Understanding the Covid-19 pandemic: Resilience & recovery

Solving complex challenges like a pandemic requires deep understanding and broad perspectives. The University of Southern Maine’s Muskie School of Public Service and the Maine Center invite you to come learn alongside students in a webinar series about the Covid-19 pandemic. This is an updated and extended version of the webinar series we offered in June 2020.

This webinar series will help you gain a stronger understanding of the Covid-19 pandemic, its local and global impact, and recovery from it. The series consists of a series of lectures delivered by University of Maine System experts and other guests in the fields of public health, policy, law, social work, and business. Each lecturer will present an aspect of the Covid-19 pandemic through their disciplinary lens, highlighting how we understand, track, mitigate, and recover from its impacts. These lectures are being presented as part of a fall semester course at the University of Southern Maine’s Muskie School of Public Service.

You can participate in any and all of the webinars – whatever your schedule allows. All webinars will be recorded and the recordings and transcripts will made available on this webpage. CEUs are available for a fee and require attendance at 10 of the 12 webinars. Closed captioning is available with advance notice.

Thursday September 3

Introduction to the series and the pandemic

• Dr. Nirav Shah, Director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention
• Dr. Dora Anne Mills, Chief Health Improvement Officer at MaineHealth

Thursday September 10

Crisis management and missteps in Covid-19

• Prof. Joseph McDonnell, Professor of Policy, Planning, and Management at the University of Southern Maine Muskie School of Public Service

Thursday September 17

Public health systems and health policy

• Prof. Erika Ziller, Assistant Professor of Public Health at the University of Southern Maine Muskie School of Public Service and the Cutler Institute

Thursday September 24

No lecture

Thursday October 1

Migrant and immigrant issues: Global disparities in impacts and outcomes

• Prof. Anna R. Welch, Sam L. Cohen Refugee and Human Rights Clinical Professor at the University of Maine School of Law
• Prof. Firooza Pavri, Director and Professor of Geography at the University of Southern Maine’s Muskie School of Public Service

Thursday October 8

Rights and freedoms during the pandemic

• Prof. Peter J. Guffin, Visiting Professor of Practice and Co-director of the Information Privacy Law Program at the University of Maine School of Law
• Prof. Dmitry Bam, Vice Dean/Provost and Professor of Law at the University of Maine School of Law

Thursday October 15

International law and federalism

• Prof. Charles Norchi, Benjamin Thompson Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Oceans & Coastal Law at the University of Maine School of Law
• Prof. Jeff Thaler, Professor of Practice at the University of Maine School of Law and Associate University Counsel for the University of Maine System

Thursday October 22

Mental health and vulnerable populations

• Prof. Donna Wampole, Assistant Professor at the University of Southern Maine School of Social Work

Thursday October 29

Criminal justice and social justice

• Prof. Rachel Casey, Assistant Professor at the University of Southern Maine School of Social Work

Thursday November 5

What will economic recovery look like + Rebuilding Maine’s nonprofit sector

• Amanda Rector, State Economist, State of Maine
• Jennifer Hutchins, Executive Director of the Maine Association of Nonprofits

Thursday November 12

Economic and workforce impacts and adaptations

• Prof. Stefano Tijerina, Lecturer in Management at the University of Maine
• Prof. Richard Bilodeau, Lecturer of Entrepreneurship at the University of Southern Maine

Thursday November 19

Community (re)development: Urban planning and rebuilding tourism

• Prof. Yuseung Kim, Associate Professor at the University of Southern Maine Muskie School of Public Service
• Prof. Tracy Michaud, Chair and Assistant Professor in Tourism & Hospitality at the University of Southern Maine Muskie School of Public Service