FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oct. 14, 2005

CONTACT: Mary Gilchrist, (319) 335-4500, mary-gilchrist@uiowa.edu
Daniel Finney, (515) 271-2833, daniel.finney@drake.edu

DRAKE SPEAKER TO DISCUSS INFECTIOUS CONSEQUENCES OF HURRICANES AND TSUNAMIS

Mary Gilchrist, director of the University Hygienic Laboratory at the University of Iowa, will discuss "Hurricanes and Tsunamis -- Toxic Gumbo and Contaminated Curry" in a public lecture at Drake University on Wednesday, Oct. 19. The event, sponsored by the Drake chapter of the Student National Pharmaceutical Association, will start at 6 p.m. in room 206 of Cline Hall of Pharmacy and Science, 28th Street and Forest Avenue.

Gilchrist, who holds a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Illinois, has directed Iowa's public health and environmental laboratory since 1995. She is a member of the Center for Disease Control's National Center for Infectious Diseases, Board of Scientific Counselors and Secretary of Health and Human Services Advisory Council on Public Health Preparedness. She also teaches in the Department of Health Management and Policy and the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health in the University of Iowa's College of Public Health.

For more information about Gilchrist's lecture at Drake, call (515) 271-1814 or e-mail norma.tigges@drake.edu.

- 30 -