We host a Speaker Series on asylum, refugee, and immigration issues. Talks are held at Puentes de Salud at 1700 South St.
Note: Due to COVID-19, talks have been moved to a Virtual Platform.
Enter your email below to join the listserv for our Speaker Series, or if you would like to suggest a speaker or topic, contact us at phrcspeakerseries@gmail.com
December 4, 2020
Edafe Okporo is an activist, author of Asylum; a memoir and manifesto, among other works, and the executive director of RDJ Refugee Shelter, the only shelter in New York City that specifically serves refugees and asylum-seekers experiencing homelessness. In 2020, he was the recipient of the David Prize award for his incredible work and contributions to New York.
In 2016, Okporo migrated to the United States as an asylum seeker after being threatened and assaulted for being gay in the aftermath of a same-sex marriage ban in Nigeria. Once in the U.S., he was held in a detention center for 5 months and spent time in homeless shelters. In addition to his work at RDJ Refugee Shelter, he is now working towards his master’s degree at NYU.
November 30, 2020
Dr. Colleen Payton is an Assistant Professor of Public Health at Moravian College where she teaches global health, epidemiology, and biostatistics courses. She is Vice Chair of the Research, Evaluation, and Ethics Committee of the Society of Refugee Healthcare Providers. Dr. Payton has worked on refugee health surveillance projects at Thomas Jefferson University’s Center for Refugee Health. Her work has focused on the prevalence of communicable and non-communicable disease, women’s health screenings, and vaccinations. She has published her work in peer-review journals such as Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the American Journal of Public Health, and the Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health. She is also a member of the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) and the American Public Health Association (APHA).
August 30, 2020
Carly Slater is a third-year medical student at Sidney Kimmel Medical College and a graduate of the Narrative Medicine Master’s Degree Program at Columbia University. She has taught narrative medicine workshops across the US and in Italy. Workshops consist of a close reading of a text, work of art or film, followed by group discussion and analysis of the work, writing in response to a prompt, and sharing written work with the group. Carly has a Master’s Degree in Italian Literary Studies from Middlebury College and a Bachelor’s Degree in Hispanic Studies from Columbia University.
Carly will be hosting a virtual narrative medicine workshop that will give participants an opportunity to reflect on healthcare, social determinants of health, and the human condition.
July 6, 2020
Dr. Marc Altshuler is a Professor of Family Medicine and Residency Director for the Jefferson Family Medicine residency program. In 2007, the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University began a partnership with the Nationalities Services Center (NSC), a refugee resettlement program in Philadelphia, to initiate health screenings and provide medical assistance to refugees and asylum seekers. Based on this partnership, Dr. Altshuler launched the Jefferson Center for Refugee Health, becoming the organization’s Director. He is also a founding member of the Philadelphia Refugee Health Collaborative and a clinical leader for the recently funded Hansjörg Wyss Wellness Center, which will be based in South Philadelphia.
June 25, 2020
Dr. Esther Chernak is an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Health, Drexel University School of Public Health, and the Drexel University College of Medicine. She is also the Director of the Center for Public Health Readiness and Communication at Drexel. Her academic work focuses on initiatives that enhance public health and health care capacity at the local and state level, improve the preparedness of at-risk communities, build community resilience, and facilitate emergency risk communication. Dr. Chernak worked at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health for over 25 years, serving as Medical Director and Program Manager of the Acute Communicable Disease Control and Public Health Emergency Preparedness Programs.
December 3, 2019
Jonah Eaton specializes in refugee and asylum law and is the Nationalities Service Center’s Philadelphia Partnership for Resilience (PPR) staff attorney, providing pro bono legal representation for victims of torture. In addition to his PPR work, Mr. Eaton represents immigrants in a wide range of legal issues before USCIS, Immigration Court, and U.S. District Court and Court of Appeals. Mr. Eaton co-teaches the Refugee Law and Policy class at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Prior to joining NSC, he was a Bates Fellow at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Bureau for Europe in Brussels, Belgium, where he worked on impact litigation before the European Court of Justice and litigation involving refugee rights in the European Union. In a prior life, Jonah was a boat builder and carpenter. Mr. Eaton is a graduate of Swarthmore College and the University of Michigan Law School.
Jonah will be discussing asylum and immigration policy at the US-Mexico border. Jonah and the Nationalities Service Center are wonderful partners of the PHRC so be sure to come learn more about this topic that is so central to the work we do.
April 23, 2019
Dr. Meredith Hickson is a Pediatric Resident at CHOP. Her academic interests include child migration, women’s and children’s rights, and the neurodevelopmental consequences of poverty. Meredith was a Fogarty Scholar in Uganda in 2016-2017, focusing on neurodevelopment in children with severe malaria and in-utero malaria exposure. During medical school, she was a Health Disparities Scholar with the Michigan Institute of Clinical and Health Research. Prior to medical school, Meredith worked with Children’s Health Watch as a health policy intern. She served with the Peace Corps in Senegal from 2011 to 2013 as a Preventative Health Educator. Meredith is an alumna of the University of Michigan Medical School (2018) and Oberlin College (2010).
We will be discussing Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C), with a focus on the epidemiology, clinical description, and consequences of the practice. This talk is geared toward healthcare providers and students who may encounter women and girls who have experienced FGM/C in their clinical practice. We will also discuss FGM/C as grounds for asylum under US federal law.
March 21, 2019
Gretchen Shanfeld, the Director of Health and Wellness at Nationalities Service Center (NSC), shared her experiences working with immigrant and refugee populations to access healthcare in Philadelphia. She highlighted the recent advances in mental health available to refugees through NSC, including art therapy and movement therapy. Gretchen introduced the different processes for seeking defensive asylum, affirmative asylum, and refugee status, and defined the push-pull theory of migration.
February 12, 2019
We are excited to host Cathi Tillman, the founding Executive Director of La Puerta Abierta (LPA). Cathi is a licensed social worker, family therapist and clinical supervisor who has worked with families in community settings over the past 35 years, focusing on engagement of marginalized communities of youth and families in both the U.S. and in Latin America. She founded La Puerta Abierta to provide pro bono individual and family counseling, community-based groups, and peer mentorship training to support the mental health of the Latinx immigrant community, with a focus on youth and families.
LPA operates from a community-informed, empowerment model of support that respectfully challenges traditional models of “mental health” care and thrives on healthy partnerships and collaborations across many communities. Cathi spoke about this organizational model and how aspects of it can be replicated in other environments that serve immigrants.
January 15, 2019
Nancy Ayllón-Ramírez, an attorney with Justice at Work Legal Aid, taught us about labor trafficking. Victims of labor trafficking may experience wage theft, work for long hours without compensation, fail to receive proper medical treatment or compensation for work-related injuries, and be threatened with physical violence or deportation if they are undocumented. If you recognize a potential victim of labor trafficking, you can refer them to Justice at Work for a free legal consultation (language interpretation is available) to discuss their experience and their legal rights. Trafficking victims may be eligible to apply for a T-visa, allowing them to stay in the United States.
”Employment law covers all workers regardless of status.
December 4, 2018
May 8, 2018
The New Sanctuary Movement (NSM) is a faith-based multicultural immigrant rights organization that works to combat discriminatory practices that interfere with the lives of immigrants. Blanca Pacheco is a community organizer from Ecuador who has been working with immigrants since 2006. She helped create “Know Your Rights” trainings at NSM which empower immigrants with tools to stay safe, and was honored with the Bread and Roses Emerging Leader Award in 2010.
”Take care of the immigrant as a whole person instead of just an immigration status.
April 3, 2018
Dr. Jasjit Beausang from the Drexel Women’s Care Center presented a lecture and hosted an interactive session on Female Genital Cutting (FGC). Dr. Beausang has extensive experience working with women who have experienced FGC and addressed the local impact, medical issues, and clinical pearls relating to FGC. She also discussed her work with the Philadelphia International Women’s Project, a partnership between the Drexel Medicine Women’s Care Center, Nationalities Services Center (NSC), and the African Family Health Organization (AFAHO), which works to educate the community about FGC and provide care to women who have experienced it.
February 6, 2018
Dr. Katherine Yun is a pediatrician at CHOP who has an interest in refugee and immigrant health. She works at the CHOP refugee clinic and Puentes de Salud. She works closely with BAOP and developed a program to train community health navigators to improve care coordination and health outcomes for Bhutanese refugees.
January 16, 2018
Cathy Jeong is the team lead for Philadelphia Partnership for Resilience (PPR) Collaborative and oversees the Collaborative to provide and expand services to survivors of torture in the greater Philadelphia region. She is a social worker who has worked in direct services with human trafficking and immigrant populations in both local and international capacities for nine years.
December 7, 2017
Dr. Katherine Sherif is Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University. She is also the Director of Jefferson Women’s Primary Care. Dr. Sherif founded the first center for PCOS in 2000, and published texts on women’s health and hormone therapy. She also has an extensive background working with human rights organizations and asylum seekers. She completed the Clinical Fellowship in Medicine & Human Rights at Columbia University College of Physicians & Scientists, through which she spent 6 months in Cairo. She shared her experience working with various human rights organizations in Egypt.
October 17, 2017
Leela Kuikel is a refugee and the founding Executive Director of The Bhutanese American Organization of Philadelphia (BAOP). BAOP is a community organization servicing newly resettled Bhutanese refugees in the Philadelphia region. Mr. Kuikel presented about the unique challenges that the Bhutanese refugee community faces and his experience in working with and being a part of this community.