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A visiting expert in public health nursing will discuss environmental influences on health and diseases during the 18th annual Dorothy Hussain Distinguished Lecture.

Dr. Ruth McDermott-Levy will present “Looking Back and Moving Forward: Addressing Past and Emerging Environmental Risks” at 4 p.m. Tuesday, March 24, in the Collier Building Room 1000 A/B on The University of Toledo’s Health Science Campus.

Attendees are encouraged to register via the event’s website.

The free, public lecture will also be presented virtually via WebEx, but registration is required.

“The Dorothy Hussain Distinguished Lecture enables us to host experts each year on topics with real-life implications for our nursing students, faculty and the broader community,” said Dr. Eileen Walsh, senior associate dean for academic affairs and chief nurse administrator in the College of Health and Human Services. “Environmental health is an essential focus and increasingly important topic in our field. We look forward to insights from Dr. Ruth Mc-Dermott-Levy.”

McDermott-Levy brings a wealth of expertise in environmental health, a subspeciality of public health that considers how factors such as human-made pollution, naturally occurring substances, and environmental change adversely affect the health of individuals or their communities.

She has completed extensive research on environmental and public health nursing, including as a 2018-19 Fulbright-Saastamoinen Foundation Health and Environmental Science to Finland, and currently serves as a professor in the M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing at Villanova University outside Philadelphia and as co-director of the Mid-Atlantic Center for Children’s Health and the Environment at Villanova.

The Mid-Atlantic Center for Children’s Health and the Environment is one of 10 Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Units in the United States. It is the only unit led fully by nurses.

The Alliance of Nurses for Health Environments recognized McDermott-Levy for leadership in environmental health nursing with the Charlotte Brody Award in 2020.

The Dorothy Hussain Distinguished Lecture is named after the late Dorothy Gladys Hussain, whose professional career spanned 32 years as a staff nurse and critical care nurse at the former Medical College of Ohio Hospital. She was known for patient advocacy and championing patients’ rights.

Dr. S. Amjad Hussain, a professor emeritus of medicine and humanities at UToledo, will moderate.

Visitor parking requires payment through the ParkMobile app, a parking meter or a daily permit via ParkUToledo. Visit the ParkUToledo website for more information.