Designed to create a campus-wide conversation, the Helen and Jeff Herbert Family University Lecture Series gives first-year students an opportunity to interact with leading members of our faculty—scholars, scientists, and civic leaders who are nationally and internationally renowned. All students, faculty, alumni, staff and community guests are invited, but the events will be aimed at entering first-year students. The Helen and Jeff Herbert Family University Lecture Series is generously brought to UT Austin by the Helen and Jeff Herbert family.
Spring 2018
Innovative Addiction Solutions
Dr. Lori Holleran Steiker, Director of UGS Instruction, Engagement, and Wellness, School of Social Work
February 20 | 7-8 p.m. | Union Theatre
Researchers have made tremendous strides with regard to figuring out pieces of the puzzle of youth substance use, misuse, addiction and recovery — Dr. Holleran Steiker’s work is putting those pieces together. Many of you likely had the DARE program, or Shattered Dreams, or the like and while there is some science involved, those programs have morphed into much more evidence-based prevention practices and Dr. Holleran’s work on culturally grounded prevention programs has added new practices improving the impact of prevention programs. The addictions recovery field has shifted from an acute care 28-day treatment model to an ongoing supportive, community-based systems of care and Dr. Holleran will share her work with innovations that are shifting the face of adolescent intervention and recovery including Recovery High Schools, Alternative Peer Groups, and Youth Recovery Networks. In addition, Dr. Holleran Steiker will discuss how interdisciplinary experts and emerging solutions on campus, in the community at at Dell Med and the healthcare system have coalesced via her 2018 Pop Up Institute “Towards Solving the Problem of Substance Misuse and Addiction among Youth and Emerging Adults.”
Dr. Lori Holleran Steiker, an addictions therapist turned educator/scholar, is a Distinguished Professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work and the Director of Instruction, Engagement & Wellness for UT Undergraduate Studies. She researches drug and alcohol interventions, with expertise in adolescent and emerging adult substance use recovery. She spearheaded overdose prevention and response initiatives on the University of Texas campus, helped start OperationNaloxone, and is a Co-PI on the Texas Targeted Opioid Response (TTOR) grant with over $3 million to address the Opioid Crisis and prevent drug overdoses. Her Signature Course, “Young People and Drugs” is in high demand and has yielded ongoing student projects and groups including the UT Drug and Alcohol Peer Advisors (DAPA). She is the Founder and a Board Member of University High School (Central Texas’s first recovery high school) and has served as the faculty liaison for the University of Texas at Austin’s Center for Students in Recovery since its inception in 2004. She has over 100 peer-reviewed publications and three books, including Youth and Substance Use: Prevention, Intervention and Recovery (2016). She has received numerous honors and awards in the recovery community, university, state and nationally including the following: the UT Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award, The Friar Centennial Teaching Fellowship, the Society for Social Work and Research Early Career Award, and the Council on Social Work Education’s Distinguished Recent Contributions Award. She is proud to serve as the Director of the 2017-18 UT Pop Up Institute entitled, “Toward Solving the Problem of Substance Misuse & Addiction among Youth and Emerging Adults.”
Latinization of America
Dr. Jacqueline Angel, LBJ School of Public Affairs
March 20 | 7-8 p.m. | Union Theatre
A striking reality of U.S. society has always been a high degree of multiculturalism. Because of high fertility and immigration, today Hispanics represent a growing proportion of the nation’s labor force. In states like California and Texas Latinos will soon make up half or more of all workers. They will be called upon to support tomorrow’s retirees, pay for defense, the education of future generations, infrastructure improvements, health care, and all the rest of the country’s needs. My presentation will summarize a tradition of research on sources of vulnerability of this population and discuss the consequences of these vulnerabilities for the nation’s economic prosperity.
Exercise Relieves Stress, But Does It Make You Feel Good?
Dr. John Bartholomew, College of Education
March 27 | 7-8 p.m. | Union Theatre
It is well established that weeks of exercise training helps to improve mental health. What can one bout of exercise do? Is 10-15 minutes of exercise or even a brief walk enough to improve your mood? In this lecture, I will address this question and how to structure exercise to achieve the greatest impact on mood. I will also discuss the differences between feeling less bad and feeling good and how this difference relates to the benefits of exercise.
Dr. Bartholomew received his A.B. (with honors) in Psychology from Harvard University, where was a member of the varsity football team. He received his Ph.D. in Exercise Science with an emphasis in Sport and Exercise Psychology from Arizona State University. He began as an Assistant Professor at UT Austin in 1996 and he has spent the last 20 years studying physical activity and public health, with a specific interest in mental health and physical activity in elementary schools. He is Associated Editor-in-Chief of the Translation Journal of the American College of Sports Medicine and a Fellow in both the American College of Sports Medicine and the National Academy of Kinesiology.
Operation Naloxone: Preventing Drug Overdose Deaths
Dr. Lucas Hill, College of Pharmacy
April 10 | 7-8 p.m. | Union Theatre
Drug overdoses now steal more years of life in America than heart disease or cancer. Many overdoses could be prevented by increasing access to naloxone, the opioid antidote. Preventing overdoses with naloxone is an example of harm reduction, an approach to drug use that respects individual autonomy and safety. Operation Naloxone provides harm reduction training & resources to students, clinicians, and community members to empower them to save lives.
Lucas Hill earned his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Pharmacy before completing a pharmacy residency and faculty development fellowship in the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Department of Family Medicine. Dr. Hill is now a clinical assistant professor of health outcomes and pharmacy practice at The University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy. He is Director of Operation Naloxone and Principal Investigator for the Texas Targeted Opioid Response: Overdose Prevention Project.
Meet Your Biological Clock: The Circadian Rhythm
Dr. William Schwartz, Dell Medical School
April 17 | 7-8 p.m. | Union Theatre
This lecture will serve as an introduction to understanding the workings and significance of our internal body “clocks.” Nearly all organisms on Earth, including humans, must cope with the challenges of living on a planet with a regular 24-hour day-night cycle. A key adaptation to life on our rotating world is the existence of an internal daily (“circadian”) clock that orchestrates the timing of biochemical, physiological, and behavioral processes around local (geophysical) time, optimizing the economy of biological systems and allowing for a predictive, rather than purely reactive, regulation. The last several decades have seen an explosion of new knowledge about these internal timekeeping systems: their molecular and cellular basis; flexibility in the face of environmental variation; contribution to seasonal animal navigation and migration; and importance for human psychology, medicine, and occupational health; to name just a few.
For four decades, Dr. William Schwartz has been committed to research on biological (circadian) clocks. He completed his MD and neurology residency at the University of California San Francisco, a research fellowship at the National Institute of Mental Health, and was on the faculties of Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the University of Massachusetts Medical School before moving to The University of Texas at Austin in 2017. He has served as the elected President of the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms (2004 – 2006), and is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Biological Rhythms. Invited Professorships have included terms at universities in the Netherlands, Germany, Israel, New Zealand, and Japan.
Fall 2018
Keep Calm and Grow Your Mind
Featuring Dr. Keffrelyn D Brown (Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education), Dr. Robert Crosnoe (Department of Sociology, College of Liberal Arts), and Dr. Robert Duke (School of Music, College of Fine Arts)
September 24 | 7-8 p.m. | Bass Concert Hall
Keffrelyn Brown will be lecturing on Getting Schooled v. Seizing an Education: How Adopting a Growth Mindset Can Transform You and Change the World. There is a difference between going to school and getting an education. Do you know the distinction and why it matters? Taking a unique position on growth mindset, Dr. Brown will describe how becoming more curious, engaged, open, and fearless learners increases our capacity to make a difference—and how to get started.
Robert Crosnoe will be highlighting the work of UT social and behavioral scientists on the Mindset Scholars Network, which is dedicated to using research to foster learning mindsets in young people that promote educational success and reduce educational inequalities. He will also discuss the results of the National Study of Learning Mindsets, a nationally representative intervention that is situated here at UT Austin. The major focus of this lecture will be the growth mindset, or the belief that intelligence can be developed.
Robert Duke will be discussing how research in the psychology of learning has revealed a great deal about the fundamental principles of human learning, yet much of what we do in education effectively ignores those principles.
Turning Points
Featuring former UT President William Cunningham and professor Daron Roberts
September 25 | 7-8 p.m. | Bass Concert Hall
Careers are often not linear in trajectory, and today’s students need to prepare for a dynamic and unpredictable workplace. Many will undoubtedly take on multiple positions, likely involving opportunities that unexpectedly come their way. Please join us for an informative and inspiring University Lecture Series event in which former UT president William Cunningham and professor Daron Roberts, will discuss memorable turning points in their lives that led them to their important positions at UT Austin.