Understanding the Covid-19 pandemic (Fall 2020)
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.
Details
Thursdays, September 3 – November 19
5:00pm – 6:00pm
FREE webinar series
1.2 CEUs available (with a processing fee)
This series has concluded but you can still view the lecture recordings. Scroll down to find the links.
Series Overview
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.
Schedule of Lectures
Part 1: The Pandemic Hits
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
Part 2: Rolling Impacts & Outcomes
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. Dmitry Bam, Vice Dean/Provost and Professor of Law at the University of Maine School of Law
- Prof. Scott Bloomberg, Associate 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

Part 3: Planning the Recovery
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


Media point of contact: Firooza Pavri (firooza.pavri@maine.edu)
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