In Recognition of World Mental Health Day

Theresa S. Betancourt, ScD, MA, Boston College School of Social Work

“The Mental Health of Children Affected by Armed Conflict: A Call to Action”

October 12, 2023 | 12:30 - 1:30 PM

Theresa S. Betancourt is the inaugural Salem Professor in Global Practice at the Boston College School of Social Work and Director of the Research Program on Children and Adversity (RPCA). Her primary research interest is to understand the protective processes that contribute to risk and resilience in the mental health and development of children and adolescents facing adversity in a variety of cultures and settings. Dr. Betancourt has led initiatives to adapt and test evidence-based behavioral and parenting interventions for children and families facing adversity; she additionally focuses on strategies for scaling out these interventions using implementation science approaches. She is Principal Investigator of an intergenerational study of war/prospective longitudinal study of war-affected youth in Sierra Leone, a scale-up Family-Strengthening Intervention for children and families in Rwanda, and community-based participatory research on prevention of emotional and behavioral problems in refugee children and adolescents resettled in the U.S.

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M3EWB Talk @ the InCHIP Lecture Series

Sara Lazar, Ph.D. Harvard University, Lazar Lab for Meditation Research, Massachusetts General Hospital

November 16, 2023 | 12:30 - 1:30

Topic: Emotional Well-Being I am an Associate Professor in the Psychiatry Department at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. The focus of my research is to elucidate neural mechanisms underlying the beneficial effects of yoga and meditation, both in clinical settings and in healthy individuals. We are particularly interested in how meditative practices change the flow of information within and between the major brain networks during emotionally challenging situations. My research has been covered by numerous news outlets including The New York Times, USA Today, CNN, and WebMD.

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In Recognition of World AIDS Day

Leigh E. Szucs, Ph.D., CHES, Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH), U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

November 30, 2023 | 12:30 - 1:30 PM

Topic: School-Based HIV Prevention Programs for Adolescents

Leigh Szucs, Ph.D., CHES is a Health Scientist in the Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH) at the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Her research focuses on implementation and evaluation of school-based health education programs, specifically sexuality education to prevent STIs, including HIV, and unintended pregnancy among adolescents. Through this portfolio of work, Leigh also provides technical and capability building assistance to local education agencies (LEAs), using evidence-informed strategies that address adolescent sexual health outcomes, but also protective factors to support the social, emotional, and learning needs of young people. Leigh earned a Master of Education in Health Education at Texas State University and PhD in Health Education at Texas A&M University.

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Jim Downs, Ph.D., Gettysburg College

Topic: Effects of Colonialism, Slavery, and War on Medicine

January 25, 2024 | 12:30 - 1:30 PM

Jim Downs is the Gilder Lehrman-National Endowment for the Humanities Professor of Civil War Era Studies and History. He is the author of Sick From Freedom: African American Sickness and Suffering during the Civil War and Reconstruction (Oxford UP, 2012), Stand By Me: The Forgotten History of Gay Liberation (Basic Books, 2016) and Maladies of Empire: How Colonialism, Slavery, and War Transformed Medicine (Harvard UP, 2021) which has been translated into Chinese, French, Korean, Japanese, and Russian.

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Join In-Person: J. Ray Ryan Bldg., Room 204 

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In Recognition of Heart Health Month

Andrea Spaeth, Ph.D., Rutgers University

Topic: Sleep and Cardiovascular Disease

February 29, 2024 | 12:30 -1:30 PM

Trained as an experimental psychologist, Dr. Spaeth has dedicated herself to a career in sleep research aimed at advancing our understanding of how changes in sleep behaviors affect health outcomes, with a focus on weight management and metabolic health. Dr. Spaeth developed her own independent line of research in this area as a graduate student by assessing the impact of sleep on weight, caloric intake and energy expenditure in healthy adults participating in an ongoing in-laboratory sleep restriction protocol. As a postdoctoral researcher, she gained experience in the implementation of sleep and meal timing interventions outside of the laboratory and examined the impact of these interventions on cardiometabolic outcomes. The ultimate goal of Dr Spaeth’s research will be to develop and implement effective lifestyle modification interventions related to sleep in diverse at-risk populations to promote health and wellness.

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