The University of Maine at Augusta is scheduled to host a webinar from noon to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 10, featuring a panel of experts on drinking water quality and health inequalities.

This event is open to the public, but an RSVP is required. To register, complete a form at forms.gle/3jpRuUT8tRwpiLtcA.

The Health Equity Dialogues program will be a facilitated panel discussion on drinking water quality, including common water contaminants, and environmental inequalities prevalent in Maine in relation to drinking water quality. Representatives of environmental health advocacy, drinking water regulation, and education and policy initiatives around drinking water contamination will take part in the dialogue.

The panel speakers will include:

• Rose Lundy, health reporter at The Maine Monitor;

• Leo Waterston, program director for the Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation at Maine Medical Center Research Institute and project director for Maine Lung Cancer Coalition;

• Sarah Woodbury, director of advocacy, Defend our Health;

• Andrew E. Smith, state toxicologist and manager of Maine Department of Health and Human Services Environmental and Occupational Health Program; and

• Amy Lachance, Maine Drinking Water Program manager, DHHS Division of Environmental and Community Health.

Health equity is the justice principle that everyone should have an equal opportunity to achieve health. The goal of the Health Equity Dialogues is to convene and connect scholars, community members, public health professionals, and healthcare practitioners across disciplinary divides and silos to work on high-priority community health challenges in Maine.

The Health Equity Dialogues are co-organized by Drs. Kate Darling and Valerie Rubinsky from the Social Science Program, the Maine Public Health Association, and UMA’s Women Invigorating Curriculum and Cultivating Diversity Committee. Additional co-sponsors include a UMA Student Success mini-grant.

For more information or for disability access needs for the event, email Audrey McGee at [email protected].