID-19, Albion College partnered with1977 alumnus James Wilson, M.D. Ph.D., a renowned medical scientist, to launch a Comprehensive Public Health Initiative. This ambitious program aimed to advance community conversation and understanding of the social, political, economic and public health dimensions of the pandemic and address the ongoing toll of COVID-19.

Seminar Series

Albion’s multifaceted Comprehensive Public Health Initiative included an online seminar series developed and led by Dr. Wilson that ran throughout the fall 2020 semester and featured world-recognized experts in public health and policy. Recordings of all events are available on Albion's YouTube channel.

Rep. Debbie Dingell Watch now

Congresswoman Debbie Dingell represents Michigan’s 12th District in the U.S. House of Representatives, where she has made it a priority to be a voice for the Midwest on issues that matter most to working families.

A member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Debbie is a leader on efforts to grow manufacturing, improve access to quality affordable health care, support seniors and veterans and protect the Great Lakes. Recognized as one of the 25 hardest-working Members of Congress, Debbie is focused on forging bipartisan solutions that support Michigan’s families and economy, including improving long-term care and ushering in the future of the American auto industry.

Newt Gingrich Watch now

Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich is one of the foremost economic, social, political, and security-focused conservative thinkers today.

Today, Newt is Chairman of Gingrich 360, a full-service American consulting, education, and media production group that connects the past, present, and future to inspire audiences, solve challenges, and develop opportunities. As Chairman, Newt continues to promote American values as he works toward thinking through and helping to solve our nation’s greatest challenges in healthcare, education, national security and many other areas.

*Please note this session will be pre-recorded. An email with the recording will be sent to registrants at the scheduled time.

Ezekiel‌ ‌J.‌ ‌Emanuel, M.D., Ph.D. Watch now

Ezekiel J. Emanuel is the Vice Provost for Global Initiatives, the Diane v.S. Levy and Robert M. Levy University Professor, and Co-Director of the Healthcare Transformation Institute at the University of Pennsylvania. From January 2009 to January 2011, Dr. Emanuel served as a Special Advisor on Health Policy to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and National Economic Council.

Dr. Emanuel was the founding chair of the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health from 1997 to August of 2011. He has published over 300 articles and has authored or edited 15 books, including his most recent, “Which Country Has the World’s Best Health Care?”

Fritz François, M.D., M.Sc., FACG Watch now

Fritz François, M.D., serves as Chief Medical Officer at NYU Langone Health. In this role, he is responsible for the day-to-day coordination of medical care, clinical quality, risk assessment, system improvement, utilization management, patient experience and infection surveillance across all medical and surgical services within the health system. Additionally, he helped lead efforts to open NYU Langone’s state-of-the-art Kimmel Pavilion and Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital, and improve results around quality, safety, efficiency and patient satisfaction.

Prior to his appointment in 2015, Dr. François served as Chief of Medicine at NYU Langone’s Tisch Hospital, leading transformative efforts around Value-Based Management and leadership development at NYU Langone.

Anjelica Dunlap & Kaitlyn Simmons, RN, BSN, PCCNWatch now

Anjelica Dunlap is an intensive care unit nurse in the medical ICU at Ascension St. John Hospital and Medical Center, Detroit. She has three years of experience in the ICU and has been been a registered nurse for over four years. 

During this time, she has obtained her Critical Care Registered Nurse (CCRN) certification and has been accepted into Nurse Anesthesia school. 

Kaitlyn Simmons, RN, BSN, PCCN is Clinical Nurse III at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania on a Vascular Surgery/COVID progressive care unit. She serves as the Core Charge Nurse where she coordinates staffing and patient-flow and assists with patient care on a high-acuity surgical unit. In the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, her unit was the first to be converted to provide care for patients with COVID-19. During that time, Kaitlyn acted as the charge nurse, responsible for coordinating nurses from multiple units to work together to provide care for COVID patients. 

In July, Kaitlyn was awarded the Barton B. Rinehart Fellowship for providing innovative care to patients with COVID-19.

Stéphane Bancel‌  Watch now

Stéphane Bancel has served as Moderna, Inc.'s Chief Executive Officer since October 2011 and as a member of Moderna’s Board of Directors since March 2011. Moderna is currently in late-stage trials for its coronavirus vaccine, co-developed with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. The vaccine is one of nine coronavirus vaccines worldwide that have reached phase three clinical trials.

Mr. Bancel currently serves on the board of directors of Qiagen N.V. and previously served on the board of directors of BG Medicine, Inc. and Syros Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: SYRS).

Andrew‌ ‌Lo,‌ ‌Ph.D.  Watch now

Andrew W. Lo is the Charles E. and Susan T. Harris Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, director of the MIT Laboratory for Financial Engineering, a principal investigator at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and an affiliated faculty member of the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He is also an external faculty member of the Santa Fe Institute and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Lo’s current research spans five areas: evolutionary models of investor behavior and adaptive markets, systemic risk and financial regulation, quantitative models of financial markets, financial applications of machine-learning techniques and secure multi-party computation, and healthcare finance.

Troyen‌ ‌Brennan‌, ‌M.D.,‌ ‌J.D.,‌ ‌MPH‌Watch now

Troyen A. Brennan, M.D., M.P.H., is Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of CVS Health. In this role, Brennan provides oversight for the development of CVS Health’s clinical and medical affairs and health care strategy.

Previously, Brennan was Chief Medical Officer of Aetna Inc. Prior to that, Brennan served as president of Brigham and Women's Physicians Organization. In his academic work, he was Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Law and Public Health at Harvard School of Public Health.

Debra Pérez, Ph.D.Watch now

Dr. Debra Joy Pérez is Senior Vice President of Organizational Culture, Inclusion and Equity at Simmons University. As SVP, Dr. Pérez is responsible for advancing diversity and inclusive practices across the University including working with faculty, staff and students to create an inclusive and welcoming campus. Reporting to the President, Dr. Pérez works in partnership across Simmons Leadership Team to advance organizational culture, inclusion and equity. Among her responsibilities, she develops policies and practices to promote inclusion in the pedagogy and in the social life at Simmons.

Dr. Pérez’s primary objective and commitment is to work with all constituents to make Simmons University the most inclusive campus in New England.