SALEM — Coronavirus will keep Dr. Paul Farmer from speaking to a live audience. But the international health expert will headline the Salem State University speaker series on July 15, at 6 p.m. with his thoughts on how to defeat the pandemic.
The event will be complimentary and held virtually. Registration is required at salemstate.edu/series. Login information will be emailed prior to the event.
Salem State spokeswoman Nicole Giambusso said Dr. Farmer is the popular series’ first and only 2020 speaker given coronavirus limitations on public gatherings.
Dr. Mallika Marshall, an Emmy-award winning journalist and physician who serves as the regular health reporter at WBZ-TV in Boston, will guide Farmer’s conversation, including his role in tracing coronavirus’ spread in Massachusetts.
The co-founder and chief strategist of international non-profit Partners in Health (PIH), Dr. Farmer will discuss how COVID-19 contact tracing can help stop the pandemic’s spread.
“Dr. Farmer has dedicated his life to improving health care for the world’s most disadvantaged populations, and written extensively on health, human rights and the consequences of social inequality,” Salem State announced in a statement.
Since 1987, PIH has provided direct health care services and undertaken research and advocacy activities on behalf of those who are sick and living in poverty, according to a statement provided by Salem State.
The organization’s expertise in responding to outbreaks around the world make it uniquely positioned to respond to COVID-19 needs not only in Massachusetts, but worldwide.
Through PIH, Dr. Farmer and his colleagues in the U.S. and around the world have pioneered novel community-based treatment strategies that help give resource-poor areas access to high-quality health care.
Dr. Farmer holds an MD and PhD from Harvard University, where he is the Kolokotrones University Professor and the chair of the department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He has received numerous honors,
including the Bronislaw Malinowski Award and the Margaret Mead Award from the American Anthropological Association.
Dr. Marshall is a cum laude graduate of Harvard College. She received her medical degree with honors at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine and completed her medical residency at Harvard in internal medicine and pediatrics. Marshall is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honors Society, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the National Association of Black Journalists.
She also has served on the Board of Trustees for the Urgent Care Foundation and the Board of Directors for Dress for Success Boston. Marshall was awarded an honorary degree from Salem State University in 2010.
Founded in 1982 and described by Salem State as one of the first high-profile speaker series in the country, the Salem State University Series has hosted countless world leaders, artists, athletes, and intellectuals on its suburban North Shore campus.
The Series, presented under the auspices of the Salem State University Foundation, is pleased to announce that Denorabilia, LLC is the presenting sponsor for the July 15 event. A full list of sponsors can be found at salemstate.edu/series.