Politics & Society

NOTE: 1.5 CE HOURS AVAILABLE FOR A FEE Featuring NABILA EL-BASSEL University Professor and Willma and Albert Musher Professor of Social Work, Columbia University; Principal Investigator, NIH HEALing Communities Study Introduced by MELISSA BEGG Dean and Professor, Columbia School of Social Work Followed by a panel discussion with four members of the HEALing Communities research team within Columbia University: Louisa Gilbert, School of Social Work | Frances Levin, Department of Clinical Psychiatry | Katherine Keyes, Mailman School of Public Health | Smaranda Muresan, Data Science Institute Moderated by MAIA SZALAVITZ, independent journalist with BETHANY MEDLEY, MSW'17 About the Event At this breakfast meeting, University Professor Nabila El-Bassel will introduce the HEALing Communities Study, a major NIH-sponsored initiative to reduce fatalities from opioid overdoses across New York State. Then Maia Szalavitz (bio), journalist and author of *Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction*, will lead a panel discussion among will moderate a panel discussion among four Columbia professors from different disciplines, each of whom is a member of Professor El-Bassel’s research team. The panel will cover questions like: >Why does the public health threat posed by the opioid crisis require a multidisciplinary approach from the nation’s top scientists? >How does the team, which also includes researchers from major medical institutions and other top universities, intend to collaborate with local communities? >Will their study yield findings that can be used to tackle this crisis nationwide? At the same time, School of Social Work alumna and adjunct professor Bethany Medley will share her lived experience with opioid addiction. About the HEALing Communities Study Columbia University is one of four sites involved in the HEALing Communities Study set up by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to tackle the nation’s opioid crisis, with the goal of reducing fatalities by 40 percent in three years. University Professor Nabila El-Bassel and her colleagues received an $86 million grant—the largest-ever grant for Morningside Campus and the largest NIH grant in the history of Columbia University—to tackle this crisis in 16 of the most heavily burdened counties in New York State. Participating schools/units within Columbia include the School of Social Work, the Department of Psychiatry, the Mailman School, and the Data Science Institute.

Event details: https://www.cato.org/events/exploring-income-and-wealth-inequality