Featured Experts

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  Natasha Borges Sugiyama

  Political Science, College of Letters & Sciencesugiyamn@uwm.edu

  Sugiyama can talk about the impact of initiatives that provide cash payments to mothers with children, based on the world’s two largest such programs.

  

  Natasha Borges Sugiyama

  Political Science, College of Letters & Sciencesugiyamn@uwm.edu

  Cash payment programs to families with children are being discussed as a way to boost child welfare in the United States. Natasha Borges Sugiyama has studied effects of the largest such anti-poverty programs in Brazil and South Africa, including impact in areas such as school attendance, access to health services and women’s empowerment. Sugiyama was part of a team that found that income assistance has helped mothers in both countries experience greater control over their lives, even though the programs were not intended for that purpose.

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  Kate Nelson

  Office of Sustainabilityknelson6@uwm.edu

  Nelson can speak about how community gardens, including those at UWM, can support sustainability efforts and supply food pantries.

  

  Kate Nelson

  Office of Sustainabilityknelson6@uwm.edu

  UWM’s campus gardens offer access to garden plots for UWM community members and provide produce for the university’s food service operations. Kate Nelson can discuss how community gardens support sustainability efforts and serve as a source for food pantries in a time of need. Nelson can discuss other urban gardening topics including planning, planting, mulching and composting.

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  Marc Tasman

  Journalism, Advertising and Media Studies, College of Letters & Sciencemtasman@uwm.edu

  Tasman can discuss how smartphones and other mobile devices with cameras are changing the way we document police encounters.

  

  Marc Tasman

  Journalism, Advertising and Media Studies, College of Letters & Sciencemtasman@uwm.edu

  Marc Tasman teaches photojournalism, and more broadly on digital arts and culture topics. He can speak about the impact of cameras, imaging technologies and social media on current events, civil rights and history. The video recording of the killing of George Floyd that sparked racial justice protests across the nation and influenced the Derek Chauvin trial is only one recent example. Americans are living in a time in history when almost anyone can not only take photos and videos, but transmit and share them widely.

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  Amy Watson

  Social Work, Helen Bader School of Social Welfarewatson43@uwm.edu

  Watson can talk about ways to reduce or eliminate the role of law enforcement in responding to people experiencing a mental health crisis.

  

  Amy Watson

  Social Work, Helen Bader School of Social Welfarewatson43@uwm.edu

  Amy Watson can discuss ways to reduce or eliminate the role of law enforcement in responding to people experiencing a mental health crisis. One million arrests each year involve people with mental illness, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Watson has found in her research that people with serious mental illness are more likely to receive jail time than others after being arrested for a misdemeanor. A former probation officer, Watson currently is looking at how criminal legal systems in major cities handle misdemeanor arrests and prosecution of people with serious mental illnesses.

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  Chia Youyee Vang

  Division of Global Inclusion & Engagementvangcy@uwm.edu

  Vang can discuss educational strategies to combat anti-Asian hate crimes.

  

  Chia Youyee Vang

  Division of Global Inclusion & Engagementvangcy@uwm.edu

  May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month. Chia Youyee Vang can speak about the contributions that Asian Americans have made to the United States, including the U.S. military, as well as educational strategies to combat anti-Asian hate crimes. She also can discuss the anti-bias, anti-racist training developed this year at UWM and other equity and inclusion efforts for students, faculty and staff. Her most recent book is “Prisoner of Wars,” the story of a Hmong fighter pilot trained by the U.S. military and CIA who was captured by enemy forces during covert operations in Laos. Vang also is a professor of history and director of the Hmong Diaspora Studies Program.

  Prisoner of Wars: A Hmong Fighter Pilot's Story of Escaping Death and Confronting Life