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ӣ����Ƶ of California faculty researchers explored how people think about, discuss, and respond to big health events – from a global pandemic to a family refusing medical treatment for their critically ill child – at a free town hall event on October 24. Members of the community participated in a lively discussion featuring Dominican psychology, public health, and nursing faculty. 

• Global public health professor Michaela George shared how she responded to the COVID pandemic as both an epidemiologist and a mother of young children.
• Nursing professor and pediatric clinical nurse Luanne Linnard-Palmer discussed her research examining social, cultural, and religious factors that lead patients and families to refuse medical treatment. 
• Psychology professor Ben Rosenberg explored vaccine hesitancy and the psychological gymnastics people engage in when thinking about and recalling big events.

The event marked the launch of Dominican’s Faculty Lecture Series, designed to showcase relevant and timely work of faculty across campus as they explore critical issues and present research conducted with community partners in Marin County and beyond. 

The October 24 Speakers

Dr. Michaela George grew up in Marin and remains connected to her community. After several trips to the east coast for her education (Middlebury College in Vermont and Boston University in Massachusetts), she settled in the Bay Area to pursue her passion for epidemiology and public health. After earning her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, Michaela started working at Dominican in 2015. Michaela incorporates students into her research, both in the classroom and the community. She works with community partners, including the Center for Domestic Peace, Ritter Center, the Rite of Passage Research Collaboration, and Play Marin, using her expertise to evaluate existing programs, design research studies to answer grant-funded questions, and develop sustainable strategies to enact change.

Dr. Luanne Linnard-Palmer has been a nurse for almost 40 years, practicing across adult and pediatric populations. Her area of specialty is oncology/hematology. She is a tenured professor at Dominican and a RN Nurse Coordinator at Stanford Children’s Specialty Clinic in hematology/oncology. Her program of research focuses on parents who refuse/delay/limit medical treatment for religious, cultural, and philosophical reasons. She has experienced the processes and outcomes of treatment refusal over many years, as well as the and the negotiation used to prevent major safety issues. Her book Against Medical Advice: Addressing Treatment Refusal was recognized as one of the “most valuable titles published in 2022” by the American Journal of Nursing. 

Dr. Benjamin D. Rosenberg is a social-health psychologist with expertise in motivation, health behavior, research methods, and statistics. Ben earned a BA in psychology from the University of Colorado – Boulder, as well as an MA and PhD in applied social psychology from Claremont Graduate University. Ben is a passionate instructor and mentor; collaborating with students on research is one of his favorite parts of being a professor. He enjoys connecting with students on a personal and academic level. His favorite classes to teach include Research Methods, Social Psychology, Health Psychology, and Statistics. In addition, Ben is an active researcher in areas of social psychology, motivation, and health. Ben has authored or co-authored papers on these topics in journals such as Motivation Science, Social Science & Medicine, Journal of Health Communication, Journal of Mixed Methods Research, and Computers in Human Behavior. Ben is a co-founder of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Health Research and Director of the .

For more information, contact Sarah Gardner at sarah.gardner@dominican.edu or (415) 485-3239.