BOWLING GREEN, O. -- The senior adviser to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be at Bowling Green State University April 9 to discuss "Local Responsibilities Related to National Environmental Health Priorities."

Dr. Richard Jackson will deliver the fifth annual Ned E. Baker Lecture in Public Health at 1 p.m. in 101 Olscamp Hall on the BGSU campus. Both the lecture and a 2:30 p.m. reception are free and open to the public.

In his speech, Jackson will outline national environmental health policy and the importance of environmental policies to local public health, as well as the environment's impact on mental health.

Before joining the CDC in Atlanta, Jackson worked for the California Department of Health Services, where he had been director of both the Division of Infectious Disease Control and the Division of Environmental Hazard Assessment.

He was instrumental in establishing the California Birth Defects Monitoring Program, in helping to secure passage of the Birth Defects Prevention Act and in establishing requirements for full reporting of pesticide use in the state.

Jackson, whose M.D. is from the University of California-San Francisco, holds a master of public health degree in epidemiology from the University of California-Berkeley and a master of medical sciences degree from Rutgers Medical School.

His address is sponsored by the BGSU College of Health and Human Services, the Cove Charitable Trust of Boston, the Northwest Ohio Consortium for Public Health, the Western Reserve Geriatric Education Center, the Wood County Hospital Foundation and the Bowling Green-based National Association of Local Boards of Health.

The national association was founded by Ned Baker, a BGSU graduate who served on the Wood County Board of Health for 12 years, including two terms as president. The lecture named in his honor is simulcast to local health boards nationwide via satellite and the Internet.

(Posted April 01, 2004)