April 20, 2023 9:00am - 2:00pm 2023 John P. Wyatt Symposium on Environment and Health

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This Symposium honors Dr. John P. Wyatt, MD, pioneering environmental clinical research.  Dr. Wyatt was one of the first physicians who over 50 years ago connected air pollution with lung disease.  Dr. Wyatt was director of the University of Kentucky Tobacco and Health Research Institute from 1974 until January 1980. Dr. Wyatt was a pathologist who received his M.D. from the University of Manitoba in 1938 and completed his medical training on a fellowship at Harvard Medical School. Before coming to UK in 1974, he was professor and head of the departments of pathology at the University of Manitoba and St. Louis University where he was involved in black lung research. He published over 100 articles covering viruses and diverse lung injuries.

2023 Keynote Speaker

Dr. Johnnye Lewis, Director of the Community Environmental Health Program at the University of New Mexico METALS Superfund Research Center/Navajo Birth Cohort Study/ECHO

Dr. Johnnye Lewis is a toxicologist and the founder and Director of the Community Environmental Health Program (CEHP) at the University of New Mexico’s Health Sciences Center College of Pharmacy from 1996 until her retirement in 2022.  She now co-directs CEHP with Dr. Debra MacKenzie. She holds an MA in Psychology (University of Victoria), Ph.D. in Pharmacology (University of Manitoba), and did her postdoctoral work in inhalation toxicology at the DOE Inhalation Toxicology Research Institute.  After running her own environmental health consulting business, she went to the University of New Mexico in 1996 and began building community/research partnerships, primarily with Indigenous communities, to address environmental injustice concerns through team science that integrates population and field studies with mechanistic laboratory studies to link exposures to outcomes, confirm mechanisms, and develop environmental and health interventions to reduce risk. As a Professor Emerita, she now remains Director of the UNM METALS Superfund Center (NIEHS), and MPI of the Navajo Birth Cohort/ECHO study (NIH-OD) and of the Center for Native American Environmental Health Research Equity (NIMHD).  Her work has been recognized through awards from diverse sectors including Communities, the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, the Society of Toxicology, and Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency.