The second annual Ad Fontes Forum “Too Many Holes or Not Enough Net?” will take place on Thursday, April 12, in Moore Theater at the Hopkins Center for the Arts from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Organized by Jaya Batra ’13 and Vaidehi Mujumdar ’13, the event will focus on the future of American health care and centers on a panel discussion with experts from diverse backgrounds.
The panel will feature Professor Elliott Fisher of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice (TDI); John Goodman, president and CEO of the National Center for Policy Analysis; and Patrice Harris, trustee of the American Medical Association. Ellen Meara of TDI will moderate and there will be time for audience questions.
“The goal of the event is to bring current topics to the Dartmouth community for discussion and reflection,” says Mujumdar, an anthropology and biology double major from Manassas, Va. “There are so many ways to approach health care, from a historical, academic, medical, economic, gendered, or even anthropological standpoint. Jaya and I hope that through this selection of panelists we can offer that diverse perspective to the Dartmouth community.”
Batra, a native of Mystic, Conn., and one of the forum’s founding organizers, says the forum was inspired by former Dartmouth President John Sloan Dickey’s well-known charge, “The world’s troubles are your troubles.” She adds, “The forum was conceived to offer undergraduates a shared intellectual experience for taking on important issues. Our aim is to spark a conversation within the Dartmouth community and to engage in the world’s issues in an informed, thoughtful way.”
Batra and Mujumdar both have experience in the health care sector. Batra, a biomedical engineering major with a minor in public policy, interned at the World Health Organization in Tanzania this past winter and the Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights in Boston last fall. Similarly, Mujumdar interned at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., and the National Association for Biomedical Research in Washington, D.C.
Admission is free and open to the public, and a reception will follow at the Top of the Hop. The forum is co-sponsored by the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy, the Dean of Faculty, the Dartmouth Center for Health Care Delivery Science, and the Office of the Provost.