Reflecting on A Campus-Community Integrated Health Equity Research Agenda

Presenter Information

Pamela Straker, SUNY Downstate Medical Center
Tonya Taylor, SUNY Downstate Medical Center
Jeanette Altarriba, University at Albany, State University of New York
Ayesha Joshi, SUNY Downstate Medical Center
Jack DeHovitz, SUNY Downstate Medical Center
Rukhsana Ahmed, University at Albany, State University of New York
Cristina Pope, SUNY Upstate Medical University
Lynn Warner, University at Albany, State University of New York
Tracey Wilson, SUNY Downstate Medical Center
Chanee Massiah, SUNY Downstate Medical Center
Meghan Cook, University at Albany, State University of New York
Charles Weldge, Albany Health Department
James Dias, University at Albany, State University of New York
David Amberg, SUNY Upstate Medical University
David Christini, SUNY Downstate Medical Center

Streaming Media

Presenter(s)

James Dias

James Dias serves as Vice President for Research. His academic affiliation is with the Department of Biomedical Sciences in the School of Public Health, where he served as Chair. His previous work experience includes being a member of the Department of Biochemistry in the Albany Medical College from 1981-1988; a research scientist with the Wadsworth Center of the New York State Department of Health; scientific director of the Wadsworth Center’s scientific core facilities; and service on national trade journals, study sections and external advisory panels.

Professor Dias received his B.S degree in biology from the Gonzaga University and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in reproductive physiology, with the subspecialty of animal science, from Washington State University. He was the recipient of several NIH career development awards, including an individual National Research Service Award, a New Investigator Award and a Research Career Development Award (1985). He has published more than 100 research articles on the reproductive hormones which control high quality gametogenesis and has been funded by the National Institutes of Health for 20 years.

David Amberg

My laboratory is interested in how actin associated proteins regulate the assembly and organization of the actin cytoskeleton in eukaryotic cells. The actin protein polymerizes to form dynamic filaments that are central to the organization and remodeling of all eukaryotic cells. Our investigations into actin regulation employ a powerful model organism, the common bread/beer budding yeast called Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The proteins we study are conserved in structure and function thereby allowing us to use powerful tools to unravel their functions with biochemistry, cell biology,''genetic, structural biology and molecular biology techniques.

David Christini

Dr. Christini, a Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology, is the author of nearly a hundred peer-reviewed publications and has four issued US patents. He has been continuously funded by the NIH since 2004 and has also received funding from the NSF, the American Heart Association, and various foundations and organizations. He served as the Program Director on two NIH-funded training grants. He has served on multiple NIH and NSF review panels, serves as Associate Editor for Frontiers in Physiology, has served as a referee for more than 30 professional journals, and was elected as the co-Chair of the 2021 Gordon Conference on Cardiac Arrhythmia Mechanisms.

His research group is focused on improving the understanding of, and therapies for, cardiac arrhythmias. They primarily investigate biophysical mechanisms of electrophysiological instabilities and arrhythmia onset, from the subcellular to organ level. Because of the complexity of electrophysiological dynamics (both temporal and spatiotemporal), the team uses a multiscale approach that bridges the gap between physics and biology. Their experiments employ electrophysiological and imaging modalities, primarily at the cellular and tissue levels; they then use the experimental data to inform computational cardiac modeling that scales up from the single cell to the whole organ.

Prior to joining Downstate in June 2020, Dr. Christini was a tenured Professor at Weill Cornell Medical College. At Weill Cornell, he was Vice Dean of the Weill Cornell Graduate School. He also served as Director of the Tri-Institutional PhD Program in Computational Biology & Medicine from its founding in 2003 until 2019, Assistant Dean of Scientific Computing, Vice Chair of Basic Research in the Department of Medicine, and Director of Basic Cardiovascular Research.

Dr. Christini holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University and both his Masters and Doctoral degrees in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University.

From explorations focused on the development of new treatments and therapeutics to faculty and student-led research driving groundbreaking innovations in health and medicine, Dr. Christini is charged with developing, supporting, and driving strategic research programs at Downstate across a broad spectrum of interests from the basic sciences, to translational research, to clinical trials, to population research and health equity.

Theresa Pardo (Moderator)

Dr. Theresa A. Pardo serves as Director of the Center for Technology in Government at the University at Albany, State University of New York, where she also holds research professor appointments in Public Administration and Policy and Informatics. Dr. Pardo is co-developer of the top ranked program in Government Information Strategy and Management offered by the Public Administration and Policy Department of Rockefeller College.

Under her leadership, the Center works closely with multi-sector and multi-disciplinary teams from the U.S. and around the world to carry out applied research and problem solving projects focused on the intersections of policy, management, and technology in the governmental context. With funding from organizations such as the U.S. National Science Foundation, Ford Foundation, U.S. Department of Justice, United Nations, World Bank, U.S. Library of Congress, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, SAP, Microsoft Corporation, and New York State, among others, Center work has broken ground in information and knowledge sharing, open government and open data, e-government, social media policy, and mobile technologies and human services delivery.

Dr. Pardo serves as Open NY Adviser to New York State's Governor Andrew Cuomo and was recently appointed Expert Advisor to the Open Data 500 Project. She serves as International Advisor to the E-Government Committee for the China Information Association and is President of the Digital Government Society, a global multi-disciplinary organization of scholars and practitioners interested in the development and impacts of digital government. Dr. Pardo serves on a number of national and international advisory and editorial boards, including the International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance (ICEGOV) conference series Advisory Committee ; Government Information Quarterly, the leading journal in the field of digital government; the U.S. Government Accountability Office Executive Council on Information, Management, and Technology; and the Data Center for Applied Research in Social Sciences at Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas (CIDE) in Mexico City. She is also a Senior Adviser to the Informatization Research Institution, State Information Center in China and is a member of the Board of Champions for the New York State Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (STEAM) Girls Collaborative.

Dr. Pardo has published over 125 articles, research reports, practice guides, book chapters and case studies and is ranked among the top five scholars in her field in terms of productivity and citations to her published work. She has received numerous awards including best journal and conference paper awards for her published work, the University at Albany's Excellence in Teaching Award and the Rockefeller College Distinguished Service Award.

Start Date

22-1-2021 10:00 AM

End Date

22-1-2021 11:30 AM

Abstract

The last session will re-engage participants in a joint discussion focused on the most critical health equity research questions and related public policy challenges.

This session has three elements:

1) Short report-outs from the small group discussions

• Small Group 1 A: Pamela Straker (SUNY Downstate)
• Small Group 1 B: Tonya Taylor (SUNY Downstate)
• Small Group 1 C: Jeanette Altarriba (UAlbany)
• Small Group 2 : Ayesha Joshi/Jack DeHovitz (SUNY Downstate)
• Small Group 3 : Rukhsana Ahmed (UAlbany)
• Small Group 4 A: Cristina Pope (SUNY Upstate)
• Small Group 4 B: Lynn Warner (UAlbany)
• Small Group 5 : Tracey Wilson/Chanee Massiah (SUNY Downstate)
• Small Group 6 : Meghan Cook/Charles Welge (UAlbany/Albany Health Department)

2) Reflections on those reports from

• Dave Amberg, Vice President of Research, Upstate Medical University
• David Christini, Vice President of Research, Downstate Health Sciences University
• James Dias, Vice President of Research, University at Albany

3) Open discussions with the VPRs on the report out and next steps in creating the shared agenda