Burke to discuss challenges to environmental science, policy in today's political climate, Jan. 30

January 18, 2018

Thomas A. Burke, PhD, MPH, the Jacob I and Irene B. Fabrikant Professor and Chair in Health Risk and Society at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Health Policy and Management, will present the first Ruth Ellen Steinman Bloustein and Edward J. Bloustein Memorial Lecture for the 2017-18 academic year, “Adapting to Change: Environmental Science and Policy in the Time of Trump,” on Tuesday, January 30, 2018.

 


 

To watch the recording of this event, please click here.


 

From climate science to pesticides; research funding to peer review, this is a time of unprecedented challenges to environmental health. Science has become a target for powerful stakeholders seeking to avoid regulation and responsibility for pollution. There is an urgent need for the scientific community to rethink our approaches to environmental protection, research and education. We need to break down the silos of environmental science and adopt a systems approach. We also need to broaden our view of the social context of environmental decisions, reach out to the business community, and regain public trust in science. Our future depends on it.

Thomas A. Burke, PhD, MPH, is the Jacob I and Irene B. Fabrikant Professor and Chair in Health Risk and Society at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Health Policy and Management. He holds joint appointments in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences and the School of Medicine Department of Oncology. He is also Director of the Johns Hopkins Risk Sciences and Public Policy Institute. Dr. Burke was nominated by President Barack Obama to serve as EPA Assistant Administrator for the Office of Research and Development. From January 2015 until January 2017 Dr. Burke was the EPA Science Advisor and Deputy Assistant Administrator for Research and Development.

His research interests include environmental epidemiology and surveillance, evaluation of population exposures to environmental pollutants, assessment and communication of environmental risks, and application of epidemiology and health risk assessment to public policy. Before joining the University faculty, Dr. Burke was Deputy Commissioner of Health for the State of New Jersey and Director of Science and Research for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. In New Jersey, he directed initiatives that influenced the development of national programs, such as Superfund, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Toxics Release Inventory. Dr. Burke served as a member of the National Academy of Sciences Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology. He was Chair of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Improving Risk Analysis that produced the report Science and Decisions, and chaired the NAS Committee on Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Toxicants. He is a Fellow of the Society for Risk Analysis and a lifetime National Associate of the National Academies.

  • 1.5 AICP CM credits have been approved for this event.
  • An application has been submitted to award Certified Health Education Specialists (CHES) and/or Master Certified Health Education Specialists (MCHES) up to 1.0 total Category I Continuing Education Contact Hours (CECH). Participants who complete this educational program will be awarded 1.0 NJ Public Health Continuing Education Contact Hours (CEs). The Rutgers School of Public Health, Center for Public Health Workforce Development is a designated multiple event provider of CECHs by the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing and has been approved by the New Jersey Department of Health as a provider of NJ Public Health Continuing Education Contact Hours (CEs).

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The Ruth Ellen Steinman Bloustein and Edward J. Bloustein Memorial Lecture was established to honor the memory of these two extraordinary individuals. This lecture series focuses on three main themes: the study and preservation of animal species and the natural environment; the celebration of love, happiness, and laughter as tools of clinical medicine; and the exploration and promotion of humane values, which Ed Bloustein believed were woven in the fabric of Judaic tradition and passed down from generation to generation.

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