Panel to Discuss Ebola Issues Nov. 13

11/04/2014 

A panel of SUNY Cortland faculty and staff members will examine the Ebola epidemic in West Africa under the lens of the most current practice in public health, biological sciences and medicine on Thursday, Nov. 13, at the College.

Titled “The Ebola Epidemic in West Africa: Etiology and Socio-Cultural Factors,” the sandwich seminar will begin at noon in Brockway Hall Jacobus Lounge.

Presented by the College’s Clark Center for International Education, International Studies Program, Health Department, Biological Sciences Department, and Student Health Service, the discussion continues the ongoing Sandwich Seminar Series. Events are free and open to the public.

Alexandru Balas, an assistant professor of international studies who directs the Clark Center for International Education and coordinates the International Studies Program, will moderate the hour-long discussion.

The panel will include Ben E. Wodi, a professor in the Health Department; Christa Chatfield, an assistant professor in the Biological Sciences Department; and Devin Coppola, M.D., medical director of the Student Health Service.

Wodi will discuss the epidemiology of the disease in West Africa including socio-cultural factors and natural history. His talk will emphasize the need for international engagement as well as success stories to disrupt the current deadly cycle of cause-and-effect in some African countries.

Chatfield will address what it means for the Ebola virus to be member of the Filovirus family, a family of RNA viruses. She will describe how Ebola infects both monocytes and epithelial cells, severely damaging the host tissue and limiting its immune response. Chatfield also will update the audience on the current research into the genetic sequence, evolution and adaptation of Ebola in the current outbreak.

Coppola’s talk will encompass the signs and symptoms as well as the clinical manifestations of Ebola. He’ll share his knowledge about the disease’s incubation period and period of transmissibility. Additionally, Coppola will discuss the diagnosis for Ebola as well as potential treatments.

Wodi earned a bachelor’s degree in biology/chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Superior, a master’s in environmental health from East Tennessee State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma, where he concentrated in environmental epidemiology. For his department, he has coordinated international programs as well as field experiences in health.

Wodi has presented and published extensively in the area of communicable disease epidemiology. His current research centers on the epidemiology of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. His articles on these subjects have appeared in the American Journal of Public Health, the International Electronic Journal of Health Education, the Western Journal of Black Studies, and Wagadu: The Journal of Transnational Women’s and Gender Studies.

Chatfield received her bachelor’s in microbiology from Michigan State University and her doctorate in the same field at University of Rochester. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship and was a member of the research faculty at Northwestern University Medical School’s Microbiology and Immunology Department.

Chatfield’s research has encompassed the genetic basis for pathogenesis of numerous medically relevant bacteria, primarily Streptococcus mutans and Legionella pneumophila. She currently teaches the lecture and lab sections for two microbiology courses, one for biology majors and one for non-majors, as well as a course in general biology for non-majors.

Coppola, who joined SUNY Cortland in 2007, earned a bachelor’s in biology from Rochester Institute of Technology, and a medical degree from University at Buffalo. He completed his residency in family medicine at St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center in Syracuse. Board certified in family medicine since 1997, Coppola most recently was re-certified in 2013. He serves as a voluntary adjunct clinical faculty member both at RIT and SUNY Upstate Medical University.

Balas received his doctorate in political science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He also has a master’s degree in conflict analysis and resolution from Sabanci University and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Bucharest. His teaching and research interests focus on issues of conflict resolution, peace studies, European politics and international organizations. Balas’ most recent book, Peace Operations, was published by Polity Press in 2014. His work on peace operations and international organizations has appeared in Peace and Change, the Journal of International Peacekeeping, and Foreign Policy Magazine Romania.