WWU's Steve Bennett to Discuss 'Pandemic on the Horizon? Climate Change and Infectious Disease' April 25 at City Hall

 

BELLINGHAM – Steve Bennett, a lecturer in the Community Health Program in the Department of Health & Human Development at Western Washington University, will give a talk titled “Pandemic on the Horizon? Climate Change and Infectious Disease” from 7-8 p.m. on Wednesday, April 25, in the Bellingham City Council Chambers, 210 Lottie Street. 

The free, public talk is an installment of the WWU College of Humanities and Social Sciences Dean’s Lecture Series and is co-sponsored by the City of Bellingham.

The talk will be an analysis of the impact of climate change on the emergence and spread of infectious disease. From vector borne disease to water borne disease, the climate can be a major driver of disease ecology. Will there be another new pandemic simply because of the impacts of climate change? Has the epidemiology and ecology of infectious diseases already changed?

Bennett’s expertise is in the epidemiology and ecology of infectious disease. His interest in infectious disease began as a Peace Corps volunteer working on public health programs in Kenya. Bennett received his Master’s in Tropical Medicine and Parasitology from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Afterward, Bennett worked in South Sudan on President Carter’s Guinea Worm Eradication Program and then returned to the United States to complete his doctorate in Environmental Infectious Disease at the University of Minnesota.

He has taught courses in Public and Environmental Health, Global Health, Disease Ecology and Environmental Sustainability. His previous research has focused on the spread of tick-borne disease in Minnesota.

Audience questions for the talk will be welcomed.  The lecture will be recorded and shown on Bellingham TV Channel 10.

For more information on this lecture and for disability accommodations, please contact Kirsten Anderson, WWU College of Humanities & Social Sciences, (360) 650-3763, or Kirsten.Anderson@wwu.edu

The College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS), the university’s largest college,  includes the 13 departments of: Anthropology, Communication Sciences and Disorders, Communication Studies, English, Health and Human Development, History, Journalism, Liberal Studies, Modern and Classical Languages, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology, as well as four interdisciplinary programs: East Asian Studies, Linguistics, Multidisciplinary Studies, and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies.