A conversation with Dr. Magdalena Cerdá

Director of the NYU Langone Health, Center for Opioid Epidemiology and Policy,

Department of Population Health, New York University School of Medicine

Interview by:

Scott Higham, JRN'85, The Washington Post Investigations unit

The conversation will focus on understanding how the opioid overdose epidemic started and how it has evolved to the present time. The discussion will also cover what we know about who is most affected by this problem, and what the causes of the epidemic have been. Finally, the conversation will focus on current evidence on some of the most effective approaches to address this crisis.

Cosponsored by:

Delta Omega's Omega Chapter of Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University

Social: 6:00pm to 6:30pm
Interview/Q&A: 6:30pm to 8:30pm

Magdalena Cerdá is an Associate Professor in the Department of Population Health at the New York University School of Medicine, and the Director of the NYU Center for Opioid Epidemiology and Policy. She obtained her doctorate from the Harvard University School of Public Health in 2006, and is a former Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholar. Her research focuses on the effects that state and national drug and health policies have on drug abuse, and on the ways urban neighborhoods shape violence. Dr. Cerdá has more than 150 publications in peer-reviewed journals, in addition to six chapters in major textbooks. Current funded research focuses on the impact that cannabis laws and opioid policies have on substance abuse, mental illness, and associated health problems in the United States and South America.

Scott Higham is a Pulitzer Prize-winning member of the investigations unit of The Washington Post. Since joining The Post in 2000, he has examined the deaths of foster children, waste and fraud in Homeland Security contracts, the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prisons, and conflicts of interest on Capitol Hill. He has also investigated the offshore banking industry; allegations of misconduct against Bill Cosby, Brian Williams and Roger Ailes; and fraudulent and wasteful spending in Iraq and Afghanistan by a Washington-based nonprofit. In addition, he examined fatal police shootings and the civil consequences for families and municipalities, the hunt for missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, Marco Rubio and his family connection to a cocaine kingpin, the rise of the Islamic State and its use of U.S. social media, the murder of Chandra Levy and the causes behind the opioid epidemic, among many other projects.

Before joining The Post, Higham worked for the Allentown Morning Call, the Baltimore Sun and the Miami Herald, where he handled local government beats, criminal courts and investigative assignments. In a previous life, he worked in an electronics factory on Long Island, wiring and soldering circuit boards for F-15 fighter jets. He left the assembly line to attend Suffolk Community College, Stony Brook University and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism before heading off to the Leigh Valley of Pennsylvania to begin his reporting career.