EWC to host tandem lecture series

Eastern Wyoming College will host a tandem lecture series titled “Environment, Health, and Biology” October 4 and 5 featuring Dr. Jake Morgan, a visiting speaker from Boston Medical Center, and Mr. Chris Wenzel, Science and Mathematics Division Chair at Eastern Wyoming College.

Morgan’s lecture “Stop, Drop, and Treat: Using What We Know to Address the Opioid Crisis” will explore the problem of opioid use in Wyoming and across the nation and explore what researchers and public health officials are doing in the face of the opioid crisis by examining real world solutions and the consequences of inaction in the face of the crisis. Currently, Dr. Morgan serves as a postdoctoral health services researcher specializing in health economics and simulation modeling. His work is funded through the National Institute on Drug Abuse and he collaborates with the Center for Health Economics of Treatment Interventions for Substance Use Disorder, HCV, and HIV (CHERISH), which is an NIDA funded center of excellence. He also works with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to inform substance abuse treatment policy.  Dr. Morgan is the co-author of a number of articles, which have appeared in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, Journal of AIDS & Clinical Research, Annals of Internal Medicine, and the Journal of Public Health, among others. He has also been an invited speaker at a number of national and international conferences.

Morgan’s presentation will be held October 4 at 6:00 p.m. on the EWC Torrington campus in the CTEC Building Room 101. The talk is open and the public is encouraged to attend.

On October 5, at 12:00 p.m., in room TEB 131 on the Torrington campus, Morgan and Wenzel, along with an invited group of scholars, will host a roundtable on concerning Health and Environmental Research. The public is invited to attend.

October 5 at 6:00 p.m. in CTEC 101 on the Torrington campus, Wenzel will present his talk “Microbiomes: Their Influence on Our Health and Our Environment,” discussing the impact of microbiomes on our disease resistance, food processing, and nutrition. Further, the talk will discuss the ways in which the study of microbiomes is critical to further understanding biodiversity and the survival of all life on the planet.

Wenzel has more than two decades of experience in biological research and teaching, and his current dissertation research in Denitrification Potential of Soil Microbes studies the role of Microbiomes in the North Platte River Valley. Wenzel is the recipient of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant and a member of the IDeA Networks for Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE). He has also been an invited presenter at the Western Society of Soil Science Symposium.

This lecture series is hosted by EWC Speech and Debate.  For information, please contact Mr. Jeremy Christensen at 307.532.8367.

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