Live Events

Every summer, the Office of Public Health Practice, in collaboration with the Midwestern Public Health Training Center, puts on the Sizzling Summer Series. The multi-part webinar series features the latest topics and issues facing the field of public health today, from data and storytelling to health equity and communication.

Information for the 2026 two-webinar series is here!

2026 Sizzling Summer Series

Taking Care of Public Health: Building a Resilient Workforce

Session 1

Date: July 29
Time: 11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. CT
Register online
View event flyer for July session

Speaker Bios

Laura Brooks Dueland, PhD, and Emily Adams, PhD, co-founded Inclusion
Analytics. Both Laura and Emily earned doctorates in Industrial Organizational Psychology from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. It was there that Laura and Emily discovered they had complementary skill sets and learned just how well they worked together. Their
academic collaboration launched the theoretical and technical frameworks focused on belonging, psychological safety, and fairness became the foundation of their business.

Together, Emily and Laura help leaders create workplaces that work for all, through employee listening, data analytics, and strategic engagement. Their custom tools have been used by more than 100 companies across industries and sectors, from small non-profits to international technology companies.

Session Description

Public health work is complex and interdependent, relying on trust and collaboration. Cultures of belonging that promote psychological safety and fairness lead to better outcomes for individuals, teams, and organizations by ensuring all employees feel valued for their unique contributions and able to voice their ideas and concerns. I-O Psychologists Laura Brooks Dueland and Emily Adams will present research, real world examples, and practical strategies that deepen trust, strengthen engagement, and support highly productive teams.

Objectives

• How belonging benefits individual and team outcomes
• What psychological safety is and is not – and how to create it
• How perceptions and practices of fairness impact employee behavior and morale
• Strategies to unlock the benefits of belonging, psychological safety, and fairness

Session 2

Date: August 19
Time: 11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. CT
Registration info coming soon.

Note: This session will not be recorded. A downloadable deck of key slides for participants will be available following the session.

Speaker Bio

Dr. Kemia Sarraf (“Dr. K” to students and colleagues alike) is a physician, public health expert, and globally recognized keynote speaker whose work sits at the intersection of neuroscience, education, narrative, and organizational transformation. She is known for her field-tested work for disrupting traumatic stress exposure in professionals and first responders, designing and deploying advanced leadership development programs that have redefined how organizations build capacity in high-stress environments.

Trained in Public Health and Internal Medicine at the University of Utah and then at Washington University in St. Louis, Dr. Sarraf's 25+ year career spans patient care, public health policy and programming, medical education, nonprofit leadership, and state and national advisory roles. In 2016, she founded Lodestar, a professional development consultancy specializing in first responder recovery, advanced leadership development, high-impact coaching, and culture transformation. Lodestar's work has been deployed across national, state and regional healthcare organizations, public health and social services agencies, the legal profession and law enforcement, academic medicine and large hospital systems, public education, and first-responder communities, including those who confronted the 2025 California wildfires.

Dr. K developed and leads Second Responder (L2R) field deployments, Lodestar's signature, neurophysiological-based intervention for traumatic stress disruption, capacity building, harm reduction, and the restoration of physical and moral resilience. Her keynotes are equal parts rigorous science and human story, designed to support any audience –from frontline staff to executive leadership – in confronting the impact of traumatic stress exposure, moral injury, chronic threat, and systemic dysfunction with clarity, courage, and practical tools for repair.

Known for unflinching honesty, incisive storytelling, quick humor, and deep compassion, Dr. K serves as adjunct faculty at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. She was named an AMA Women Physicians Inspiration Award Honoree in 2021 and again in 2025, and has received numerous regional, state, and national honors for her vision and impact.

Objectives

• Describe Lodestar's Second Responder (L2R) model and how it differs from traditional critical incident debriefing (CISD/Critical Incident Stress Debriefing).
• Explain what sustained threat and traumatic stress exposure do to the nervous system, and the impact of chronic depletion on team function and wellbeing.
• Recognize and disrupt potential or acute traumatic stress exposure before it becomes compounding harm.