How to Support Refugee, Immigrant, and Migrant Communities Before and After the End of the Public Health Emergency

Thursday, April 20, 2023
12:30 PM (PT) / 2:30 PM (CT) / 3:30 PM (ET)

On May 11, 2023, the public health emergency (PHE) will expire and many will see changes in COVID-19 healthcare costs, insurance coverage and renewals, and food benefits. These changes are likely to disproportionately impact some refugee, immigrant, and migrant (RIM) communities. Join this webinar where panelists from the Migrant Clinicians Network and the International Rescue Committee discuss how the end of the PHE is likely to impact RIM communities and steps to take before May 11 to support RIM community members.

Speakers

Lizbeth Gonzalez
International Rescue Committee

Lizbeth Gonzalez, Senior Health Program Manager for IRC Arizona, grew up on the Nogales, Sonora/Arizona border where she witnessed firsthand the dynamics of health, immigration, and international relations. She holds a BA in International Studies focused on Public Health/Development from the University of Arizona and a Masters in Humanitarian Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She has worked in Mexico, Guatemala and Tanzania on reproductive health, HIV/AIDS education, and testing programs. Domestically, she has worked with migrants, asylees, and refugee populations with No More Deaths, Borderlinks, and Iskashitaa Refugee Network. For the last 6 years, Lizbeth has coordinated the ICM program, and health and health education services for ICM, R&P, MG, and RSS clients in IRC Tucson and served as the interim ICM Program Officer. As Sr. Health Program Manager, she is expanding IRC Health Programs in both Tucson and Phoenix. She has co-created health literacy materials that are used nationally and presented at the 2020 and 2022 North American Refugee Health Conference. Recently her work has focused on mitigating the impact of COVID-19 in Arizona’s communities of color in collaboration with the Pima County Health Department and Maricopa Department of Public Health through a community health worker model. She is the recipient of the 2020 Arizona Daily Star’s 40 under 40 Award.

Amy Liebman

Migrant Clinicians Network

Amy K. Liebman has devoted her career to improving the safety and health of disenfranchised populations through research, policy, advocacy and education. She joined Migrant Clinicians Network (MCN) in 1999 and currently serves as the Chief Program Officer: Workers, Environment and Climate. Throughout her tenure with MCN she has established nationally recognized training and technical assistance programs for community groups and health centers throughout the country. She has been a national leader in applying culturally appropriate train-the-trainer programs based on the Community Health Workers model. She advocates for improved policies to protect workers and immigrant families, spearheading several national efforts including strengthening the Worker Protection Standard, a key federal regulation to protect farmworkers from pesticide exposure. She has been a strong advocate for worker health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic, pursuing regulatory protections for workers and leading programs to improve access to care and education for migrants and immigrants. Her programs have won awards including the EPA Children’s Environmental Health Champion Award and the National Safety Council Research Collaboration Award. In 2011, Liebman received the Lorin Kerr Award, an American Public Health Association honor recognizing public health professionals for their dedication and sustained efforts to improve the lives of workers. She is past Chair of APHA’s Occupational Health and Safety Section and recently ended her term on the Pesticide Program Dialogue Committee, a federal advisory committee to the US EPA Office of Pesticide Programs.

Moderator

Syreeta Wilkins

NRC-RIM

Syreeta is the communications strategist for the National Resource Center for Refugees, Immigrants and Migrants (NRC-RIM), where she leads the communications efforts for the center as well as guides the creation and dissemination of health communications materials.

She has more than a decade of experience in strategic communications, specializing in internal communications, electronic media, and diverse and multilingual communities. Before joining the team at NRC-RIM, she led communications for K-12 public schools, most recently focusing on crisis communications and other efforts related to her school district's COVID-19 response.

Syreeta holds a master's degree in linguistics from New York University, where she explored socioeconomic influences on Spanish-speaking immigrants' speech patterns. She holds a bachelor's degree from Macalester College.

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