What it will take to bring our country back to health?

Check out this video to watch the What it will take to bring our country back to health?

This webinar is in-depth exploration of how COVID-19 continues to affect our communities in several key sectors. An expert panel including WWU alumni and faculty discussed local community pandemic responses, vulnerable demographics, health care system capabilities, and mental health strategies in an attempt to help answer the question: What will it take to bring our country back to health?

The panelists will share how they are addressing the pandemic, particularly in the healthcare field, and how to prepare for coming waves of COVID-19. They will offer strategies for coping with the illness along with scenarios for what may be next. Join Dakotah Lane, MD, Health Director for the Lummi Nation; Frank James (’73), MD, Health Officer for San Juan County and the Nooksack Indian Tribe; Richard Veith (’69), MD, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington; and, Liz Mogford, PhD, Professor of Sociology at Western Washington University. The discussion is free of charge and will be moderated by Marie Eaton, PhD, former Dean of Fairhaven College.

SPEAKERS

Marie Eaton, PhD
After retiring from over 40 years as a professor at Western, Eaton was the founding Director and is currently the Community Champion for the Palliative Care Institute at Western Washington University, a partnership with other community agencies seeking to transform palliative care in Whatcom County and support our human responses to living and dying.

Frank James (’73), MD
Dr. James actively teaches, conducts research, and operates a medical practice. His interests focus on health promotion and disease prevention. He is currently the Health Officer for San Juan County and Health Officer for the Nooksack Indian Nation. He has been a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Washington School of Public Health since 1992.

Dakotah Lane, MD
An enrolled Lummi member and the Medical Director at the Lummi Tribal Health Clinic, Dr. Lane serves a tribal community of more than 4,800. His clinic provides services including dental care, women's healthcare, pediatrics, treatment for substance use, and more. The clinic employs about 80 people and provides unique culturally appropriate medical, behavioral, and dental services to the community.

Liz Mogford, PhD
Liz Mogford is a Professor in the Sociology Department at Western and an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington. Her research and teaching focus on the social and structural determinants of health and advocating for health equity. She is a co-founder of the non-profit Just Health Action and serves on the board of Health Alliance International, two organizations that view health through a social justice lens. 

Richard C. Veith (’69), MD
Dr. Veith is a Western graduate and a Seattle native who is the third of four generations of physicians serving Washington state. He is a geriatric psychiatrist, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Adjunct Professor of Global Health at the University of Washington School of Medicine, and the former UW Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

Rachel Clark (’13), MD
Rachel Clark is a first year Internal Medicine resident at a hospital in the Bronx, NY. She graduated from Fairhaven/WWU in 2013 with a concentration in Health Inequity and Medicine. She graduated from UW's School of Medicine in 2019. She is striving to bring the social determinants of health into the daily delivery of care, and looks forward to imaging new ways to practice medicine in a primary care clinic.