“Confronting Legacies of Health Disparities”

October 8, 2020 at 5:30 p.m. PT

In the United States and around the world, a long history of social and medical events, from the mundane to the atrocious, have resulted in radically disparate health outcomes across our populations. How ought we to understand, address, and prevent such radically different health outcomes? What role do biology, society, bias, and chance play in such outcomes? Whose responsibility is it to address these issues? And what can we do to address such systematic failings as we move forward into an uncertain future?

Moderator:

Information technology is to modern life what business was to the Industrial Revolution or agriculture to the first civilizations. It has unprecedented influence of every walk of life. But what promise and peril does it bring? Who makes the decisions and who is left out? What choices are we making now that will influence the future to come? And how do we live in this rapidly changing world?

Carlos Mariscal, Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy, faculty associate for the Integrative Neuroscience Program, Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology Program, and the Core Humanities program at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Panelists:

Françoise Baylis, University Research Professor specializing in bioethics, member of the Order of Canada and Order of Nova Scotia, founder of NTE Impact Ethics, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. In 2017 she was awarded the Canadian Bioethics Society Lifetime Achievement Award.

Caleb S. Cage, Nevada’s COVID-19 Response Director, former head of the Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security Advisor, former Assistant Vice Chancellor for Workforce Development and Community Colleges at the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE), former Executive Director of the Nevada Office of Veterans Services (NOVS), founder of Nevada’s Green Zone Initiative, and Director of Military and Veterans Policy.

Kath Masterson, Peabody and Edward R. Murrow award-winning multimedia journalist who has worked in NPR’s daily science and health news desk as digital producer and editor. Her work has spanned environment, agriculture, the Affordable Care Act, industrial chemicals, and many other topics. She is also adept at graphics, videos and web interactives to communicate complex science topics in engaging and informative ways.