Seminar Series

First Term Graduate Seminar in Injury Research and Policy: Overdose Prevention and Drug Control Policy

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September 15: Opioid Litigation National Best Practices in Action in Baltimore City

Sara Whaley, MPH, MSW, MA
Executive Director
Overdose Response for the City of Baltimore 

The overdose crisis continues to be a pervasive public health issue, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the contaminated illicit drug supply. Despite declines in overdose deaths, recent years have shown the highest number of overdose-related deaths in a single year. As the United States works to abate this crisis, states, counties, and cities have received an influx of dollars from the litigation against opioid manufacturers, distributors, and pharmacies. This $50 billion could provide much-needed opportunities for innovative solutions to save lives. This session will provide an overview of the opioid litigation and the 2021 global settlement signed by state and local governments across the nation. Outlining national best practices utilized by other jurisdictions, this session will explore how Baltimore City, a non-participant in the global settlement, charted its own litigation path securing an unprecedented amount of new funding for the City, and how they utilized lessons learned from across the country to develop a process for the governance of opioid restitution funds that ensures equity and transparency.

September 22: Temporal aspects of polysubstance use in the context of a changing drug supply. 

Danielle German, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Health, Behavior, and Society

Overdose response discourse emphasizes the need to better address polysubstance use, but this is not a singular phenomenon. This presentation draws on two parallel mixed methods studies conducted in Baltimore and across Maryland to explore the role of time in polysubstance use heterogeneity and the challenges of navigating an unpredictable drug supply. Findings reveal distinct lifetime, recent, and daily use patterns influenced by social circumstances and market factors. Integrating temporal perspectives may help to better tailor overdose prevention and substance use services.

September 29: From Prescription to Patient: Improving Pharmacy Access to Buprenorphine

Marlene Lira
DrPH candidate, MPH
Director of Research, Workit Health

Buprenorphine is a life-saving treatment for opioid use disorder, yet pharmacy barriers prevent many patients from filling prescriptions. This talk will review studies documenting these access challenges, discuss the policy environment that has led to such challenges, and highlight potential strategies to help more people receive timely treatment.

October 6: Drug Control Policy and the Drug Supply – National and International Examples

Catherine Tomko, PhD
Assistant Scientist
Department of Health, Behavior and Society

 
October 13: Neighborhood-Level Trajectories of Structural Racism and Opioid-Involved Overdose Death

Mudia Uzzi, PhD
Bloomberg Assistant Professor of American Health
Department of Health Policy and Management 

Information about the seminars, including Zoom meeting links, are available at the Johns Hopkins Calendar of Events.

Second Term Graduate Seminar in Injury Research and Policy: Occupational Safety

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November 17, 2025
Extreme Weather Trends and Secondary Impacts on Health

Sunny Wescott, MS
Federal Emergency Response Official Chief Meteorologist
Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)

Ms. Wescott will speak on extreme weather trends from an upper-level atmospherics view down to the regional impacts and implications for the  healthcare sector and the critical infrastructure required to operate it. Topics will include barometric pumping, stormwater risks, amplified rainfall rates, lightning strikes amplified by extreme heat, flash drought and subsequent wildfire triggers, and cascading failures from geological changes underway. As weather hazards continue to worsen damages to key systems, attendees will learn how changes in longevity, intensity, and seasonality will present unique challenges requiring innovative solutions from international best practices to immediate quick-wins.

November 24, 2025
Maryland Opioid Overdose Deaths from 2018 to 2022: Occupational Patterns and Sociodemographic Variations

Masoumeh Amin-Esmaeili, MD
Associate Scientist, Department of Mental Health
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Maryland ranks among the top 10 U.S. states for opioid overdose deaths. A growing body of literature suggests that the risk of fatal opioid overdoses varies by occupation. Using data from Maryland’s State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (SUDORS), a comprehensive source on fatal overdoses, this talk will provide an overview of opioid overdose deaths in Maryland, focusing on employment status and occupation group.

December 8, 2025
What does occupational epidemiology tell us about combined exposure and cumulative risk?

Mary A. Fox, PhD, MPH 
Associate Practice Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management and Department of Environmental Health and Engineering
Co-Director, Risk Sciences and Public Policy Institute
Co-Director, MPH Health Systems and Policy Concentration
Primary Investigator, Center for Advancing Research in Transportation Emissions, Energy and Health
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Risk assessment has been the primary method to inform occupational and environmental health policy and management for many types of hazards. Although often focused on one hazard at a time, risk assessment frameworks and methods have advanced toward cumulative risk assessment recognizing that exposure to a single chemical or non-chemical stressor rarely occurs in isolation. The presentation will review recent work documenting exposures to multiple hazards or hazards and other risk factors and worker health and safety.

Information about the seminars, including Zoom meeting links, are available at the Johns Hopkins Calendar of Events.

Third Term Graduate Seminar in Injury Research and Policy -- Transportation

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January 26, 2026

Course Introduction:  Strategies for Implementing Landmark Federal Policy to Prevent Impaired Driving: Congressional Mandate for Vehicle Technology to Prevent Driver Impairment

Instructor:
Jeffrey Michael, EdD
Distinguished Scholar, Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy 

Co-instructor:
Natalie Draisin 
Director, North America Office & UN Representative, FIA Foundation

The instructors will provide an overview of the significance of driver alcohol impairment policy, including its historical development, effectiveness as a public health prevention strategy, and challenges in its continued evolution and implementation.  Particular attention will be given to the Congressional mandate to develop a federal motor vehicle safety standard for driver impairment prevention technology in all new cars.  Challenges to implementing to the mandate will be discussed and a preview provided of guest speakers and planned course sessions that will address strategies for overcoming these challenges. 

The instructors will explain how this course will focus on a central theme of resilience in policy development, continuing a discussion of impairment prevention technology that was started in the third-term 2022 course and further developed through the 2023, 2024, and 2025 courses.  With the first Congressional deadline for implementation having passed in November 2024 and a new Administration in charge of implementation, this course will involve a different set of expert speakers and a more focused set of issues that will affect the success of this prevention policy.  

As with the 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 courses, the final session will include a summary discussion and short reports by students of their perspectives on strategies for overcoming key issues that could affect successful implementation of the Congressional mandate. 

February 2, 2026

Perspective on the Scope of the Driver Alcohol Impairment Problem

Dr. Ralph Hingson
Director, Division of Epidemiology and Prevention Research,
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

Dr. Hingson will describe the nature of the alcohol abuse problem and discuss its implications for impaired driving.  He will address interventions to reduce the extent of the problem and to ameliorate its effects on illness and injury.  Dr. Hingson will discuss the relative effectiveness of various approaches to prevention of impaired driving and their potential effectiveness. 

February 9, 2026

Pragmatism and Progress: Finding the Balance in Prevention Politics

Nicole Nason
Former Vice President for Federal Affairs, The Boeing Company 
Former Administrator, Federal Highway Administration
Former Administrator, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration                            

Policy development often involves compromises between prevention ideals and political support.  Ms. Nason will discuss the challenge of compromise from both perspectives and offer insight on resilience, persistence, and strategy.

February 16, 2026

Outlook for Industry Action: Perspectives on Safety, Cost, and Competitiveness

Jennifer Morrison
Director, Vehicle Safety Strategy
Mazda North American Operations

Safety is a high priority among automakers, but other needs compete, especially when industry earnings are not at full strength. Ms. Morrison will discuss how the auto industry weighs decisions about implementing new safety technologies and how decisions may change in different economic and political climates. 

February 23, 2026

Prevention and Intervention Techniques: Technology Opportunities

Dr. Anders Lie
Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg

Advanced vehicle technology offers a range of driver performance sensing and intervention opportunities, from advisories to warning systems to lock-outs.  Systems could be designed to fit consumer interest, behavioral response, and/or political support.  Dr. Lie will discuss possibilities in the near and longer terms.

March 2, 2026

Pathways: Consumer Information for Better Choices

Dr. Jessica Cicchino  
Vice President for Research
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

Surveys have consistently shown that two-thirds to three -quarters of the Americans support driver impairment prevention technology in all new cars. But would they translate this into purchase decisions if it isn’t all new models? Dr. Cicchino will discuss the promise of consumer information for guiding new car choices.  

March 9, 2026

Economic Rationale: Is Impaired Driving Prevention Cost Effective?

Larry Blincoe
Former Director, Office of Economic Analysis 
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

and 

Emmanuel Drabo 
Assistant Professor 
Health Economics, Johns Hopkins University

Regulatory agencies are required to conduct economic analyses of proposed injury prevention policies such as federal motor vehicle safety standards.  These analyses may need to be very complex to adequately consider direct and indirect costs and benefits.  Economic analyses can also be quite controversial in their approach.  Larry Blincoe has more than five decades of experience in conducting economic evaluations of vehicle regulations and is an international authority in estimating the costs of motor vehicle crashes. Dr. Drabo has extensive experience in the analysis of health economics including the analysis of trade-offs and public preference for policy alternatives.  These two experts will discuss the complex economics of impaired driving prevention, providing more depth in our understanding of the implications of policy options.

March 16, 2026

Discussion Session – Required for students registered for course credit

Jeffrey Michael, Natalie Draisin

This session is required for students pursuing the Certificate in Injury and Violence Prevention.  The instructors will facilitate a discussion of key issues, overlapping themes, and implementation strategies presented by the guest speakers. Based on information from the speakers, students will be asked to discuss their observations and recommendations regarding optimal strategies for implementing the new federal policy. 

Fourth Term Graduate Seminar in Injury Research and Policy: Violence & Suicide Prevention

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March 24, 2025
“Building a World Where Everyone Wants to Stay: The Art and Science of Suicide Prevention”

Shelby Rowe, MBA   
Executive Director, Suicide Prevention Resource Center, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center

Building the nation’s capacity to implement best practices in suicide prevention has long been the mission of the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC), the nation’s only federally supported resource center devoted to advancing the implementation of the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention. In this presentation, you’ll learn how SPRC uses a comprehensive approach centered on lived experience to shift the attitudes, beliefs, and practices of individuals, communities, organizations, states, Tribes, and systems to prevent suicide.

March 21, 2025
“Suicide and the Role of Lethal Means”

Paul Nestadt, MD 
Associate Professor, School of Medicine, Department of Mental Health (Joint)

Dr. Nestadt will describe the epidemiology of suicide in the US, with particular attention to the most common method of suicide, firearms. He will walk through the relevant literature that draws a line from gun access to suicide risk and will discuss how specific policies (including “Red Flag Laws”) can lead to reductions in the suicide rate.

April 7, 2025
“Opportunities at the Intersection of Suicide Prevention and Public Health”

Holly Wilcox, PhD, MS
Professor, Department of Mental Health, Department of Health Policy and Management (Joint), School of Medicine (Joint), School of Education (Joint)

Because of the pandemic and collective traumatic events happening internationally there is more awareness of mental health and suicide. Suicide rates are increasing with suicide-related inequities. Suicide prevention as a field has been in a reactive position of waiting to recognize and respond to someone in crisis. We have an opportunity to do things differently.

April 14, 2025 
“The Role of Structural Racism in Suicide Among Black Americans: Toward Equitable Prevention”

Leslie Adams, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Division of Public Mental Health and Population Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine

The presentation will explore suicide prevention strategies tailored to Black communities, with a focus on identifying and addressing structural racism as a critical determinant of suicide outcomes among this population. The talk will also highlight culturally responsive approaches to reducing suicide risk and fostering resilience among Black youth and other vulnerable populations.

April 21, 2025
“Strength-Based Approaches to Suicide Prevention Among 2SLGBTQIA+ Young People”

Lindsay Taliaferro, PhD, MPH, MS
Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Central Florida

Dr. Taliaferro will discuss the need for strengths-based approaches to suicide prevention among 2SLGBTQIA+ youth, focusing on modifiable protective factors that can represent targets of intervention in support of this population. In addition, Dr. Taliaferro will share her research that examines protective factors within integrated models of suicide risk among diverse subpopulations of 2SLGBTQIA+ adolescents and emerging adults.

April 28, 2025
“Advancing the Role of Community Health Workers in Youth Suicide Prevention”

Kiara Alvarez, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Health, Behavior, and Society, School of Medicine (joint)

Dr. Alvarez will discuss approaches to integrating Community Health Workers (CHWs) and other lay health providers into interventions to prevent youth suicide, including culturally responsive models focused on family systems. She will describe findings from an ongoing study of a CHW-led caregiver intervention delivered in pediatric primary care settings to Spanish-speaking Latine families. 

May 5, 2025
“Artificial Intelligence to Advance Mental Health Equity in Suicide Prevention”

Emily Haroz, PhD, MHS, MA
Assistant Professor, Department of International Health, Department of Mental Health (Joint)

The presentation will discuss how the Native-RISE suicide risk model was developed and tested, including highlighting the important role of community perspectives to guide the process.

May 12, 2025 
Reflection on term seminars  -- Closed Session

Kiara Alvarez, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Health, Behavior, and Society