"(Women's) Healthcare in the North Country," Apr. 29 (W) at 3:30pm

Tue Apr 28 17:23:00 UTC 2026

 *The Institute for Ethics in Public Life invites you to join us for
"(Women's) Healthcare in the North Country" on Wednesday, April 29, at
3:30pm (in person and on Zoom) with special guests Mr. Joel LaLone,
Director of the Center for Community Studies at SUNY Jefferson, and Dr.
Akanksha Misra, Assoc. Prof. of Gender and Women's Studies and current
Institute Fellow.*

Rural-Urban health disparities
<https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/topics/rural-health-disparities&sa=D&source=calendar&ust=1777477312350336&usg=AOvVaw1ABebZy6MGVr58WAX0RALR>
and the failing health of rural Americans
<https://www.google.com/url?q=https://ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2025/march/rising-rural-mortality-rates-from-natural-causes-for-working-age-adults-lead-to-widening-gap-with-urban-counterparts&sa=D&source=calendar&ust=1777477312350336&usg=AOvVaw1n9ANO8Z5HqGDl3fJZx7OE>
have been well-documented. In the current political climate, with
increasing Medicaid and social service cuts and provider shortages
<https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.osc.ny.gov/files/reports/pdf/rural-health-shortages.pdf&sa=D&source=calendar&ust=1777477312350336&usg=AOvVaw3ipnT4y4xywETaPDTe3ReT>
that are overwhelming rural areas such as the North Country
<https://www.google.com/url?q=https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/politics/2026/04/07/doctors-discuss-loss-of-medicaid-in-new-york-s-north-country&sa=D&source=calendar&ust=1777477312350336&usg=AOvVaw1qiWZ7edNAn8SYwAYF6Wya>,
these health inequity statistics are expected to get worse. Rural women's
health is an especially under-studied area of research, even when
current trends point to declining health outcomes for rural women
<https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.ruralhealth.us/getmedia/59200550-91c7-48c9-bd64-83621a7d93b6/RuralWomensHealth-(1).pdf&sa=D&source=calendar&ust=1777477312350336&usg=AOvVaw23BDI6JawOJ_QjeYGBWMF_>.
Where does the North Country stand with respect to the health of its
residents and especially women's health? What specific problems do North
Country residents face when accessing healthcare?

Based on initial data from a yet unreleased North Country Rural Health
Survey conducted in February 2026, Dr. Akanksha Misra, Assoc. Professor,
Department of Gender and Women's Studies, SUNY Plattsburgh, and Joel
LaLone, Director of the Center for Community Studies at SUNY Jefferson,
will attempt to frame the state of health, including women's health, in the
North Country. While the initial data corroborates larger trends in rural
health, it also opens up ethical, philosophical, and feminist questions
around health and healthcare. What do we understand as 'good' health? What
gets treated/assigned as a health condition? Why are public health agencies
not tracking women's menstrual health? How do our childhoods matter to
health? And above all, is society just a 'determinant' of individual health
or are the two interconnected?

Mr. Joel LaLone is Distinguished Service Professor of Mathematics and
the Director
of the Center for Community Studies at SUNY Jefferson Community College. He
has been teaching Mathematics at SUNY Jefferson for 37 years and Director
of the Center for Community Studies since 2002. He is the author of *The
Statistics Toolkit *and over 300 publications from 25 years of public
opinion research/polling. He earned a M.S. in Mathematics from Syracuse
University.

Dr. Akanksha Misra is Associate Professor in the Department of Gender and
Women’s Studies at SUNY Plattsburgh. She has published widely on topics
including sexualized violence, sexuality education, sensual pedagogy, and
the phenomenology of gender. Current projects are dedicated to rethinking
the politics and framing of menstruation and reimagining pedagogy through
the desires and labor of mothering bodies. She earned a Ph.D. in Gender,
Women and Sexuality Studies from the University of Washington in 2020.
Topic: Women's Health in the North Country
Time: Apr 29, 2026 03:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://plattsburgh.zoom.us/j/81580689120
<https://www.google.com/url?q=https://plattsburgh.zoom.us/j/81580689120&sa=D&source=calendar&ust=1777477312350336&usg=AOvVaw2jSIrKWRki1-g5fZcX2alg>

Meeting ID: 815 8068 9120

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-- 

*Daniel Lake*

(pronouns: he/him/his)

Professor of Political Science

Director, Institute for Ethics in Public Life

Hawkins 149A

101 Broad Street
<https://maps.google.com/?q=101+Broad+Street+Plattsburgh,+NY+12901&entry=gmail&source=g>

Plattsburgh, NY 12901
<https://maps.google.com/?q=101+Broad+Street+Plattsburgh,+NY+12901&entry=gmail&source=g>

(o) 518-564-5833 <(518)%5645833>

*plattsburgh.edu <http://plattsburgh.edu/>*
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