with Michaela George Ph.D. M.P.H. & Brett Bayles Ph.D. of Dominican University, San Rafael
WHEN?: Wednesday, February 12th, 2025 – TLHS Innovation Hub – 7:30 – 8:30pm
Description: Ever wondered how the flu spreads and how scientists predict what it’s going to do? How about the flu vaccine? Join us to learn all about that and more from two local public health researchers!
Bios: Dr. Michaela George grew up in Marin and has always felt a strong connection to her community. After several trips to the east coast for her education (Middlebury College in Vermont and Boston University in Massachusetts), she settled in the Bay Area to pursue her passion for epidemiology and public health. Dr. George joined the Global Public Health program at Dominican University in 2019. She earned her Masters of Public Health (MPH) with a concentration in Epidemiology from Boston University School of Public Health, and her PhD in Epidemiology from the University of California, Berkeley. In the past, Michaela has worked on research projects at UC Berkeley, UCSF, and Boston Medical Center in the Pediatrics Department. She also has a long history of incorporating students into her research, both in the classroom and the community. Currently, she is working on several research projects with Marin County Health & Human Services designed to predict opioid overdoses and understand cadmium exposure and breast cancer. She has also established relationships with partners like Center for Domestic Peace, the Ritter Center, the Rite of Passage Research Collaboration, and Play Marin, using her expertise to evaluate existing programs, design research studies to answer grant-funded questions, and develop sustainable strategies to enact change.
Brett Bayles’s research focuses on planetary health and on better understanding the human health impacts of global environmental change. He utilizes an interdisciplinary approach to address these themes, leveraging spatial statistics and qualitative and quantitative epidemiological methods. Recent research collaborations include vector-borne disease epidemiology in Costa Rica, tick-borne disease emergence in the Midwest, malaria in Uganda, biological invasions in California, and ecosystem services in Kenya. He teaches courses in epidemiology, applied biostatistics, global environmental health, and planetary health perspectives. Brett earned his MPH with a focus on Biosecurity, and his PhD in Public Health Studies at Saint Louis University.
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