A series of talks on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus this fall will feature a variety of experts offering insights into the Ebola crisis currently affecting several countries in West Africa.
Friday, September 12: Christopher W. Olsen, professor of public health and associate director for One Health, Global Health Institute, will speak on MERS, Chikungunya and Ebola – Global Health Challenges Requiring an Integrated ‘One Health’ Approach, 1:30- 2:30 p.m., at the Pyle Center 702 Langdon Street.
Olsen’s talk is part of the Global Hot Spots Lecture Series – sponsored by the Wisconsin Alumni Association, PLATO (Participatory Learning and Teaching Organization) and the University of Wisconsin–Madison Division of International Studies – and is free and open to the public. Registration is requested.
Olsen, who also is serving as acting director of the Global Health Institute, is a professor in the Department of Pathobiological Sciences at the UW–Madison School of Veterinary Medicine.
Friday, September 19: UW–Madison alumnus J. Stephen Morrison, a well-known expert in global health and foreign policy, will speak on The Hard Lessons of Ebola in West Africa, noon-1 p.m., Room 260, Bascom Hall, 500 Lincoln Drive, on the UW–Madison campus.
The brown-bag event, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the UW–Madison Division of International Studies and African Studies Program, and co-sponsored by the Global Health Institute.
Morrison currently serves as a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a public policy research institution, and directs the CSIS Center for Global Health Policy.
Wednesday, October 1: Cecil T.O. Brandy, chairman of the Liberia Land Commission, will speak on Ebola and Food Security in Liberia, at noon, as part of the Africa at Noon series, in Room 206, Ingraham Hall, 1155 Observatory Drive, on the UW–Madison campus.
Brandy’s talk, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the African Studies Program, and the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies Center for Culture, History, and Environment, Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment, and Land Tenure Center.
Brandy holds a Ph.D. in agricultural extension from the University of Missouri and a master of science degree in agricultural finance and farm management from the University of Texas, and previously served as lead consultant to the Governance Commission (GC) of Liberia on Land (2007-09) and as national coordinator of Liberia’s Food and Agriculture Policy and Strategy Project.
Wednesday, October 29: A panel of UW–Madison experts will discuss Ebola in Context: Emergency Response and Global Responsibility, in the Great Hall, Memorial Union, 7-8:30 p.m. The event, free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Department of Medical History and Bioethics, as part of the department’s series on Medical Humanitarianism this year.
The panel will include: Gregg Mitman, professor of history of science, history of medicine, and environmental studies; Jo Ellen Fair, professor of journalism and mass communication; Tony Goldberg, professor of epidemiology; Alhaji Njai, research fellow in pathological sciences, from Sierra Leone; Emmanuel Urey, a Ph.D. student in environment and resources, from Liberia.
R. Alta Charo, professor of law and bioethics, will serve as the moderator.
– by Kerry G. Hill