Center For Health Leadership

Pfizer Moments in Leadership Speaker Series
Sponsored by the Pfizer "Moments in Leadership" Grand Rounds Series and the UCB CHL Student Board.

Distinguished Health Speakers Series, Part 6 featuring Angela Glover Blackwell, J.D.

"Building Healthy Communities for All"

Tuesday April 20, 2010 @ 5:30-7:30pm
Great Hall, UC Berkeley Faculty Club, 2222 Piedmont Ave, UC Berkeley campus

Angela Glover Blackwell, founder and CEO of PolicyLink, started the organization in 1999 to advance economic and social equity in America. A renowned community-building advocate, Ms. Blackwell founded the Oakland Urban Strategies Council, where she pioneered new approaches to neighborhood revitalization. She is a former partner at the public-interest law firm Public Advocates and served as senior vice president of the Rockefeller Foundation. She is the coauthor of the forthcoming Uncommon Ground: Race and America's Future (scheduled for release in 2010) and was a contributor to The Covenant with Black America, Change for America: A Progressive Blueprint for the 44th President, and Ending Poverty in America: How to Restore the American Dream. Please join us for a discussion on 'Building Healthy Communities for All'.

Light refreshments will be served following the talk.

Sponsored by the Student Board for the UC Berkeley SPH Center for Health Leadership

Directions to the event can be found here.

Questions? Contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Distinguished Health Speakers Series, Part 5 featuring Naomi Akers

Wednesday, March 10, 2010 @ 5:30pm

"Community Superheroes:  Cultivating Leadership in Yourself and Others"

Naomi Akers has over 15 years of experience working with marginalized, at-risk populations in the area of public health and social justice. Ms. Akers also has over 10 years of experience working with the sex worker community in San Francisco, both in providing services and as a member of the community herself. She received her BA in Women's Studies, followed by an MPH in Community Service from San Francisco State University. Since 2006 she has served as the Executive Director of the St. James Infirmary in San Francisco, which offers free, confidential, nonjudgmental medical and social services for female, transgender, and male sex workers. St. James Infirmary is also the first occupational safety and health clinic for sex workers run by and for sex workers!

See our flier, attached here.

Distinguished Health Speaker Series, Part 4, featuring Robert Reich

"Progressive Leadership in Healthcare Reform"

February 9, 2010 @ 5:30-7:30
Pauley Ballroom East,  MLK Student Union Bancroft & Telegraph Ave
UC Berkeley campus

Robert Reich,  Professor of Public Policy at UC Berkeley,  has served in three national administrations. A former Rhodes Scholar, Reich served as the 22nd Labor Secretary under President Bill Clinton. Among his accomplishments were helping to implement the Family and Medical Leave Act, raising the minimum wage and leading a crackdown on sweatshops. He currently serves as an adviser to President Barack Obama. He has written twelve books, including The Work of Nations and Locked in the Cabinet;  his most recent book is Supercapitalism. Mr. Reich is co-founding editor of The American Prospect magazine and his commentaries can be heard weekly on public radio's "Marketplace." In addition, Mr. Reich is a political commentator on programs such as Hardball with Chris Matthews, This Week with George Stephanopolous, and CNBC's Kudlow & Company. Time Magazine named him one of the 'Top 10 Most Successful Cabinet Members of the Century' in 2008 and the Wall Street Journal ranked him as one of America's Top 10 Business Thinkers. He received his B.A. from Dartmouth College, his M.A. from Oxford University, and his J.D. from Yale Law School.

Read what Andrea Spillmann '11 thought of the talk here.

Watch the entire talk!

Robert Reich and Health Leadership from Videovoice on Vimeo.

Only have a few minutes? Watch highlights on youtube:

Distinguished Health Speaker Series, Part 3, featuring Dr. Stanley Glantz

October 22, 2009
Dr. Glantz has been a leader in the nonsmokers' rights movement for over three decades and has often been called the "Ralph Nader" of the anti-tobacco movement. He brought to light that smoking is not only a medical problem, but also a social and political issue. Dr. Stan Glantz talked about his path from mathematical models to the heart to the anti-tobacco movement. Along the way he also discussed the need for leadership in the face of impending cuts to the UC system.

Read what Isabella Taylor '11 thought of the talk here.

Distinguished Health Speaker Series, Part 2, featuring Dr. Paul Farmer

March 17, 2009

Now available online! UC Berkeley Webcast | YouTube video | iTunes

Featuring Dr. Paul Farmer, Co-Founder of Partners in Health, Professor of Social Medicine, Medical Anthropologist, Physician, and Writer: Rethinking Health and Human Rights

Using the framework of the human right to health, Dr. Paul Farmer spoke about:

• Community-based care to improve health outcomes in settings of great poverty
• Disease-specific interventions to strengthen primary health care.

Distinguished Health Speaker Series, Part 1, featuring Emily Friedman

February 5, 2009

Featuring Emily Friedman, Independent Health Policy and Ethics Analyst

Creating Change: Leadership for the Health of the Public - and the Republic

Professionals in public health fields sometimes think they are disfavored in the pecking order of the health care system. However, great leadership in public health has repeatedly created major and necessary change in that system. Activist U.S. Surgeons General, epidemiologists, biostatisticians, infectious disease specialists, environmental scientists, and health services researchers started the war against tobacco use, demonstrated varying physician practice patterns, fought the early battles against the spread of HIV, helped create awareness of environmental hazards, and forced health care professionals to take the quality of care seriously. In each case, the challenges were huge, the obstacles many, and the risks substantial. But great public health leaders know what they can accomplish.