Events will be hosted January – December in 2026, on the last Wednesday of every month, 11:00 – 13:00 pm ET. Presented over Zoom.
After each talk, we will continue the discussions in an informal social meeting with MSE. All speakers and members of the audience are welcome to join the social meeting.
Hosted by: Sue Ishaq, MSE, and finacially supported by the University of Maine Institute of Medicine, and the Applied Microbiology International via the 2025 Dororthy Jones Diversity and Inclusion Acheivement Award.
Summary:
Microorganisms are critical to many aspects of biological life, including human health. The human body is a veritable universe for microorganisms: some pass through but once, some are frequent tourists, and some spend their entire existence in the confines of our body tissues. The collective microbial community, our microbiome, can be impacted by the details of our lifestyle, including diet, hygiene, health status, and more, but many are driven by social, economic we, medical, or political constraints that restrict available choices that may impact our health. Access to resources is the basis for creating and resolving social equity—access to healthcare, healthy foods, a suitable living environment, and to beneficial microorganisms, but also access to personal and occupational protection to avoid exposure to infectious disease. This speaker series explores the way that microbes connect public policy, social disparities, and human health, as well as the ongoing research, education, policy, and innovation in this field.
You can find recordings from previous series here.
“Microbiomes, Inequity, and Structural Conditions: Rethinking What Shapes Health”
Dr. Zinzi Bailey, ScD., MSPH
Oct 28, 2026, 11:00 – 13:00 EDT.
The recording will be available online here after the event. The live session will be available free, but the on-demand video-recording will only be available to MSE members for the first year (and available to the public afterwards).
Dr. Zinzi Bailey is an Associate Professor, Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, at the University of Minnesota. She is a social epidemiologist whose research focuses on structural drivers of health inequities, including structural racism, housing conditions, and the criminal legal system.
Her work develops quantitative approaches to measure how social and political systems shape health outcomes, with a particular focus on cancer disparities, infectious disease risk, and access to care. Dr Bailey’s research has been widely published in leading journals and has contributed to reframing structural racism as a fundamental cause of health inequities. Her faculty page is here.
