Since the federal stimulus bill has been signed, one of our nation’s major goals is to safely and rapidly reopen schools using funds allocated to State Departments of Education. This session focuses on some of the more complicated response measures necessary to make schools COVID-safe environments as they reopen: improving indoor ventilation and air quality and rolling out screening testing for staff and students. Hear implementation experts discuss how to tackle these complex issues in this session, co-hosted by the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, Harvard Medical School’s Program in Global Public Policy and Social Change, and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
Participants (in order of appearance)
Margaret Bourdeaux, MD, MPH, is the Research Director of the Program in Global Public Policy and Social Change at Harvard Medical School and Co-Lead of the Berkman Klein Center’s Digital Pandemic Response Policy Practice at Harvard University, and Research Director for the Security and Global Health Project at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Dr. Bourdeaux is a faculty member at Brigham and Women’s Hospital Division of Global Health Equity and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Bourdeaux earned her B.A. at Harvard University and her M.D. from Yale Medical School, completed her combined residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA, and completed her MPH at Harvard School of Public Health.
Joseph G. Allen, DSc, MPH, is an associate professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and co-author of Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Drive Performance and Productivity. At Harvard, Dr. Allen directs the Healthy Buildings program, where he created ‘the 9 Foundations of a Healthy Building’. He is also a Certified Industrial Hygienist and Deputy Director of the Harvard Center for Education and Research on Occupational Health and Safety. Dr. Allen has been a leading voice in the response to COVID-19. He is an expert member of the Lancet Commission for COVID-19, and has been advising CEOs across major sectors of the economy: healthcare, academia, finance, media, manufacturing, courts, prisons, shelters, and the arts. He has also been translating the science to the business community and the general public, publishing more than 10 op-eds in leading newspapers translating science into actionable tips for the public.
President Anthony P. Monaco, MD, PhD, serves as the thirteenth president of Tufts University. An accomplished leader, scientist and teacher, Dr. Monaco brings to the Tufts presidency deep-rooted commitments to academic excellence, diversity, access and inclusion, a global perspective, and a keen awareness of the power of higher education to impact individuals and society. Under President Monaco’s leadership, the university has identified strategic directions and key initiatives that will support and enhance Tufts’ longstanding commitments to innovation, collaboration, civic life and global perspectives. Major initiatives of Dr. Monaco’s tenure have included the 2016 acquisition of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, and he has personally led university-wide initiatives on diversity and inclusion, sexual misconduct prevention, student mental health, and sustainable operations. Most recently, President Monaco has been a leader in defining higher education’s role supporting community needs in response to the COVID-19 public health crisis. As a member of the Testing Working Group, joining with other university presidents in Massachusetts, President Monaco helped shape policies and testing protocols critical to universities supporting safe in-person instruction this year. Before coming to Tufts, he spent two decades as a faculty member and senior academic leader at the University of Oxford. Dr. Monaco received his B.A. from Princeton University, and his M.D. and Ph.D. through Harvard Medical School’s Medical Scientist Training Program.
Vice Provost Caroline Attardo Genco, PhD, serves as Tufts University’s Vice Provost of Research. As Vice Provost for Research, Dr. Genco works with faculty and university leadership to develop and help implement strategic research priorities at Tufts, advocates for the research and scholarship mission of all disciplines across all schools and campuses, facilitates strategies to enhance extramurally supported research across the schools from all sources, accelerates interdisciplinary initiatives, and promotes university research accomplishments. Dr. Genco has a distinguished history of excellence in biomedical research and has fostered numerous collaborations across disciplines including immunology, infectious diseases, epidemiology, biomedical engineering, and public health. She oversees pre-award development and administration of grants and contracts; protection, management, and licensing of the University’s intellectual property; the use of human subjects and laboratory animals in research; biosafety; environmental health and safety; and the implementation of the University’s policies on conflict of interest in research and scientific integrity in research and scholarship.
Kwonjune (KJ) Seung, MD, is the Chief of Strategy and policy for Partners in Health’s MA COVID-19 Response, Associate Physician at the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Assistant Professor at the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
The Honorable Joseph A. Curtatone, JD, Mayor of the City of Somerville, MA, has implemented a wide range of reforms and new programs that have earned the city many distinctions by regional and national organizations, including “the best-run city in Massachusetts” (The Boston Globe), one of the "100 Best Communities for Youth" in the nation (America's Promise Alliance), three "All-America City Awards" (the National Civic League), and the designation as one of the 15 most influential cities in the U.S (Boston University study). Curtatone earned his bachelor's from Boston College, a J.D. from New England School of Law, and a Mid-Career Masters in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School. Currently serving a record 8th term, Curtatone is the longest-serving Mayor in the City’s history. Prior to his election to the office, he served as one of Somerville’s four Councilors at Large. After inheriting a government in fiscal crisis, Mayor Curtatone stabilized city finances while expanding services and earning the City its highest bond ratings ever. Under his leadership, the Somerville Public Schools have seen extraordinary growth in test scores, the transformational and Smart Growth development of the Assembly Square neighborhood has become one of the most exciting mixed-use projects on the east coast, and forward-looking investments in the city’s pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure has earned the City status as one of the most walkable and bikeable cities in the nation.
Learn more about the Berkman Klein Center’s Digital Pandemic Response Policy Practice.
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