April 9 | 5:30 – 6:30pm
Join Dr. Kent Thornburg and OJMCHE’s Director of Education, Beth Lilach, for a presentation and discussion about epigenetics: the study of how cells control gene activity without changing the DNA sequence. Dr. Thornburg will explain the scientific understanding of how trauma is transmitted between generations, then will join Lilach in conversation about the ways epigenetics are felt across diverse communities, especially amongst Holocaust and other genocide survivors.
This program is presented as part of Survival and Intimations of Immortality: The Art of Alice Lok Cahana, Rabbi Ronnie Cahana, and Kitra Cahana.
We will send a link to the zoom webinar 24 hours before the event and monitor any new ticket purchases periodically leading up to the 5:30pm start time.
Kent L. Thornburg, PhD, is the M. Lowell Edwards Chair of Cardiovascular Research, Professor of Medicine, in the Knight Cardiovascular Institute at Oregon Health & Science University. He holds joint professorships in the Departments of Physiology & Pharmacology, Biomedical Engineering and Obstetrics & Gynecology. Thornburg uses a broad range of scientific disciplines to investigate how maternal stressors before, during and after pregnancy affect the risk for the offspring acquiring chronic diseases later in life. He has participated in co-funded projects with scientists in England, New Zealand, Switzerland, Finland, Australia and India. He oversees clinical studies on pregnancy in rural Oregon and Alaska and serves regularly on advisory panels at the NIH, the American Heart Association and the Children’s Heart Foundation.
Beth Lilach, Director of Education at OJMCHE, holds a bachelor’s degree in feminist studies from the University of California-Santa Cruz and a master’s in Holocaust history and Genocide studies from Clark University. Lilach previously worked at the Konar Center for Tolerance and Jewish Studies, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center in Toronto, and the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center on Long Island. She has been engaged with social justice, feminist, and genocide pedagogy for over thirty years.