Science Café series to be held at Milwaukee Public Market

The Community Engagement Key Function of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute of Southeast Wisconsin will hold a series of Science Cafés at the Milwaukee Public Market that are free and open to the public. The theme of the 2012 series is “Health Myths/Health Facts,” and topics will include diabetes, immunizations, health screenings and mental health.

The series kicks off Tuesday, March 27 with a discussion led by Ty Carroll, M.D., associate professor of endocrinology at the Medical College and practicing endocrinologist at Froedtert Health Community Memorial Hospital in Menomonee Falls. More than 25 million Americans have diabetes, and the number continues to increase. Dr. Carroll will discuss the symptoms of diabetes, as well as testing and the latest treatments available.

On Tuesday, April 10, Earnestine Willis, M.D., MPH, Kellner Professor of Pediatrics, director of the Center for the Advancement of Underserved Children, Director of Health Equity and Urban Clinical Care Partnerships at the Medical College of Wisconsin, and a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, will discuss the myths and facts surrounding childhood immunizations. Dr. Willis and her co-presenter, Chelsea Hamilton, a clinical research coordinator, will also discuss their work to address health disparities in immunization rates in some of Milwaukee’s low-income, racially- and ethnically-segregated neighborhoods.

Monday, April 23, Ken Schellhase, M.D., M.P.H, associate professor of family and community medicine and the associate director of the Center for Healthy Communities and Research, will lead a discussion on health screenings. Dr. Schellhase will talk about the push for certain health screenings, and what you can learn from those tests.

The 2012 Science Café series wraps up a discussion on positive psychology led by Lisa Edwards, Ph.D., associate professor in Marquette University’s School of Education. Dr. Edwards will introduce participants to the positive psychology construct, in which mental health researchers study the health benefits of assets such as gratitude, forgiveness, and hope, and how those assets may translate into disease management.

All four Science Cafes will be held at the Milwaukee Public Market in Milwaukee’s Third Ward. Discussion begins at 6:00 p.m. and continues through 7:45 p.m. The discussions are designed to engage and involve members of the community, and all are free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided as well as validated parking.

Registration for the March café is available now at https://ctsi.mcw.edu/community/science-cafe/, or contact Shannon Opel at (414) 955-5754 or sopel@mcw.edu

Science Cafés are a program of the Community Engagement Key Function of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) of Southeast Wisconsin. Funding for this program comes in part by the CTSI of southeastern Wisconsin and in part by Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Research and Education Initiative Fund, a component of the Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin endowment at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

CTSI is part of a national consortium of top medical research institutions. Working together, the CTSI institutions are committed to improve human health by streamlining science, transforming training environments and improving the conduct, quality and dissemination of clin-ical and translational research. The CTSI program is led by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health.

The eight member organizations of the CTSI are the Medical College of Wisconsin, Marquette University, the Milwaukee School of Engineering, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the BloodCenter of Wisconsin, Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Froedtert Hospital and the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center.