Class Details
Death by Policy: Our Laws Shape Our Health Outcomes and Tools to Intervene
This seminar is full. We are no longer accepting applications.
Injuries and violence are a leading cause of death for Americans ages 1-64. Examples of these deaths include: gun deaths, suicide, motor vehicle crashes, overdose deaths, drownings, and falls. The outcomes are predictable and preventable but misunderstood by both the public and policymakers alike. As a result, injury and violence prevention (IVP) is under-resourced and policies often lack evidence-based solutions.
The purpose of this interactive course is to get students across disciplines thinking about health in all policy with a focus on IVP. The course combines advocacy strategies, real-life case studies and exercises, guest lectures, and strategic analysis of policy and advocacy approaches. Students will clearly be able to define IVP and public health advocacy, effectively integrate public health science in the advocacy and policy process, build practical skills for engagement and then take part in a Hill Day in Oklahoma City where you will engage with policymakers on IVP.
Enrollment
- Enrollment through your home campus; contact your local OSLEP campus coordinator for information
- OSLEP provides all required reading materials at no additional cost-NO books to buy!
- Housing and meals provided
- In-person residential seminar
Scholar
Dr. Christen Rexing, PhD, MPH, Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban Public Health and Nutrition
La Salle University
Dr. Christen Rexing, PhD, MPH, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban Public Health and Nutrition at La Salle University (Philadelphia, PA). Her research focuses on health policy development and adoption, particularly at the state and federal levels. Her primary injury and violence prevention efforts focus on firearm injury prevention through state gun safety laws. Dr. Rexing also has years of tobacco control research and served on many tobacco prevention grants, writing the Pennsylvania State Tobacco Control Plan, serving on Tobacco Free Campus Task Forces, drafting policy and assessing implementation. In addition to her teaching and research, Dr. Rexing is an active advocate at local, state, and federal-levels for evidence-based policy solutions and funding for injury and violence prevention research. She served on the board for the Society for Advancement of Violence and Injury Research (SAVIR) and as the Advocacy & Policy co-chair, and the chair of the Injury Prevention Grand Rounds. She served as the chair for the College of Physicians of Philadelphia Section on Public Health and Preventive Medicine Public Health Grand Rounds. Currently, she sits on the Code Red Pennsylvania Policy Committee for Gun Violence Prevention, is an advisory member of CPP SPHPM and the Garrett Lee Smith Campus Suicide Prevention Grant, and is a member of the Safe States Alliance Injury & Violence Prevention Network. She develops and designs advocacy trainings for students and professionals, with the goal of engaging them in the process of communicating the science to decision-makers, ensuring health is in all policy. Since public health is shaped by the policies in the places we live, work, and play, Dr. Rexing ran for township council and is serving in her first four-year term.