Noted ecologist and cancer survivor to speak April 14 at ESF

Noted ecologist and cancer survivor to speak April 14 at ESFApril 12, 2004

In an April 14 appearance titled “Women’s Bodies as the First Environment: Ecological Threats to Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Breast Milk,” ecologist Sandra Steingraber will discuss the environmental links to cancer and reproductive health. She will deliver a keynote address at 4 p.m. in Marshall Auditorium, participate in a 5 p.m. panel discussion in Marshall Auditorium, and sign books at a 6 p.m. reception in Nifkin Lounge, all at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

The presentation is free and open to the public. Parking is available for a fee in Syracuse University’s Irving Avenue parking garage.

Steingraber is an internationally recognized expert on the environment, disease and reproduction. She received her doctorate in biology from the University of Michigan and a master’s degree in English from Illinois State University. She is the author of “Having Faith: An Ecologist’s Journey to Motherhood,” “Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment,” “Post-Diagnosis” and “The Spoils of Famine.” She has taught biology at Columbia College and held visiting fellowships at the University of Illinois, Harvard and Northeastern University. She served on President William Clinton’s National Action Plan on Breast Cancer. Formerly on the faculty at Cornell University, she is currently a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Ithaca College.

In 1997, Steingraber was named Ms. Magazine Woman of the Year. In 1998, she received from the Jenifer Altman Foundation the first annual Altman Award for “inspiring and poetic” use of science to elucidate the causes of cancer and, from the New England chapter of the American Medical Writers Association, the Will Solimene Award for excellence in medical communication. In 1999, the Sierra Club heralded Steingraber as “the new Rachel Carson,” and in 2001, Carson’s alma mater, Chatham College, selected Steingraber to receive its biennial Rachel Carson Leadership Award.

Steingraber has keynoted conferences on human health and the environment throughout the United States and Canada and has been invited to lecture at many universities, medical schools and teaching hospitals, including Harvard, Yale, Cornell and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. She is recognized for her ability to serve as a two-way translator between scientists and activists. In 1999, as part of international treaty negotiations, she briefed U.N. delegates in Geneva on dioxin contamination of breast milk. Interviews with Steingraber have appeared in The Chicago Tribune, USA Today, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, on National Public Radio, “The Today Show” and “Now With Bill Moyers.”

The event is sponsored by the ESF Graduate Student Association, EnSPIRE, ESF Women’s Caucus, Friends of Moon Library and ESF Outreach.For more details, visit http://www.esf.edu/org/gsa/sandra.