COVIDCalls – Details, episodes & analysis

My name is Scott Gabriel Knowles, I am a historian of disasters and since March 16, 2020 the host of COVIDCalls, a daily discussion of the pandemic with a diverse collection of disaster experts. Today I will be reading some memorials from victims of COVID.

Today I speak with school nursing practitioner and leader Robin Cogan—author of The Relentless School Nurse blog.

Today I speak with Rabbi Mike Harvey, Resident Chaplain within the Indiana University Health system in Indianapolis.

Rabbi Mike Harvey is a Resident Chaplain within the IU Health system in Indianapolis, Indiana.  He was ordained from Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in 2015 and is a strong proponent of interfaith dialogue and communication.  His book “Let’s Talk: A Rabbi Speaks to Christians” will be published by Fortress Press in Summer 2022.  Rabbi Harvey also hosts a podcast with an Episcopal Priest entitled “A Priest and a Rabbi Walk into a Bar.”  For more information on Rabbi Harvey, go to www.RabbiMichaelHarvey.com.

Today I speak with Drexel University dean of engineering, Professor Sharon Walker about engineering education in the time of a pandemic.

Dr. Sharon L. Walker, PhD, is Dean of Drexel’s College of Engineering and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering. A Yale University-trained water quality systems expert focusing on the fate and transport of bacteria and nanoparticles in water, Walker is also a fellow in the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP) and in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

She is a winner of the Fulbright Fellowship, for which she visited at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Israel; received an NSF Career Award in 2010; and held an ELATE fellowship from 2014-15. Walker has produced more than 250 conference papers and publications, and in 2018 won the AEESP inaugural Mary Ann Liebert Award for Publication Excellence in Environmental Engineering Science.

Today is a researchers’ roundtable day on #COVIDCalls, and I welcome KAIST graduate students Hyon Soo Jeong and Hyunah Keum to talk about their new research on COVID.

Hyunah Keum is a master's candidate at the Graduate School of Science and Technology Policy, in Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. She recently finished her master’s thesis titled “Making Waste Acceptable and Invisible: The COVID-19 Pandemic and Material Politics of Plastic Waste in South Korea,” where she argues that plastic waste has not just increased in Korea during COVID-19 pandemic, a time when the government both allowed discard of disposable plastics and invisibilized the infrastructure to treat those wastes. She wants to expand her area of research into revealing unequal relationships around waste, and its impacts on different beings, humans and non-humans. 

Hyon Soo Jeong is a master's candidate at the Graduate School of Science and Technology Policy in KAIST. She is interested in data sharing during COVID-19, and her internship experience at United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Seoul Policy Center inspired her to study public-private partnerships driven by Information and Communication Technology. Her Master's thesis is titled “A study of coproduction for information sharing during COVID-19: focusing on the case of citizen-developed map services in South Korea,” and her study focuses on how Korean civil society's action of information sharing driven by open government data influenced COVID-19 policy in South Korea.

Today I welcome Hana Kim and June-Yi Lee to discuss their work on climate change adaptation and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in the COVID Era.

Hana Kim is an assistant professor of School of Humanities & Social Sciences at Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology, Republic of Korea. She received a Ph.D. in Energy and Environmental Policy from University of Delaware, United States. Her research interests are equity issues related to energy and climate change policies, energy transition, and non-state stakeholders’ responses to climate changes. Currently, she is working on several research projects related to sustainability issues in urban areas as well. 

June-Yi Lee is Associate Professor of Research Center for Climate Sciences, Pusan National University; and Associate Project Leader of Institute for Basic Science Center for Climate Physics. She holds a Ph.D. Atmospheric Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea. Earth system predictability including not only physical variables but also biogeochemical cycle on intraseasonal-interannual-to-interdecadal time scales. She is a Core Writing Team member, IPCC 6th Assessment Synthesis Report.

Today I welcome educational psychology professor Kevin Cokley co-author of the new article The COVID‐19/racial injustice syndemic andmental health among Black Americans

Kevin Cokley, Ph.D. holds the Oscar and Anne Mauzy Regents Professorship for Educational Research and Development in the College of Education at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a Fellow of the University of Texas System and University of Texas Academy of Distinguished Teachers, Chair of the Department of Educational Psychology, Professor of Educational Psychology and African and African Diaspora Studies, and past Director of the Institute for Urban Policy Research & Analysis.   He holds the title of Distinguished Psychologist and received the Scholarship Award from the Association of Black Psychologists. He has written several Op-Eds in major media outlets on topics such as Blacks’ rational mistrust of police, the aftermath of Ferguson, police and race relations, racism and White supremacy, the use of school vouchers, and racial disparities in school discipline. His research has been recognized in media outlets including the New York Times, USA Today, and Inside Higher Education.

Today I welcome Philip Zelikow, who served as the executive director of the 9/11 Commission, and also served on the President’s Intelligence Advisory Boards in the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. We will discuss the work of the COVID Commission Planning Group.

Philip Zelikow is the White Burkett Miller Professor of History at the University of Virginia, where he has also served as dean of the Graduate School and director of the Miller Center. His scholarly work has focused on critical episodes in American and world history. 

He was a trial and appellate lawyer and then a career diplomat before taking academic positions at Harvard, then Virginia.  His government career includes federal service during five administrations positions in the White House, State Department, and the Pentagon. His last full-time government position was as the counselor of the Department of State, a deputy to Secretary Condoleezza Rice. 

He was the executive director of the 9/11 Commission. 

He is one of the few individuals ever to serve on the President’s Intelligence Advisory Boards for presidents of both parties, in the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama.