PROGRAM

This seminar will explore various ways that food and health policies conflict, interact synergistically and where there are opportunities for better alignment.

In particular the seminar will make constructive comparisons between New York/ London and USA/ UK.  Professor Atkinson’s background includes being Director of Public Health for London, and Health Advisor to the London Mayor and Greater London Authority, with involvement at that time of the development of the Food Strategy for London. Professor Atkinson is currently on the Board of the Food Standards Agency for the UK, the approximate equivalent to the food side of the United States Food and Drug Administration.

Some of the topics Atkinson and Freudenberg hope to cover in the seminar will relate to the power of Big Food Industries and their influence on national and city policies, both legitimate and illegitimate, the ‘responsibility deal’ approach in England (a partnership between government and industry to set health guidelines), the role of CSR ( Corporate Social Responsibility) and how it is interpreted by different companies, the potential and limits of municipal governments to improve food environments, and the interfaces between food safety and nutrition and how these can be used to greater effect. The seminar is flexible and faculty participants are invited to help shape the seminar’s content.  Suggestions are welcomed and will help frame the course of the work.

This seminar series will be of most interest to participants who have some prior scholarship or professional activities relevant to the broad themes and possibly who have a specific topic or project that they want to explore or develop over the course of the seminar.

The time and dates for the seminar are :
Tuesday 9 am to 11 am, (the time set by the Roosevelt House Institute based on prior faculty polls)

September 4th
October 2nd
October  23rd
November 6th
November 27th
December 4th
December 18th
Participants are expected to attend at least five of the sessions.

SPEAKERS

Sue Atkinson CBE BSc MB BChir MA FFPH  Convening Professor

Sue Atkinson is a senior executive and public health doctor with wide experience in public policy development, implementation and general management. For the last twenty years she has focussed on the improvement of population health in urban areas, in particular on identifying and tackling health disparities among different populations on issues such as obesity, nutrition, child health and chronic disease prevention. Her inspirational work in London and the metropolitan area has contributed to the development of programs for children and young people, substance misuse, TB and HIV/AIDs and programs that address the many challenges faced by transient and immigrant populations.
Between 1999 and 2006 Dr. Atkinson directed the Public Health Services in Southern and Western England. She was then appointed the first Director of Public Health for London, a position that was established to advise the Mayor on health matters, not only within the City of London itself but throughout the Greater London Authority. She is currently Visiting Professor at the University of London, in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health and the Institute of Health Equity.


Nicholas Freudenberg, Dr.P.H.  Convening Professor , Distinguished Professor of Urban Public Health at Hunter College, City University of New York

From 1997-2003, Nicholas Freudenberg was Director of the Program in Urban Public Health, an MPH program that prepares public health professionals to promote health and prevent disease in diverse urban communities. From 1988 to 1997, he served as Executive Director of the Hunter College Center on AIDS, Drugs and Community Health, a research and action center that assists low income communities in New York City to develop, implement and evaluate interventions to improve health and well-being.

Dr. Freudenberg has worked with community organizations in New York City on a variety of health issues including asthma, lead poisoning, infant mortality, HIV infection, substance abuse and others. For many years he has worked with people in New York City jails to facilitate successful community reentry and currently serves as principal investigator for REAL MEN, a NIDA funded project to help young African American and Latino men leaving jail to consider healthy pathways to manhood, and the New York City Community Reintegration Project, a policy advocacy effort to re-direct public policy from incarceration to reintegration. Dr. Freudenberg has written or edited three books and many articles.




Fall 2012 Roosevelt Public Policy Institute Seminar Series on Food and Health | Posted on October 2nd, 2012 | Faculty Seminars