Theme Project Blog

1. Economy & Education
This presentation illustrates the strong linkages between education and the economy within the United States and abroad. Growing college costs and student debt –often at more than $30,000 per graduate- converts education beyond secondary school to a significant financial burden for many families, rather than a pathway to opportunity. At the same time, we see education in presentations an economic engine - the difference in earnings between college graduates and high-school graduates is basically, education is shown as a very significant contributor to economic growth- college graduates earn much higher income, have much lower rates of unemployment, and contribute greater tax revenue and spending which contributes to a strengthened middle class economy and increased GDP. However, the system is substantially inequitable. Local property taxes, which support K-12 school funding, allow wealthier districts to fund good buildings, employ good teachers, and provide better technology, while poorer districts fill oversized classrooms with inequitable curricula. The deck zooms out to the global perspective arguing that the disadvantage gap in education inequality leaves the global economy trillions in lost productivity in preventing the potential of out-of-school children in education. An example presented is Chile, which invests about 5% of its GDP in education, achieving high literacy rates, nearly universal primary completion and very high tertiary enrollment.The talk also covers the economic challenges facing the United States today, including high living expenses, a slow economy, fights over the federal budget and shutdown of the federal government, which add to the already tallied and considerable uncertainty surrounding school funding and widen the gap between the wealthy and impoverished communities. Lastly, it discusses the role of local and national organizations in funding education and advocating for equity. It also counters the suggestion that education is a cost and argues that it should be viewed as an investment in economic health.

2. Environment & American Health: Past, Present, Future
This presentation details how environmental disasters prompted the U.S. to connect pollution with public health and enact major legislation.It began in 1948 with the smog event in Donora, Pennsylvania when industrial emissions created a deadly fog, killing 20 people and sickening thousands of residents and visitors, and subsequently, the smog event in New York City in 1966 that showed major U.S. cities were in similar danger of smog. These events, as well as the Love Canal disaster in the 1970's and other tragic shifts in our environment, resulted in federal legislation such as the Clean Air Act, and the Safe Drinking Water Act. The section then moves to a more local level and explains that while air quality is usually considered to be fine, this rating does not account for fine particulate matter PM2.5 and ozone which present a serious public health risk, especially in extreme temperatures or wildfire smoke. Vulnerable populations, specifically children, older adults, and individuals with respiratory conditions like asthma, bronchitis and heart problems are exposed more. The section addressing the future suggests improved air monitoring and air quality index reporting, cleaner transportation public transportation, electric vehicles, added green space, building developments to manage heat, as well as increasing collaboration between local, state and federal agencies. Further, another underlying aspect is water quality. The watershed service relies on the Biscayne Aquifer as its source, which is known to be a very productive source, but is also subject to contamination from septic systems and sea level rise. The water is legal to use, but it has some contaminants, such as PFAS and THMs, that meet or exceed health guidelines or may meet or exceed health guidelines, which can contribute to health outcomes over time. The interview with a nurse in ER gives a frontline perspective on the illnesses related to exposure to both air and water, before it closes with the reminder that we can take action at the individual level and as a community and by lobbying for policy change to address air quality and water quality for all.

3. Immigration & Families
This presentation reviews why people have immigrated, how policies affected their lives, and what immigration means for families and children. People have travelled to the U.S. historically for economic opportunity, religious freedom and political freedom and to escape war or violence. Examples might include the Irish immigrants fleeing the potato famine, Vietnamese families fleeing after the Vietnam War, and Central American families fleeing violence and crime. The Chinese Exclusion Act restricted new arrivals in the 1800s, but by the late 1920s the quota system was restricting new arrivals in various countries around the globe. The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act provided new openings to immigrants from Asia, Africa and Latin America, creating significant pathways of immigration with the most diverse immigrant population ever seen in the history of the U.S. The deck then shifts to the policies as of 2025 concerning expanded expedited removal from the streets and a recent executive order to expand expedited removals of people recently entering the U.S. without papers and to limit humanitarian protections, along with the research conducted for this context and reflections from an interview I had with Jannette Piñero, an immigration attorney in Miami. She identifies the legal complexity of entry into the U.S., the language and cost of legal representation, and the rise of family separation in South Florida. All recommendations are located within another section that aims to identify contributions of immigrant families: that they own about 1 out of every 5 small businesses and contribute more than a trillion dollars in sales; and immigrant families contribute to important industries through their work. Church, food, festivals, language and art constitute a large part of American culture. Another major area of focus for the presentation is the children of immigrants, with some consideration that they all wrestle with identity issues around the duality of being challenged to sustain their home culture, while taking classes in school, where they are sometimes discouraged from using their heritage language. The burden on the first generation of their family to earn an education, the expectation of being the first sibling to go to college or university and the enormous burden is placed on the person designated as the family representative and the overwhelming pressures of fulfilling that role matter. There are some slides that demonstrate the benefit of immigrants in navigating cultural adjustment in schools in the United States versus other structured immersion program immigrant students have attended such as in Canada, Sweden or Australia. There are even some slides with a brochure, to include the good, bad and ugly effects and aspects of immigration and labels for most of the major national organizations doing advocacy on behalf of immigrant families. 

4. Immigration and Health Care
In the final presentation, the presenter will connect the story of immigration with the changing nature of access to health care and compare approaches in the U.S. with other countries and their solutions to addressing those changes. The first part describes the evolution of health systems, beginning with ancient herbal medications and religious based hospitals to modern public health measures, vaccines and today's health care that focuses on technology and prevention. Health care in the U.S. is primarily private, insurance-based, costly, and denies access to many individuals, or they are underinsured. Many other countries, like Canada and those in Western Europe, work with higher taxes and other potential costs on their health care system because they provide universal systems to guarantee access, although this may mean longer wait periods for care. The slides then trace some of the major time frames of U.S. immigration: colonial settlement, mass European settlement in the U.S., limited access (quotas) to immigrants entering the U.S. and the first reform in immigration to the U.S., the 1965 reform (which ended the national-origin quotas), and the current emphasis on border security - anti-immigrant, and highly politicized environment. A comparison with the United Kingdom and other nations is drawn to illustrate how changing definitions of asylum and temporary visas for work are incorporated in the immigration discussion, including labor needs, while relying on health system capacity. Local and national organizations are introduced on both sides: health association organizations like the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Public Health Association (APHA), and local or national advocacy organizations for immigration rights, like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), National Immigration Law Center (NILC), United States United (UnidosUS), and local coalitions in Miami-Dade, that are working to expand access to care and immigrant rights. The design of a link between immigration and healthcare comes alive through the interviews included in the deck: a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer who lays out procedures for emergency care, a Florida Blue employee who shared what immigration statuses are eligible for insurance, alongside a discussion of the importance of tax filing and ITINs, and an immigration attorney indicating that "even if the person doesn't have perfect status," they can still get some help with their healthcare through certain federal programs or private insurance. The deck concludes with brochures that summarize how immigrants face barriers to care, but also contribute to public health systems "in addition to pushing health care institutions to find ways to be more culturally responsive, more equitable."