Join us in a forum to hear the latest in the research and practice of public health to support a just, equitable, healthy future for people, communities, and the environment in Milwaukee, the state of Wisconsin, and beyond.
Seminars are held weekly on Thursday mornings from 9:00 – 9:50 a.m., on UWM’s Kenwood campus in the Kenwood Interdisciplinary Research Complex (KIRC) room 1150 (3135 N. Maryland Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53211).
Coffee and bagels will be served.
Most seminars can also be attended virtually via Teams.
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Fall 2026
September 10 – Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers’ Lead Outreach Program: 30 Years of Lead Poisoning Prevention, Katy Murphy, MS, RD, Director of Community Health & Claudia Albarado, Lead Outreach Program OCHIN Epic Coordinator, Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers
September 17 – Protecting and Promoting the Health and Safety of Wisconsinites, Kirsten Johnson, Secretary, Wisconsin Department of Health Services
September 24 – Co-Creating Change: Advancing Public Health Through Community-Driven HIV and Substance Use Research, Mikaela Becker, Director of Prevention Research, Vivent Health
October 1 – Trust Issues: Why We Believe What We Believe and What It Means for Public Health, Matthew Facciani, PhD, Yale School of Public Health
October 8 – How a Public Health Partnership to Support Wisconsin Veterans Paved the Way for Veteran Suicide Prevention Research, Lindsay Emer, PhD, Research Scientist, Wisconsin Department of Health Services
October 15 – Susan Mudd, Senior Policy Advocate, Environmental Law & Policy Center
October 29 – From Data to Action: Building a Healthier Milwaukee County, Ben Weston, MD, MPH, FAEMS, Professor at Medical College of Wisconsin and Chief Health Policy Advisor for Milwaukee County
November 5 – Getting Started with AI in Research: Practical Tools and Workflows, Laleh Jamshidi, PhD, Assistant Professor, Biostatistics and Jake Luo, PhD, Associate Professor, Health Care Informatics Graduate Program Director, Zilber College of Public Health
November 19 – PFAS (“forever chemicals”) and cardiometabolic disease in urban U.S. communities, Chibuzor Abasilim, PhD, Assistant Professor, Epidemiology, Zilber College of Public Health
Spring 2026
January 29 – The Power of Connection: Social Cohesion and Mental Health in Autism, Jeana M. Holt, Ph.D., DNP, MSN, APRN, FNP-BC & Kate Siekman, BSE, OTD, OTR/L
February 5 – Mapping Racism and Resistance in Milwaukee County, Anne Bonds, PhD, Professor & Chair, Department of Geography, UW-Milwaukee
February 12 – Strengths-based and Innovative Pathways to Address Maternal Mortality, Emily Cramer, PhD, Associate Professor, Diederich College of Communication, Marquette University
February 19 – Guns Don’t Kill People: Bullets Do: A Public Health Wound Ballistics Science Primer, Stephen Hargarten, MD, MPH, Professor of Emergency Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin
February 26 – Home is Where Our Health Is, Deborah Heffner, Chief Advancement Officer, Community Advocates, Inc.
March 5 – Everyone Can Move the Needle: Public Health Policy & Advocacy, Niki Lucht, MPH, Epidemiologist, Wood County Healht Department, Co-chair of the WPHA Policy & Advocacy Committee
March 12 – Explanatory Artificial Intelligence: Peeking into the Black Box, Susan McRoy, PhD, Professor & Dept. Chair, Computer Science, Biomedical and Health Informatics PhD, UW-Milwaukee
March 19 – The Department of Community Wellness & Safety Public Health Approach to Violence Prevention
April 2 – Everyone Deserves a Healthy Smile: Improving Oral Health Access in Wisconsin, Dr. Sidney M. Ebert, DDS, Director of Dental Services, Community Smiles
April 9 – How Culture and Local Ecosystems Can Affect Dietary Exposures to Environmental Contaminants, Matthew Dellinger, PhD, Associate Professor, Division of Epidemiology, Medical College of Wisconsin
April 16 – The Human Elements of Health Data Visualization in an AI Obsessed World, Amanda Makulec, MPH, Founder of Viz Responsibly
April 23 – Versiti on King – The Nation’s First Blood Donor Center in a Community Resource Hub, Kristen Harris, Senior Manager of Community Education, Versiti
May 7 – Children’s Environmental Health in a Changing Climate, Kirsten Beyer, PhD, MPH, MS, Professor, Division of Epidemiology & Social Sciences, Medical College of Wisconsin
Fall 2025
September 4 – Adverse Childhood Experiences and Public Health: The Case for Prevention, Josh Mersky, PhD, UW-Milwaukee Helen Bader School of Social Welfare
September 11 – Climate Rx: Advancing Public Health Through Climate Action at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Christa L. Wagner, PhD, Medical College of Wisconsin
September 18 – Self-care, Healing and Social Support for those Dealing with Multiple Chronic Conditions, Priya Nambisan, PhD, UW-Milwaukee Zilber College of Public Health
September 25 – Research at UWM, Ali Abedi,PhD, UWM Vice Provost of Research
October 2 – Exploring the Intersection of Sustainability and Personal Well-Being on College Campuses, Lindsay Frost, UWM Sustainability Director
October 9 – Where Health and Safety Meet: Domestic Violence as a Public Health Issue, Sojourner Family Peace Center, Panel Discussion
October 16 – Leveraging Implementation Science for Public Health Intervention Development and Evaluation: Case Examples from HIV/STI Prevention, Steven A. John, PhD, MPH, University of Minnesota
October 23 – Mother Nature: Examining Greenspace Access and Postpartum Depression, Christine Prissel, PhD, MPH, Mayo Clinic
October 30 – Indigenous Ways of Knowing about Wisconsin’s Tribal Nations, Annie Jones, Professor, Organization Development Specialist and Tribal Nations Liaison, UW-Madison
November 6 – From Data to Action: Community Voices on Environmental Health and Green Infrastructure in Milwaukee, Panel Discussion
November 13 – Treatment Effect Estimation With Potential Outcomes for a Single-Arm Trial Compared To Historical Controls, Rodney Sparapani, PhD, Associate Professor of Biostatistics, Medical College of Wisconsin
November 20 – The Science and Soul of Health Equity: Lessons from the Community and Cancer Science Network, Laura Pinsoneault, PhD, Founder and CEO, Evaluation Plus, LLC
December 4 – Behind the Numbers: Tackling Complexity in Longitudinal Mental Health Data, Laleh Jamshidi, PhD, UWM Zilber College of Public Health
Spring 2025
January 23 – PeriData.Net Clinical Registry: Population-Based Cohort of Prenatal, Hospital, and Outcome Data
January 30 – Power to the People: Evaluation Considerations for Public Health Liberation, Dr. Monique Liston, UBUNTU Research and Evaluation
February 13 – Interpretable Fall Risk Prediction Using Explainable AI and Large Language Models, Jake Luo, PhD – Associate Professor, Health Care Informatics & Administration
February 20 – Brittany Keyes, DPT – Healthy Climate Wisconsin
February 27 – Exploring the Impact of Mutual Aid on Health and Well-Being of Transgender, Nonbinary, and Gender Diverse People, Linda Wesp, PhD – UWM School of Nursing
March 6 – Still wrong after all these years, or…How cell culture methods that do not consider the amount of oxygen present in our body mess up risk assessment and drug discovery, Michael Laoisa, PhD – Associate Professor, Environmental Health Sciences
March 13 – Introduction to EMR and AI in Public Health, Min Wu, PhD – Associate Professor, Health Care Informatics & Administration
March 27 – Victor Florez-Garcia, PhD Zilber College Alum, University of Illinois Chicago
April 3 – What will it take to end campus sexual violence?, Rose Hennessy Garza, PhD, MPH
April 10 – Detecting mosaic chromosomal alterations in apparently healthy individuals, Paul L. Auer, PhD – Medical College of Wisconsin
April 17 – Health/Data Disparities in Indian Country, Will Funmaker, MBA, MLT (ASCP) – Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Epidemiology Center (GLITEC)
April 24 – The role of Public Health Nurses in Emergency Preparedness and Recovery in Local Public Health Departments – a Toolkit, Deborah Heim, PhD, MN, RN, PHNA-BC
May 1 – Integrating Teaching and Research at a Teaching Institution, Maren Hawkins, PhD and Barbra Beck, PhD
Fall 2024 Schedule
September 12 – Todd Miller, PhD – Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, UW-Milwaukee
September 19 – Amy Kalkbrenner, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, UW-Milwaukee
September 26 – Linnea Laestadius, PhD, MPP, Associate Professor of Public Health Policy, UW-Milwaukee
October 3 – Langston Verdin, MPH, Director of Community Partnerships and Strategy, Greater Milwaukee Committee, and Founder and Executive Director, MKE FreshAir Collective
October 10 – Young Cho, PhD, Associate Professor of Community & Behavioral Health Promotion, UW-Milwaukee
October 17 – Kat O’Connell-Valuch – Zilber College of Public Health Office of Research
October 24 – Christy Greenleaf, PhD, Professor of Kinesiology, UW-Milwaukee
October 31 – Scott Strath, PhD, ACSM Fellow, Professor of Kinesiology, UW-Milwaukee
November 7 – Mike Totoraitis, Commissioner of Health, Milwaukee Health Department
November 14 – Wisconsin Alcohol Policy Project
November 21 – Street-View Greenness in Residential Environments: Exploring Equity in Distribution of Natural Spaces, Tara Jenson, PhD
December 5 – David Frazer, Director of CUPH