Seminar Series

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

REGISTER TO ATTEND 

August 26: Course Introduction: "Drug Control Policy and Overdose Prevention"

*Please note, this session is only open to students currently pursuing the Certificate in Injury and Violence Prevention.

Olivia K. Sugarman, PhD, MPH
Assistant Scientist, Department of Health Policy and Management
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

A top priority for injury control is to ensure the broad implementation of evidence-based overdose prevention strategies. This seminar provides fundamental information about the concepts, terminology, and intervention strategies that will be covered in presentations throughout the term. Dr. Sugarman will discuss the current state of the overdose crisis and provide an overview of overdose prevention strategies. 

September 9: "Increasing Alcohol Taxes to Reduce Alcohol-Related Harms in New Mexico"

*Session Co-Sponsor: Lerner Center for Public Health Advocacy

Marlene Lira, (DrPH student), MPH
Director of Research
Workit Health

New Mexico has had the highest alcohol-related mortality of all U.S. states for over 25 years, with an age-adjusted rate of alcohol-related death approximately twice the national rate. There is strong evidence that more restrictive alcohol control policies can reduce alcohol consumption and protect against a variety of alcohol-related health outcomes ranging from alcohol-related liver disease to car crashes to gun violence. Alcohol pricing policies, including increasing excise taxes, are among the most effective interventions. However, alcohol excise taxes were last increased in New Mexico in 1993. Given the disproportionate burden of alcohol-related harms experienced within the state, legislation has been introduced in the last two legislative sessions to increase alcohol taxes. This presentation will describe recent legislative efforts, challenges, and the growing political will to change course and prevent future generations from disproportionately experiencing harms from alcohol use in New Mexico.

September 16: "Overdose Fatality Review Teams"

Mallory O'Brien, PhD, MS
Associate Scientist, Department of Health Policy and Management
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Overdose Fatality Review (OFR) teams are multidisciplinary groups that share information on local overdose cases to identify patterns and provide recommendations for overdose prevention. This presentation will detail the efforts and role of OFR teams in overdose prevention.

September 23: "Policy Responses to the Volatile Drug Supply Using Xylazine as a Case Study"

Olivia K. Sugarman, PhD, MPH
Assistant Scientist, Department of Health Policy and Management
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

In this current chapter of the overdose epidemic, the illicit drug supply is an unpredictable, and heterogeneous mix of opioids and adulterants. Xylazine is a large animal veterinary sedative that has quickly spread throughout the U.S. drug supply, most often with fentanyl and is increasingly associated with fatal overdoses, severe soft tissue wounds, and serious withdrawal symptoms. Xylazine has no reversal agent, and traditional medications to treat opioid use disorder and withdrawal symptoms are less effective in relieving withdrawal symptoms. Until recently, xylazine was not a controlled substance in most states. This presentation will provide an overview of changes in the U.S. drug supply over the course of the overdose epidemic, policy responses to those changes, and how federal and state policymakers are responding to xylazine as a recent and novel adulterant in the drug supply.

 
September 30: "Methods for Identifying Emerging Drug Trends"

Nae Y. Won, PhD, MPH
Postdoctoral Fellow NIDA T32 DDET, Department of Mental Health 
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

The National Drug Early Warning System (NDEWS) is a workgroup dedicated to identifying new and emerging drug trends across the US to prevent the next drug epidemic. This presentation will introduce a novel surveillance method for identifying new drug trends and highlight the collaboration among multiple stakeholders who work together to monitor and respond to emerging drug threats.

October 7: "Harm Reduction and Treatment Use Among People at High Risk of Overdose: Results from the VOICES Survey"

Sachini Bandara, PhD, MS
Assistant Professor, Department of Mental Health
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

This presentation will provide an overview of the VOICES Survey, a survey characterizing the lived experience of 2000 + people who use drugs. The survey was conducted in partnership with 39 community organizations across 4 states. The goal of VOICES is to characterize the use of treatment and harm reduction services among a racially and ethnically and socially diverse multistate group of people at high risk for drug overdose.

October 14: "Navigating the Expanding Presence of Xylazine with Fentanyl (And Other Drug Supply Toxicity)"

Danielle German, PhD, MPH
Associate Professor, Department of Health, Behavior and Society
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

This presentation summarizes findings from mixed methods research to understand polysubstance use, experiences with xylazine, and perspectives on drug supply toxicity to inform overdose prevention and other harm reduction efforts in Baltimore and across Maryland.

October 21: Seminar Reflection -- Discussion Session

*Please note, this session is only open to students currently pursuing the Certificate in Injury and Violence Prevention.

Olivia K. Sugarman, PhD, MPH
Assistant Scientist, Department of Health Policy and Management
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

We will collectively review key concepts of overdose prevention and connect those key concepts with content from guest lectures throughout the term.

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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October 28: "Reflections on the Minimum Data Elements Necessary to Surveil Violence in the Health Care and Fire Service Industries"

Jennifer A. Taylor, PhD, MPH, CPPS 
Arthur L. and Joanne B. Frank Professor of Environmental & Occupational Health Interim Associate Dean for Public Health Practice
Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University

When it comes to conducting the surveillance of violence against health care and fire service personnel, a balance needs to be struck between collecting the minimum data elements necessary to count events and the maximum necessary to describe the event details. During this session, we will explore the data elements different stakeholders may want in such a system and how we make decisions about which to include.

November 4: "Extreme Weather Trends and Secondary Impacts on Health"

*This is a hybrid seminar jointly sponsored by the Injury Center and the NIOSH-funded Johns Hopkins Education and Research Center.

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

This presentation will touch on the trends in extreme weather, amplifying risks to humans and wildlife from direct impacts of debris, smoke, heat, and contaminants. Following recent changes in baseline temperatures and resource constraints, the secondary threats to emotional and physical health will continue to amplify aggression and depression swings in societal response.

This event is co-hosted by the Johns Hopkins Education and Research Center for Occupational Health and Safety and will use a different registration link.

Register to Attend

November 11: "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

Among U.S. states, Maryland ranks in the top 10 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.

November 18: "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 combined exposures and worker health and safety.

November 25: "Advancing Theory on the Bidirectional Relationship Between Work Injuries and Mental Health Challenges: A Socio-Cognitive Perspective"

Stephen Granger, PhD 
Assistant Professor, Department of Management
John Molson School of Business at the Concordia University

The aim of this talk will be to outline a renewed framework integrating theories from psychology to advance our understanding of the bidirectional relationship between work injuries and mental health challenges. The talk will start by highlighting key historical theoretical developments on the bidirectional relationship and how theory has stagnated in recent decades. I will then present a model focusing on theoretically driven socio-cognitive factors and present preliminary results using data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging.

December 2: "Health and Safety Risk Exposure in Hospital Nursing"

*This is a hybrid seminar jointly sponsored by the Injury Center and the NIOSH-funded Johns Hopkins Education and Research Center.

Paul E. Spector, PhD
Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology
University of South Florida

Nurses are exposed to all forms of physical and psychological health and safety risks, including biological hazards, chemical exposure, overuse injury, physical assault, psychosocial environment, and verbal mistreatment. I will cover the various forms of exposure, results of a long-term study of newly graduated nurses, and recent work from a study at Tampa General Hospital concerning the impact of unit understaffing.

This event is co-hosted by the Johns Hopkins Education and Research Center for Occupational Health and Safety and will use a different registration link.

Register to Attend

December 9: "Safety Climate as a Leading Indicator of Workplace Safety"

Emily (Yueng-Hsiang) Huang, PhD
Professor, Industrial-Organizational/Occupational Health Psychology
Oregon Health & Science University

Safety climate is defined as employees’ shared perceptions of the company's safety policies, procedures, and practices and the overall importance and “true” priority of safety at work. In the last 40 years, scientific literature has demonstrated that safety climate is among the strongest predictors of safety behaviors and of injury data in workgroups and entire companies. Safety climate identifies employees’ perceptions (i.e., as seen through the eyes of employees) about the real or true priority of safety as opposed to its formally espoused priority by company management. In the safety field, safety climate is used to proactively identify safety problem areas and evaluate intervention effects over time. There will be three main topics in my talk: (1) reviewing the nature and importance of safety climate; (2) describing my prior and current research on the development and validation of various climate scales (including the Total Worker Health Climate Scale and the Respectful Workplace Climate Scale); and (3) discussing the future plans of my organizational climate research.

December 16: Seminar Reflection -- Discussion Session

*Please note, this session is only open to students currently pursuing the Certificate in Injury and Violence Prevention. 

Cassandra Crifasi, PhD, MPH
Associate Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Zhiqing (Albert) Zhou, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Mental Health 
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Drs. Crifasi and Zhou will facilitate a discussion where the overall seminar series themes are explored, as well as observations and reflections from the students.

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

REGISTER TO ATTEND 

January 27: "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

Dr. Michael will provide an overview of a Congressional mandate to develop a federal motor vehicle safety standard for driver impairment prevention technology in all new cars.  He will provide an overview of key challenges to implementing the mandate and preview planned course sessions and special speakers who will address strategies for addressing these challenges. 

Dr. Michael will explain how this course continues a discussion of impairment prevention technology that was started in the third-term 2022 course and continued through the 2023 and 2024 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 the Congressional mandate.

February 3: "Vehicle-based Impairment Detection as a Policy Priority: Perspective of a Drunk Driving Prevention Advocate"

Stephanie Manning 
Chief Government Affairs Officer
Mothers Against Drunk Driving

Ms. Manning will describe the role the MADD has played in the development of the technology and the new vehicle safety mandate, focusing on the role of victim advocacy and strategic considerations in the formulation of the legislative approach. 

February 10: "The Imperative for Success: Perspectives of a Drunk Driving Victim "

Rana Abbas Taylor
Survivor & Advocate

The Congressional mandate in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 is based on a House bill titled, the HALT Act (Honoring the Abbas Legacy to Terminate Drunk Driving Act). Rana lost her sister, brother in law, two nieces and a nephew in a crash involving a drunk driver who was at nearly four times the legal alcohol limit.  Rana was instrumental in getting the HALT Act enacted and is tireless advocate for its successful implementation.  Rana will share her insights on the power of victim of advocacy. 

February 17: "Outlook for Industry Action: Persectives on Industry Needs for Implementation"

Lauren Collins 
Director, Safety Policy 
Alliance for Automotive Innovation

Even with a Congressional mandate, the cooperation of the auto industry is critical for timely implementation of the new federal motor vehicle safety standard for driver impairment prevention.   From her position as Director of Safety Policy for the association representing the automakers selling vehicles in the U.S., Lauren will provide her perspective on the industry’s motivations and challenges in implementing the mandate.

February 24: "Federal Perspective on Driver Impairment Detection"

Jennifer Homendy 
Chair
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) 

As Chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, Jennifer Homendy is charged by Congress to investigate significant crashes or mishaps across all modes of transportation, including every civil aviation accident in the nation.  Chair Homendy has been particularly outspoken about the need for driver impairment prevention technology as original equipment in new cars and will share her views on the importance of this solution and how the Congressional mandate can be successfully implemented. 

March 3: "Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety (DADSS)"

Kristen Kingsley 
Director of Program Development and Outreach
Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety

The DADSS system is a product of a unique public/private partnership initiated in 2008 to develop technology that can passively detect driver impairment and prevent vehicle operation.  Kristin Kingsley, Director of Program Development and Outreach for DADSS, will discuss ACTS’ recent announcement of their success in reaching program technical goals and the steps needed to have the technology installed in new cars.  

March 10: "Achieving Sustainable Social Change"

Professor Claes Tingvall 
Afry, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
Monash University Accident Research Centre, Melbourne

Driver impairment prevention technology is an excellent example of a Vision Zero solution to a persistent road safety problem. The originator of the Swedish concept of Vison Zero and the Safe System approach and the person who started this global movement 25 years ago will share his insights on how long-standing assumptions about risk and blame can be overcome to achieve sustainable societal changes.  Professor Tingvall will provide his perspective on the importance of upstream solutions and realigning incentives to prevent road safety risks.

March 17: Discussion Session – Required for students registered for course credit

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

This session is required for students pursuing the Certificate in Injury and Violence Prevention.  Dr. Michael 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

REGISTER TO ATTEND 

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