EFF Resources - The ELSI of Social Epigenetics
Session Title: The ELSI of Social Epigenetics
Date and time: Friday, May 9, 2025 | 12pm ET US / 9am PT US
Moderator: Martine Lappé, PhD
Presenters: Michael S. Kobor, PhD & Erika A. Waters, PhD, MPH
CERA Coordinator: Esohe Irabor, PhD
Staff: David Lamb, Faryn Fairweather, Grace Morris
Biographies
MODERATOR: Martine Lappé, PhD
Dr. Lappé is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Science, Technology, and Society, in the Department of Social Sciences at the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. She is also a Fellow in the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. Dr. Lappé is a feminist sociologist of science, health, and medicine and a previous postdoctoral fellow at Columbia’s Center for Excellence in ELSI Research. Her research focuses on the social and ethical dimensions of the contemporary life sciences, and their intersections with lived experiences of pregnancy and parenting.
From 2016-2022, Dr. Lappé was Principal Investigator of the K99/R00 grant titled “Behavioral Epigenetics in Children: Exploring the Social and Ethical Implications of Translation,” awarded by NHGRI’s Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications Program. She has published widely on the social and ethical dimensions of social epigenetics.
Link to Martine’s biography: https://socialsciences.calpoly.edu/martine-lappe-2
PANELIST: Michael S. Kobor
Dr. Michael Kobor is a Professor in the Department of Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and The Edwin S.H. Leong UBC Chair in Healthy Aging — a UBC President’s Excellence Chair. He has received many distinctions, including a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Social Epigenetics and an appointment as Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) Child and Brain Development Program. Until recently, Dr. Kobor served as the Sunny Hill BC Leadership Chair in Early Child Development, as well as the Director for Healthy Starts at BC Children's Hospital Research Institute. Dr. Kobor’s world-class, interdisciplinary research program employs a “society-to-cell” framework to better understand the mechanisms by which environmental exposures and life experiences can “get under the skin” to affect health and behaviour across the life course.
Link to Michael’s biography: https://medgen.med.ubc.ca/michael-steffen-kobor/
PANELIST: Erika A. Waters, PhD, MPH
Dr. Erika Waters obtained a PhD in social psychology with a concentration in health from Rutgers University. As a part of my postdoctoral training at the National Cancer Institute, she obtained a Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. She began working at Washington University in St. Louis in 2009, and has been continually funded by the National Institutes of Health since 2011. Her research program seeks to understand how people think about health issues and how those thoughts influence their health-related decisions and behavior. Her scholarship informs health communication and behavior interventions that aim to improve health and reduce health disparities.
Link to Erika’s biography: https://publichealth.wustl.edu/people/erika-a-waters/
Resources Shared by the Panel
Erika A. Waters
[SLIDE 9]
- Will your lifestyle hurt your grandchildren?
- Sperm passes dad's trauma and poor diet to his kids: Study reveals how a father's experience plays a key role in the way their child's cells develop
- Poverty linked to epigenetic changes and mental illness
- Pregnant women who eat fast food every day are putting 'THREE generations at risk of obesity, heart disease and diabetes
- Pregnant 9/11 survivors transmitted trauma to their children
CERA Resources
We invite you to browse ELSIhub Collections. ELSIhub Collections are essential reading lists on fundamental or emerging topics in ELSI, curated and explained by expert Collection Editors, often paired with ELSI trainees: https://elsihub.org/resources/collections
This session’s featured ELSIhub Collection: “Technologies to Operationalize Indigenous Data Sovereignty” curated by Māui Hudson, BHSc, AIT, MHSc, AUT (University of Waikato) , Stephanie Carroll, DrPH, MPH (University of Arizona), and Caleigh Curley, MPH (University of Arizona).
Upcoming events that you can now register for:
- Register for our next ELSI Journal Club will be on May 30th at 12pm ET.
- Register for June’s EFF Session: Rigor, Reproducibility and Responsibility: ELSI Questions in Population Data Practices
More ways you can connect with us:
