Engaging discussions about today’s public health landscape
The MaineHealth Center for Health Improvement (CHI) has assembled an exciting panel of respected leaders to discuss important public health issues impacting Maine and the nation. Our virtual Public Health Grand Rounds series is open to anyone interested in learning more about public health and we would love to see you there!
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Register for an upcoming webinar to attend live or view recordings of past webinars on YouTube.
Tim is the Director of Surveillance Evaluation and Assessment at MaineHealth, received his Master of Science in Public Health in 1994 with a concentration in epidemiology. He has since worked as an analyst and administrator on numerous program evaluation and quality improvement projects with expertise in tobacco use, chronic disease and suicide. He is currently the Director of Surveillance Evaluation and Assessment at MaineHealth, where he leads efforts to prioritize community health issues that guide system resource allocation. He also oversees data analysis and reporting to identify effective strategies and assess the collective impact of partner organizations.
Chair of the Common Health Coalition, a not-for-profit organization, created to help ensure the US health system is prepared to confront the next crisis. Dr. Chokshi is currently practicing as a physician at Bellevue Hospital and the inaugural Sternberg Family Professor of Leadership at the City College of New York. He previously served as the 43rd Commissioner of Health for New York City where he led the city’s COVID response including a campaign to vaccinate over six million New Yorkers. Dr. Chokshi was Rhodes Scholar and White House Fellow and is recognized as a transformative leader.
Ms. Rhoden is senior vice president and executive director, Division for Health Outcomes and Care Transformation at the American Hospital Association (AHA). In her role, Joy has broad oversight for several key association priorities and functions related to addressing health disparities and promoting healthy communities. She also serves as a member of the executive management team of the AHA. She began working at the AHA in late 2018 as vice president, strategic policy planning where she led the Association’s efforts to identify long-term public policy issues, presenting solutions to further the AHA’s vision and mission. She provided leadership in organizing member work groups to ensure members’ involvement, gaining the value of their insights and perspectives to elevate the visibility of the AHA as a thought leader and agent of change around critical issues in health care in America.
Dr. Osterholm is Regents Professor, McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair in Public Health, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, a professor in the Technological Leadership Institute, College of Science and Engineering, and an adjunct professor in the Medical School, all at the University of Minnesota. In early 2025, Dr. Osterholm and colleagues founded the Vaccine Integrity Project, a key initiative dedicated to safeguarding vaccine use in the US. He is also author of the new book, The Big One: How We Must Prepare for Future Deadly Pandemics. In 2020, Dr. Osterholm served on President Biden’s COVID-19 transition advisory board. From June 2018 through May 2019, he served as a Science Envoy for Health Security on behalf of the US Department of State.
View past webinars:
This inspiring webinar with Dr. Georges Benjamin includes insight from his leadership with the American Public Health Association (APHA) and his advice for public health professionals includes building relationships with policymakers and sharing expertise at the local, state and national levels. Dr. Benjamin is the Executive Director of APHA and is known as one of the nation's most influential physician leaders. Benjamin served as the secretary of health in Maryland in 1999 and also was the deputy secretary for public health services. He is board-certified in internal medicine and a master of the American College of Physicians, a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, a fellow emeritus of the American College of Emergency Physicians and an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health. He co-authored “Public Health Under Siege - Improving Policy in Turbulent Times”. His engaging presentation highlights current public health challenges as well as clear strategies to address them.
This engaging webinar includes Dr. Tom Frieden’s insight and learnings from his extensive career in public health and his new book “The Formula for Better Health: How to Save Millions of Lives – Including Your Own.”
Dr. Tom Frieden is a physician who served as the Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from 2009 to 2017. He is also the former Commissioner of the New York City Health Department. Frieden's career in public health began in New York City, where he led efforts to address the largest outbreak of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in the U.S. As CDC Director, he oversaw the agency's response to the 2014 West Africa Ebola epidemic. He also focused on reducing healthcare-associated infections and launched the CDC's Vital Signs publication, which highlights critical health problems and provides actionable solutions.
Following his tenure at the CDC, Frieden founded the global health initiative, Resolve to Save Lives, where as President and CEO he works with over 50 partner countries to prevent deaths from epidemics and cardiovascular diseases. He has received dozens of prestigious awards including the Julius B. Richmond Award from Harvard University, Time Magazine 100 most influential people, New York 1’s New Yorker of the Year, and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine. Since 2017, he has served as a member of the Independent Monitoring Board for global polio eradication.
This fascinating webinar is focused on the ongoing analysis of Maine’s economic and demographic conditions.
Amanda Rector highlights the demographic trends that impact all aspects of the state’s economy, including income distributions, health insurance coverage, labor force participation, and employment growth. She shares data that shows the growth in migration to Maine during the pandemic and the current projections that show growth slowing further and shifting to a decline.
This interactive, insightful and entertaining webinar is focused on the importance of nutritious food and how it can be used as medicine. Corby Kummer is considered the “Dean among food writers in America” and he spent time sharing thoughts and answering questions from the MaineHealth CHI Food Is Medicine team and other care team members.
Kummer is executive director of Food & Society at the Aspen Institute, a senior lecturer at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science, and a senior editor of The Atlantic, for which he was a longtime food columnist and originated a vertical on food, sustainability, policy, and food justice. He attended the Loomis-Chafee School and received a BA from Yale College. He is the author of The Joy of Coffee and The Pleasures of Slow Food, the first book in English on the slow food movement, and has been restaurant critic of New York, Boston, and Atlanta Magazines and a food and food policy columnist for The New Republic.
This fascinating webinar focuses on the impacts of American regional history and culture on public health. New York Times bestselling author, historian and award-winning journalist, Colin Woodard, is known for his work on North American regionalism, the history of the United States, and international affairs.
He is the author of several books, including "American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America" and “Lobster Coast.” He is currently the Director of Nationhood Lab at Salve Regina University's Pell Center. A native of Maine, he is also a State and National Affairs Writer for the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram.
This engaging webinar describes the importance of social connections and outlines the strategies that are effective in addressing it. Robert Putnam, PhD discusses his theory of how declining community engagement has created an American civic crisis. His points center on the importance of community as integral to the success of democracy.
Putnam is a professor and former Dean at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and author of several ground-breaking books. There is also a documentary based on his work titled “Join or Die” that is available on Netflix.
This webinar outlines critical components needed for change in health care. Zeev Neuwirth, MD lays out the three domains that are transforming health care and weaves together the stories of individual and organizational exemplars who are going beyond the walls of our legacy health care system to create a more personalized, effective and humane system of care.
Neuwirth is a health care executive with over 30 years of combined experience in clinical practice, clinical operations, process improvement, population health and innovation. He most recently served as the Chief of Care Transformation at Atrium Health, now part of Advocate Health.
This webinar examines the role of the midwifery care model in improving maternal health outcomes within health systems, identifies key practices in high-income countries that contribute to enhanced maternal health outcomes and their relevance to policy and explores actionable strategies that U.S. health systems can adopt to improve outcomes in maternal health.
Munira Gunja, MPH is a senior researcher at The Commonwealth Fund for International Programs in Health Policy and Practice Innovations. Previously, she worked at the US Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Health Care Access and Coverage, receiving the Secretary’s Award for Distinguished Service for two consecutive years.
MaineHealth Center for Health Improvement
The MaineHealth Center for Health Improvement was founded in 1997 to support the achievement of the health system’s vision of “working together so our communities are the healthiest in America."