How do environmental, cultural, and political conditions impact a region and the health of its occupants? Why does it seem certain parts of the U.S. are more negatively impacted by the opioid crisis than others? Learn how these investigative journalists and educators are fighting for justice, advocating for positive change, and informing the American public about the issues affecting its people at the intersection of economy and environment. Sponsored by the University of Pikeville.
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Dr. Morrone is a Professor of Environmental Health at Ohio University, Chair of the Department of Social and Public Health, and the Director of the Appalachian Rural Health Institute. She earned a Ph.D. in environmental planning from The Ohio State University, an M.S. in forest resources from the University of New Hampshire, and a B.S. in natural resources from The Ohio State University. Dr. Morrone previously served as the Chief of the Office of Environmental Education at the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
In Ailing in Place, Michele Morrone explores the relationship between environmental conditions in Appalachia and health outcomes that are too often ascribed to individual choices only. She applies quantitative data to observations from environmental health professionals to frame the ways in which the environment, as a social determinant of health, leads to health disparities in Appalachian communities.
Eric Eyre has been a newspaper reporter in West Virginia since 1998. In 2017, his investigation into massive shipments of opioids to the state’s southern coalfields was awarded a Pulitzer Prize.
Death in Mud Lick is the story of a pharmacy in Kermit, West Virginia, that distributed 12 million opioid pain pills in three years to a town with a population of 382 people–and of one woman, desperate for justice, after losing her brother to overdose.
Chris Hamby is an investigative reporter at The New York Times. He won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting in 2014 and was a finalist for the prize in international reporting in 2017.
Decades ago, a grassroots uprising forced Congress to enact long-overdue legislation designed to virtually eradicate black lung disease and provide fair compensation to coal miners stricken with the illness. Today, however, both promises remain unfulfilled.
Ben Westhoff is an award-winning investigative reporter who has covered stories ranging from Los Angeles gangsta rap to Native American tribal disputes to government corruption.
A deeply human story, Fentanyl, Inc. is the first deep-dive investigation of a hazardous and illicit industry that has created a worldwide epidemic, ravaging communities and overwhelming and confounding government agencies that are challenged to combat it. “A whole new crop of chemicals is radically changing the recreational drug landscape,” writes Ben Westhoff.
