Event

On July 1 at 12:00PM ET the Pandemic Center will host a webinar titled: Ebola Response in Eastern DRC: Using Earth observation to improve situational awareness in hard-to-reach areas.

Details

What intelligence gaps exist today because the outbreak is occurring in a conflict-affected region, and which of those gaps can Earth observation help fill?

The ongoing Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is unfolding in one of the world’s most challenging operating environments. Conflict, population displacement, limited transportation infrastructure, border restrictions, healthcare disruptions, and community mistrust are complicating efforts to detect cases, trace contacts, deliver supplies, and protect healthcare workers.

This presentation, convened by the Brown University Pandemic Center, explores how Earth observation, geospatial intelligence, and emerging AI-enabled analytics can support outbreak response by improving situational awareness in areas where access is limited, delayed, or unsafe. Rather than focusing solely on disease surveillance, we examine how satellite-derived information can complement public health operations through population and settlement mapping, displacement monitoring, transportation and accessibility analysis, conflict monitoring, healthcare infrastructure assessment, and food security intelligence.

Using the current Ebola response in eastern DRC as a case study, we will discuss practical opportunities to integrate Earth observation with humanitarian, public health, and conflict data to help responders better understand where people are, how conditions are changing, and where operational gaps may be emerging.

The discussion will focus on actionable applications that can support decision-making today while highlighting opportunities for stronger collaboration between public health and geospatial communities.

Panel

Moderator: Wilmot James, Ph.D., Senior Adviser to the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health

Speaker: David Saah, Ph.D., is a Professor and Director of the Geospatial Analysis Lab at the University of San Francisco, Managing Principal and Co-founder of Spatial Informatics Group, and Chair of the NASA Applied Sciences Advisory Committee. Broadly trained as an environmental scientist, David is recognized as a global leader in geospatial analysis, remote sensing, wildfire science, and natural hazard modeling. He has authored dozens of peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and technical reports, and is dedicated to the broad dissemination of his research through presentations, publications, and workshops. David holds a doctorate in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management from the University of California at Berkeley.

This webinar is part of the Pandemics & Society series, which focuses on current pandemic threats and response systems as well as how to build preparedness for the future.

Register Here

Please contact pandemic_center@brown.edu with any questions.

Stay tuned for info on future events!

Event Date

This event was held on June 2, the Pandemic Center presented a talk by Professor Michael Baker, titled: “Why exclusion/elimination should be the default response for future severe pandemics.”

Description

This presentation discussed the range of potential strategic choices available in response to severe pandemic threats. It will focus on ‘elimination’, which became the dominant initial response to Covid-19 across much of the Asia-Pacific region, including New Zealand (NZ) and Australia. The presentation reviewed the impact of this strategy, drawing on NZ experience, along with its advantages and disadvantages. It summarized how this response strategy - and “exclusion,” which is its more proactive form - can be built into future preparedness to improve global health security.

Presenter

Professor Michael Baker, University of Otago, Wellington, New Zealand; and Visiting Fulbright Scholar, Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Professor Michael Baker is a public health physician, epidemiologist, and active researcher in the Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, NZ. He is visiting the United States as a Fulbright Scholar from April to September 2026. In NZ, he leads the Health Protection Aotearoa Research Centre which investigates ways of improving prevention and control of infectious diseases and environmental health hazards. Michael took a leading role in shaping NZ’s Covid-19 pandemic response, particularly the elimination strategy. He has a strong interest in science communication and directs the national Public Health Communications Centre.

Student Event

On April 21 at 12pm ET, the Pandemic Center hosted a workshop for students led by Jason Gale, Senior Editor and Biosecurity Correspondent at Bloomberg News, titled: Designing the First 60 Days of the Next Pandemic: Early decisions, hidden trade-offs, and the long tail of a pandemic.

About this workshop

This workshop challenged students to think beyond transmission and mortality, and to consider how early decisions shape a pandemic’s long-term health and societal consequences.

Drawing on lessons from Covid-19, the workshop explored how surges affect care delivery, the lasting burden of conditions like Long Covid, and how crisis-driven changes can create harms that persist well beyond the acute phase. The focus was on trade-offs — what gets prioritized, what gets missed, and how a broader view of risk might change decisions early on.

This workshop was designed for Brown University students.

On November 18, 2025, Craig Spencer, MD, MPH hosted Gabriella Stern for an event in the Public Health in Practice Seminar Series titled Health Communication as Essential Infrastructure for Global Health.

Stern’s career has spanned top-tier international journalism, philanthropy and public service. She led communications for the World Health Organization (WHO) throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, developing high-stakes, high-profile strategies at the most consequential time in public health communications in living memory.

This Pandemic Center event, was part of Dr. Spencer’s Public Health in Practice Seminar Series, looked at the case that the period of 2020-2025 has made for a belated recognition of health communications as a global public good, one benefiting from proper financial investments, an enhanced research agenda to strengthen quality and impact, and strategic positioning at the heart of relevant sub national, national, regional and global institutions.

Highlights from this event are covered in an article from the School of Public Health.
Read here

The Pandemic Center partnered with the Private Sector Roundtable on Global Health Security, convening 20 senior business executives and leaders from across the country to discuss lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and pragmatic, replicable models to safeguard employees and boost state and local response to major health emergencies.

Businesses are essential partners in protecting public health and economic stability during crises, as demonstrated by a national initiative that united U.S. business leaders to share lessons from COVID-19 and develop practical models for future emergency response. 

More info here

Check out our former events here