Presenter:

Peter Hotez MD Ph.D. DSC(hon) FAAP FASTMH is a professor of pediatrics and molecular virology at Baylor College of Medicine, where he is also co-director of the Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development and Endowed Chair in Tropical Pediatrics. He is a vaccine scientist who led the development of vaccines to prevent and treat neglected tropical diseases and coronavirus infections. Together with Dr. Maria Elena Bottazzi and a team of scientists, a new Texas Children’s CVD COVID19 vaccine has been scaled for industrial production at Biological E (BioE) in Hyderabad, India for pending emergency use listing. Prof. Hotez obtained his undergraduate degree from Yale University and his MD and Ph.D. from Weil Cornell Medical College and Rockefeller University. He is the author of more than 600 scientific articles indexed on PubMed and 4 single-author books. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and he has been honored by PAHO/WHO, Research America, B’nai Brith, American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene (ASTMH), and other organizations. He is past president of ASTMH and appears frequently on major news outlets (CNN, MSNBC, BBC, NPR) promoting global health, vaccines, and immunizations, countering antivaccine and Antiscience movements.

Presenter:

Rachel is a TEDx presenter, speaker, trainer, award-winning artist and the author of two books- Super Power Baby Project and Super Power Kids. These exceptional books celebrate the lives and abilities of children with a range of disabilities and conditions and have been inspired by Rachel’s late daughter Evie, who was born with a very rare chromosomal condition. In the two and a half years of Evie’s life, Rachel learnt a lot about the use of language in the health system and has spent the subsequent years continuing to explore the impact and implications of how it is used – to positive and negative effects. Our language shapes our landscape. The words we speak influence the behaviour, attitudes, and beliefs of ourselves and others. Within high-stakes contexts, such as the sharing of difficult information, our words carry enormous emotional weight. They can alienate and add trauma, or they can honour and empower. Rachel holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree (BFA) from the Dunedin School of Art in New Zealand, is a Master Photographer in the New Zealand Institute of Professional Photography (NZIPP) and is an international award-winning photographer and author.