Public Health in the 21st Century Lecture Series
Wed. Feb. 19, 2014
WINNIPEG, MB – The Master’s in Development Practice program is pleased to host a series of four public talks by Dr. Joel Kettner, Visiting Professor and Senior Fellow in the Master’s in Development Practice: Indigenous Development program. The series is entitled Public Health in the 21st Century: Questions. Answers. Facts. Opinions and is offered every Tuesday in the month of March in Convocation Hall.
“Each session will build on the previous lecture, but can also stand alone, like a television series,” expressed Kettner. “I want to engage the audience in a dialogue on important, challenging and controversial issues of public health – and their relationship to sustainable development – in Manitoba, Canada, and globally in each of the four sessions.”
For several decades now, reports have been written and goals have been discussed or set to improve community and population health. Most of these include the importance of reducing health inequalities by addressing the social determinants of health and by improving public health efforts for prevention. Kettner will refer to some of these reports, including the United Nations World Health Organization Commission on Social Determinants of Health and the United Nations Millennium Development Goals – as well as his own report on the health of Manitobans.
Manitoba, like so many other places – and despite insured medical and hospital care programs – have significant inequalities in health status, associated with racial, gender, socio-economic and geographic factors. Kettner will explore how we can understand the related roles and opportunities of public health and social development in tackling big issues such as poor health status, poverty, and illiteracy – within Manitoba – and within and between countries.
LECTURE LINE-UP
Public Health Unpacked: What is it? Who needs it?
Tuesday March 4, 2014 at 7:30pm*
Priorities for Prevention in Manitoba: Our provincial profile
Tuesday March 11, 2014 at 12:30pm*
Public Health Ahead: What are the Possibilities?: How can we prevent the threats that we do not see or know?
Tuesday March 18, 2014 at 12:30pm*
Power, Process, and Public Policy: The peculiar ethics and politics of public health and its relationship to sustainable development
Tuesday March 25, 2014 at 7:30pm*
*Note time differences and all take place in Convocation Hall
DR. JOEL KETTNER’S BIOGRAPHY
Kettner joined the University of Winnipeg in 2012 as a Visiting Professor and Senior Fellow in the Masters in Development Practice Program, primarily as a teacher and mentor in the health sciences pillar of the program.
Kettner grew up in Winnipeg, attending St. John’s High School and the University of Manitoba where he obtained his medical degree and specialty certificate in General Surgery. After completing a Master of Science in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, he returned to Winnipeg for training in a second medical specialty – Public Health and Preventive Medicine.
For the next two decades, Kettner worked at the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Medicine and for the Province of Manitoba, where he first served as a Regional Medical Officer of Health in northern, rural and urban settings, followed by twelve years as Manitoba’s Chief Medical Officer of Health and, after the new Public Health Act, Chief Public Health Officer. During this time he also worked part time as an emergency room physician. As a part of his responsibility as Manitoba’s CPHO, Kettner led provincial and national initiatives to strengthen a systematic approach to the practice of public health and preventive medicine and the reduction of disparities in population health.
Amongst his current roles and responsibilities, Kettner is also the medical director of the International Centre for Infectious Diseases, scientific lead for the National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases, director of the Master of Public Health program at the University of Manitoba, health mentor for a Grand Challenges international research project, and freelance consultant. He is president of the Public Health Physicians of Canada and a director of the Canadian Public Health Association.
His main work passion is to contribute to the theory and practice of public health to reduce health and social inequalities within and between communities from the local to global level.
MEDIA CONTACT
Naniece Ibrahim, Communications Officer, The University of Winnipeg
P: 204.988.7130, E: n.ibrahim@uwinnipeg.ca