MCLA to Present Panel on COVID-19 Vaccine Featuring Public Health Experts April 8
NORTH ADAMS, MASS. —MCLA will host a virtual panel, “Closing the Gap on Herd Immunity,” featuring three experts in public health at 5 p.m. on April 8. Topics covered will include COVID-19 vaccine access, misinformation, and a look ahead as vaccines become available to wider segments of the population in Massachusetts and across the U.S.
The panelists are Dr. Michelle Williams, dean of the faculty and professor at Harvard College’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Dr. Mary Clarisse Kilayko, a doctor of infectious diseases and internal medicine at Berkshire Health Systems; and Dr. James Lederer, Berkshire Health Systems’ chief medical officer/chief quality officer.
This event is free and open to the public, and community members are welcome to attend, and panelists will be able to answer audience questions about the vaccine. Those who are interested can register at https://tinyurl.com/ejx62yv4. For more information, contact Dr. Nicole Porther, who coordinates MCLA’s public health and community health education major, at Nicole.Porther@mcla.edu.
The panel event was coordinated by students in Porther’s Health Promotion and Planning class. Students helped find health experts who have worked directly on pandemic response in the Berkshires and the Commonwealth with the goal of bringing enhanced understanding around COVID-19 vaccinations to the MCLA and Berkshire community.
Learn more about MCLA’s public health and community health education program at https://www.mcla.edu/academics/academic-departments/community-health-ed/index.php.
About MCLA:
At MCLA, we’re here for all — and focused on each — of our students. Classes are taught by educators who care deeply about teaching, and about seeing their students thrive on every level of their lives. In nearly every way possible, the experience at MCLA is designed to elevate our students as individuals, as leaders, communicators, fully empowered to make their impressions on the world. In addition to our 125-year commitment to public education we have fortified our commitment to equitable academic excellence. For eight of the last 10 years, MCLA has been named a Top Ten College by U.S. News and World Report. MCLA also appears on the organization’s list of top National Public Liberal Arts Colleges, as well as on the top 50 schools in U.S. News’ Social Mobility Ranking, which measures how well schools graduate students who receive Federal Pell Grants.
For more information, go to www.mcla.edu.