The Fireside Chat with Adam Ellick and Dean Sandro Galea will feature short clips from Ellick’s documentary films and an intimate discussion of the power of media in addressing global issues and informing American audiences. The discussion will provide students with a deeper understanding of how public health and media intersect in addressing global challenges and insights from two renown professionals in their fields.

This is a rare opportunity for students to explore how media can shape the narrative around global crises and influence public perception.The fireside chat is hosted by the Public Health & Society Program in the College of Arts & Sciences, the Brown School, and the School of Public Health. It is part of the WashU Ideas, Discourse, and Exploration (WIDE) Speaker Series.

Adam B. Ellick is the director and executive producer of Op-Docs and Opinion Video at The New York Times. He has produced Pulitzer Prize, Oscar and Emmy-winning video journalism and films. Previously, he was a senior international video correspondent and print reporter at The Times covering human rights. He has reported from Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan, Angola, Myanmar, Russia, Venezuela, Egypt, South Sudan and dozens of other countries.

In 2015, he co-produced a Pulitzer Prize-winning video about an Afghan woman who was burned to death by a mob. In 2009, he met Malala Yousafzai and brought her story to the world in a documentary called “Malala's Story.” In 2016, he was the executive producer of an Emmy winning Opinion film about a 92-year-old Frenchman who forged documents to save those escaping persecution. And in 2018, he directed the feature documentary series “Operation InfeKtion: Russian Disinformation from Cold War to Kanye.” He also produced a short documentary with Nicholas Kristof, “From North Korea, with Dread,” as tensions between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un were dangerously escalating. Opinion Video, which he founded in 2018, won four Emmy awards in 2021-2022. In 2022, he was the executive producer of “The Queen of Basketball,” a documentary that earned The Times its first Academy Award.

He has won three Overseas Press Club awards for his coverage of Pakistan and the Arab Spring, and for leading The Times's video coverage of the November 2015 Paris attacks. He has garnered three nominations for the Livingston Award, which honors journalists under the age of 35.

Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, is the Margaret C. Ryan Dean of the School of Public Health and the Eugene S. and Constance Kahn Distinguished Professor in Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis. He has been named an epidemiology innovator by Time, a top voice in health care by LinkedIn, and is one of the most cited social scientists in the world. His writing and work are featured regularly in national and global public media. A native of Malta, he has served as a field physician for Doctors Without Borders and has held academic and leadership positions at Boston University, Columbia University, University of Michigan, and the New York Academy of Medicine.

*Per the speaker's contract, content may not be recorded, reproduced, shared or disseminated in any form, including through media or social platforms, outside of the event space without prior written consent from the presenter.

Full Event Details

February 05, 2025 4:00 PM