The UHD President's Lecture Series continues with “Supporting Students Starts with Basic Needs,” on Oct. 26, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Welcome Center’s TDECU Tour Room. Lunch will be provided.

Nearly four million Texans struggle with hunger and food insecurity, according to the nonprofit organization Feeding Texas per a recent Texas Tribune article. For college students across the nation, such insecurities extend to mental health care, financial literacy, and transportation. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, record inflation levels have led to little relief as the cost of gas, clothes, food, and utilities has steadily increased (source: Texas Tribune).

This discussion of how and why supporting students is critical for their academic success will feature:

• Leanne Davis
  As Senior Director of Education & Training Services for the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice in Temple University’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine, Davis leads the overall strategy and design for the Hope Impact Partnerships (HIP), which collaborates with state, system, and institutional leaders who are interested in using real-time data to assess students’ basic needs while receiving technical assistance to analyze, plan, and take action on their data. She also leads The Hope Center’s role in a National Science Foundation S-STEM Research Hub, which focuses specifically on STEM affordability and will explore non-tuition barriers for students from low-income backgrounds at community colleges. Davis’ work has been featured or quoted in numerous media outlets including USA Today, The Hechinger Report, Virginia Public Media, Inside Higher Education, Diverse Issues in Higher Education, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. 
   
• Dr. Nicholas Freudenberg
  The Distinguished Professor of Public Health at City University of New York’s School of Public Health and Health Policy is also Faculty Director of Healthy CUNY, a university-wide initiative that promotes the well-being of CUNY's 250,000 students to support their academic success. Freudenberg is also senior faculty fellow and founder of the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute. He has published five books and more than 120 scientific articles on urban health, health inequities, young adult health, and the social and commercial determents of health. Freudenberg’s work has been supported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the NYC Department of Health, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and others.

To register for the Wednesday, Oct. 26 President Lecture Series, RSVP here.

On Nov. 15, the Campus Community is invited to the President’s Lecture Series: “Breaking the Ceiling Through Innovation & Entrepreneurship.” Look for more details in an upcoming issue of UHD News.

The 2022 President’s Lecture Series made its Fall debut on Sept. 19, with informative presentations and discussions around the topic “Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) Past, Present, & Future.”  

The UHD President's Lecture Series began in 2021 addressing topics such as health equity among communities of color, organizational diversity, and the impact of climate change in Houston.