About this Event

FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC; REGISTRATION REQUIRED; LIGHT BREAKFAST & COFFEE WILL BE SERVED.

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 (bio), School of Social Work | Frances Levin (bio), Department of Clinical Psychiatry | Katherine Keyes (bio), Mailman School of Public Health | Smaranda Muresan (bio), Data Science Institute

Moderated by

MAIA SZALAVITZ

with

BETHANY MEDLEY

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 (bio) 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.

About the Event

At this breakfast panel, moderated by journalist Maia Szalavitz (bio), author of Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction, with Bethany Medley (bio), a Columbia School of Social Work graduate with lived experience, Dr. El-Bassel and members of her research team from across Columbia University will answer questions about their major NIH-sponsored study into reducing fatalities from opioid overdoses across New York State:

• 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?

Questions?

Please contact [email protected].