Media Advisory: WNY Refugee Health Summit is Friday at UB's Educational Opportunity Center

BUFFALO, N.Y. – The fourth annual Western New York Refugee Health Summit will be held from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Friday at the University at Buffalo’s Arthur O. Eve Educational Opportunity Center, 555 Ellicott St., Buffalo.

The summit convenes scholars, resettlement agencies, service providers, community support centers, municipal agencies and refugees to explore barriers and solutions to promote culturally engaged health care for refugees in Buffalo.

Media are invited to attend any portion of the health summit. For press arrangements, contact David Hill in UB’s Office of University Communications, at 716-645-4651, or davidhil@buffalo.edu.

The event begins at 9 a.m. with a welcome by Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, followed by a speaker panel at 9:30 a.m. Summit speakers include:

• Sophie Feal, Esq., director of the Immigration Program at the Erie County Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project (VLP), Inc.
• Kevin Pottie, founding director of the Immigrant Health Clinic of Ottawa and a researcher in the Centre for Global Health at the University of Ottawa.
• Meb Rashid, who in his role as medical director of the Crossroads Clinic works with newly arrived refugees in Canada.
• Sharmila Shetty, a medical epidemiologist in the Emergency Response and Recovery Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• Deborah Lee, an epidemiologist in the Immigrant, Refugee and Migrant Health (IRMH) Branch of the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine (DGMQ).

Summit speakers will lead breakout sessions from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. In the afternoon, attendees will participate in an innovative workshop to develop solutions to improve health literacy in Buffalo.

The WNY Refugee Health Summit is co-sponsored by the Office of Global Health Initiatives in UB’s School of Public Health and Health Professions and UB’s Community for Global Health Equity.