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Keynote Speakers

Dr. Laura Bothwell, PhD, MA is an ethicist and historian of public health. Her research examines social, historical, and ethical dimensions of epidemiology with a particular focus on randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Her current book project examines how international and national policies have influenced trial rigor and ethics, protections of vulnerable trial subjects, and participant diversity in RCTs. She also does work at the intersection of climate change, epidemiology, and ethics.

She completed a PhD in the History and Ethics of Public Health and Medicine from the Department of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in Health Policy, Law, and Ethics in the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics at Harvard Medical School and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She has also had visiting appointments at Oxford University, Foundation Brocher, the Karolinska Institutet, and National Taiwan University. She teaches public health ethics and the history of public health, and provides pre-departure ethics training in global health practice. She holds a secondary appointment in the Section of the History of Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine.

Dr. Gene Elizabeth Harkless, DNSc, APRN, FNP-BC, CNL, FAANP is Associate Professor Emerita of Nursing at the University of New Hampshire, where she taught and led program development for over 40 years. She began her career as a public health nurse, an experience that shaped her lifelong commitment to community-centered, population-based care. A Family Nurse Practitioner since 1980, she continues to provide direct patient care at Families First Community Health Center, a federally designated community health center in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. A Fulbright scholar and Fellow of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, she serves as the AANP representative to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Forum on Advancing Diagnostic Excellence, and is the recipient of the New Hampshire Nurse Practitioner Association Lifetime Achievement Award and the AANP State Award for Excellence.

Dr. Lynn Sosa, MD received her medical degree from Harvard Medical School and completed a residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. She served in the Epidemic Intelligence Service with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2005-2007, assigned to the Connecticut Department of Public Health. Since October 2007, Dr. Sosa has been with the Connecticut Department of Public Health and currently serves as the State Epidemiologist.  Dr. Sosa is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Medicine at Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health.  It is with this experience that she was invited to speak at our 2026 CAPHN Conference to share what is currently happening with Public Health in Connecticut.

To register for the 2026 Annual Meeting and Conference, please complete BOTH steps below.

Thank you and we will see you at the 2026 CTAPHN Annual Meeting and Conference!