Keynote Speakers

Suzanne Carlberg-Racich

From Rhetoric to Revolution: Our Collective Role in Ending the Opioid Crisis

Suzzane is an Assistant Professor in the Master of Public Health Program where she works to illuminate, contextualize, and advance social justice. Her research examines the lived experiences of individuals who are isolated by the intersection of stigma and policy that permeates health systems, social services, and broader society. A purposeful blend of scholar, practitioner, teacher, and activist, Dr. Carlberg-Racich works to improve health equity directly in communities, most notably through her work with the Chicago Recovery Alliance. In her scholarship, Dr. Carlberg-Racich is motivated by the use of community-based participatory research practices that maximize partnership, the strategic dissemination of findings to advocate for change, and the evaluation of public health interventions to establish best practices.

Abigail A. Sewell

The Illness of Surveillance: Race, Policing and the Communities Left Behind

Abigail is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Emory University and Founding Director of The Race and Policing Project. Specializing in advancing quantitative approaches to racism studies, they have identified empirical links between the political economy of race and racial health and healthcare disparities using policing and housing policy data. Their work has been published in a variety of outlets, including Social Science and Medicine, Social Science Research,Sociological Forum, Journal of Urban Health, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, Du Bois Review, and the Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law. Their research has garnered support and recognition from the National Institutes of Health, the Ford Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Society for the Study of Social Problems, the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. They received their Ph.D. and M.A. in Sociology from Indiana University with a minor in Social Science Research Methods and their B.A. summa cum laude in Sociology from the University of Florida with a minor in Women’s Studies.

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