The League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge welcomes the community to its second Lunch with the League at Noon, Tuesday, October 6. In an effort to keep everyone safe during this time of pandemic, the gathering will again be virtual. Those who desire to gain access to the meeting may do so by following the instructions provided at the close of this article.

Dr. Nina Fefferman, Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Department of Mathematics at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, will be the speaker. Also serving the university as the Associate Director of its One Health Initiative and as a member of the Covid-19 Outbreak Response Experts (CORE-19), Dr. Fefferman will address “The Effects of COVID-19 on Ecology and Evolution.”

The principle investigator at the Fefferman Lab at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville since 2008, Dr. Fefferman focuses on disease in the human population and how disease and disease-related behavioral ecology can affect the short-term survival and long-term evolutionary success of a population during and after a pandemic. She has done extensive work with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on pandemic preparedness and has drawn on her expertise to develop models to shape policy to keep populations safe during and after pandemics.

Fascinated by science from an early age, Fefferman audited chemistry classes at Princeton University while still in middle school. She went on to earn a BS in mathematics from Princeton in 1999, an MS in math from Rutgers in 2001, and a PhD in biology from Tufts in 2004, with a thesis on using mathematical models in evolutionary biology and epidemiology. She then began teaching at Rutgers University before becoming principal investigator at the Fefferman Lab, where she works on issues of how individual behaviors can impact whole populations. Her interests run the gamut from investigating how honeybees communicate about foraging for resources to how public health strategies can better combat epidemics.

During this time when we are all focused on how best to navigate the challenges of COVID-19, Dr. Fefferman’s expertise should prove invaluable. Lunch with the League welcomes League members and nonmembers alike to this informative presentation. For instruction on linking to the live presentation, contact maryannreeves1 [at] att.net.  Anyone not familiar with Zoom meetings should go to https://support.zoom.us and then scroll down to frequently asked questions. A couple of days following the presentation, you may view the recorded presentation on the League’s website (https://my.lwv.org/tennessee/oak-ridge).

The League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge is a nonpartisan political organization for men and women. It encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy.

To view the Zoom recording of this program, click here.