Research News

Tenth annual Global Health Day Symposium set

concept of child global health.

By GRACE LAZZARA

Published March 30, 2021

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Experts working to advance global health research will gather virtually next month for the 10th Annual Global Health Day Symposium, hosted by the Office of Global Health Initiatives in the School of Public Health and Health Professions.

The Global Health Day Symposium is part of SPHHP’s celebration of National Public Health Week, which takes place annually during the first week in April.

The theme of this year’s symposium, which takes place from 9-11:30 a.m. April 9 via Zoom, is “Raising a Healthy Generation.”

The symposium features a variety of speakers addressing how different exposures in early life could affect child health and development. The issues range from the introduction of the new concept of the “exposome” and the COVID-19 pandemic, to environmental exposure, climate change, lifestyle and social determinants of health — and how all of these concerns might affect birth outcomes, newborns, child development and adolescents.

Martine Vrijheid, research professor, Barcelona Institute for Global Health, will offer the keynote talk, “The Early Life Exposome — from Concept to Implementation.” Shao Lin, professor in the departments of Environmental Health Sciences and Epidemiology/Biostatistics, and associate director of global health research in the School of Public Health, University at Albany, will discuss “Climate change, extreme weather and natural disaster on human health.”

Other symposium speakers include UB faculty members Pauline Mendola, professor and chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health; Jennifer L. Temple, professor in the departments of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences and Community Health and Health Behavior; Tia Palermo, associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health; and Oscar G. Gómez-Durante, chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics.

Previous Global Health Day symposia have focused on the topics of childhood nutrition, air pollution, the impact of substance abuse on global and local health, and health as a human right.

The Global Health Day Symposium is part of SPHHP’s National Public Health Week celebration, which takes place annually during the first week in April.

Other events marking National Public Health Week 2021, which are free and open to the UB community:

  • April 1-30: Sixth Annual SPHHP Step Challenge.
  • April 1-2: The 3rd Annual Mobile Market Summit.
  • April 5: Webinar: Small Steps You Can Take for Big Health Benefits.
  • April 7: Panel: Public Health Careers and Webinar: Rising to the Challenge: Innovative ways to teach, train and engage the next generation of students.
  • April 8: Webinar: The Equal Justice Initiative: Incarceration in America is a Public Health Issue; Panel: School of Public Health and Health Professions Alumni on public health career journeys; and Training: Using Naloxone (Narcan).