Launched in 2008, the James E. Dalen, MD, MPH Distinguished Lecture for Health Policy was established to honor Dr. Dalen’s countless lifelong contributions to the advancement of The University of Arizona and his key role in establishing the Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. The annual lecture in his name is designed to raise awareness of public health issues and introduce our audience to emerging ideas from leading experts. These distinguished scholars offer lectures and discussions to our campus community and to the public on local, state, national and international healthy policy issues, and connect the academic world with the “real world” of public health.
2023 Dalen Lecture
Due to staff transitions in the college, the Dalen Lecture was not held in 2023. Watch for news about our upcoming 2024 Dalen Lecture.
Past Lectures
- 2022: The Microbiome in Health and Disease
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The Microbiome in Health and Disease
Dr. Ghishan will be discussing the role of gut microbiota in the health and disease state. The concept of eubiosis and dysbiosis will be discussed. Our gastrointestinal tract is home for tens of trillions of microorganisms encompassing more than 500 different species of bacteria, resulting in more than 3.3 million bacterial genes compared to the 23,000 genes in our human body. His lab in the Steele Children’s Research Center at the University of Arizona has been pioneering the role of transport proteins of electrolytes and nutrients in the gastrointestinal tract and determining the changes in our gut microbiome that result from knocking out these proteins. This lecture will introduce the audience to the bacterial diversity present in humans. Greater bacterial diversity is associated with the microbiota’s ability to deal with stressors such as opportunistic pathogens or dietary perturbations. The role of diet and lifestyle in shaping our gut microbiota into a eubiotic state will be discussed. Suggestions will be given as to dietary changes that allow us to live in harmony with our bacterial flora. The role of pre- and probiotics will also be addressed. Our understanding of the gut microbiota truly can influence our path to personalized good health.
Presented by Fayez K. Ghishan, MD
Dr. Ghishan is a board-certified pediatric gastroenterologist and an internationally recognized expert in gastroenterology and related basic and clinical research. His laboratory has been in the forefront of the characterization of the microbiome in relation to nutrient gene expression and autoimmune disorder such as inflammatory bowel diseases. He has authored more than 250 original publications and is an associate editor for the major textbook, Physiology of the Gastrointestinal Tract, Volumes 1 and 2, currently in its 6th edition, 2018, and winner of a 2013 Highly Commended BMA Medical Book Award for Internal Medicine.
His research has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health throughout his more than 40-year career. He has received two prestigious MERIT Awards from the NIH – one in 1996 and a second in 2008. Among the many honors and awards he has received over the years, Dr. Ghishan was the first pediatric gastroenterologist to be awarded the “Horace W. Davenport Distinguished Lectureship” in 2014. This is the most prestigious recognition by the Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology Section of the American Physiological Society.
Dr. Ghishan was recruited to the University of Arizona as Professor and Head of the Department of Pediatrics and Director of the Steele Children’s Research Center in 1995. He was previously Director of the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Vice-Chair for Research at Vanderbilt University. He is a Distinguished Alumni of the University of Iowa and Pennsylvania State University and has been an invited lecturer at numerous Universities both nationally and internationally.
View a recording of this year's lecture here: https://youtu.be/X96NsXNEoXI
- 2021: MALARIA ELIMINATION IN AFRICA: It could be done, but will it?
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MALARIA ELIMINATION IN AFRICA: It could be done, but will it?
Carlos C. (Kent) Campbell, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.S.T.M.H. - 2020: *POSTPONED*
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Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the 2020 Dalen Lecture was postponed until 2021.
- 2019: Health Diplomacy 2019 - From Theory to Practice
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Health Diplomacy 2019 - From Theory to Practice
Dr. John P. Howe, III, Former President and CEO, Project HOPE, President Emeritus and Former President and Distinguished Chair in Health Policy, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio - 2018: Data Sharing in Clinical Trials
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Data Sharing in Clinical Trials
Dr. Jeffrey Drazen, Editor-in-Chief, New England Journal of Medicine - 2017: The Health of Americans in a New Political Order
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The Health of Americans in a New Political Order
Dr. Darrell G. Kirch, President and CEO of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). - 2016: Wellness in Action: Integrative Medicine meets Public Health
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Wellness in Action: Integrative Medicine meets Public Health
Dr. Victoria Maizes, Executive Director, University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, Professor of Clinical Medicine, Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of Arizona. - 2015: Diet and Health: A Progress Report
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Diet and Health: A Progress Report
Dr. Walter Willett, Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition and Chairman of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. - 2014: Participatory Medicine: Mindfulness Based Interventions through the lens of Public Health - Moving the Bell Curve
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Participatory Medicine: Mindfulness Based Interventions through the lens of Public Health - Moving the Bell Curve
Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, Founder of Mindfulness Meditation at University Massachusetts. - 2013: The Transformative Power of Integrative Medicine
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The Transformative Power of Integrative Medicine
Dr. Dean Ornish, Founder and President of the non-profit Preventive Medicine Research Institute and Clinical Professor of Medicine at UC, San Francisco. - 2012: What Were We Thinking? Medical Debacles of the Recent Past
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What Were We Thinking? Medical Debacles of the Recent Past
Dr. Andrew Weil, Clinical Professor of Internal Medicine and founder and Director of the Program in Integrative Medicine (PIM) at the University of Arizona. - 2011: Trends Shaping the Healthcare Delivery System
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Trends Shaping the Healthcare Delivery System
Dr. Carolyn Clancy, Director, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. - 2010: National Health Reform
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National Health Reform
Dr. David Himmelstein, Professor of Public Health at the City University of New York and a Visiting Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. - 2009: Public Health Policies Confronting our Nation and Global Society
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Public Health Policies Confronting our Nation and Global Society
Dr. William H. Foege, Senior Fellow and Member of the Scientific Board for the Global Health Program of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, former head of the U. S. Centers for Disease Control. - 2008: Globalization and Health: Risk and Opportunities on Our Common Borders
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Globalization and Health: Risk and Opportunities on Our Common Borders
Dr. Julio Frenk, President of the University of Miami, former Dean of Faculty at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, former Secretary of Health of Mexico.
Dr. James E. Dalen, MD, MPH
Dr. James E. Dalen, MD, MPH, retired from the University of Arizona in 2001 after serving as Dean of the College of Medicine for thirteen years and as Vice President for Health Sciences for seven years. During his tenure as Dean and Vice President, the College of Public Health, The Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine and the Arizona Telemedicine Program were established. Successful fund raising led to the establishment of new research facilities including the Children’s Research Center, The Sarver Heart Center, The Arizona Arthritis Center and a major expansion of the Arizona Cancer Center.
Currently he is Dean Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Public Health, and teaches in the colleges of Medicine and Public Health. In addition, he is Executive Director of the Weil Foundation which supports education in Integrative Medicine.
From 1988 until 2004 he was Editor of the Archives of Internal Medicine and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Dr. Dalen established and served as Co-Chairman for the ACCP Consensus Conference on Antithrombotic Therapy, which has resulted in the publication of eight CHEST Supplements since 1986. He is the author or co-author of more than 350 publications in medical literature as well as eleven books and monographs.
He has served as President of the American College of Chest Physicians, President of the New England Cardiovascular Society, and Governor of the American College of Cardiology and the American College of Physicians.
He has received many teaching awards. In 1987 he received the Distinguished Public Service Award from the University of Massachusetts. In 1988 he was named the University of Washington Distinguished Medical Alumnus of the Year and received the Alumni Achievement Award from Washington State University. In 2000 he received the College Medal from the American College of Chest Physicians and was named a Master Fellow of the college. In 2010 he was awarded the Harvard School of Public Health’s highest honor for its alumni: the 2010 Alumni Award of Merit. In 2012 he was named a Master Fellow of the American College of Physicians, and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree by the University of Massachusetts in 2013. He most recently received the 2015 Bravewell Distinguished Service Award from the Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health for his role as one of the founders of the Consortium and as one of the founders of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona.
