The Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education’s annual symposium, It’s About a Billion Lives, was held on Friday April 11th, 2025. Co-hosted by the UCSF Smoking Cessation Leadership Center, this in-person event was held at the Robertson Auditorium at the UCSF Mission Bay campus.
This year, the symposium was expanded into a full-day format, packed with an extended lineup of speakers, posters, research, and a special afternoon session dedicated to the history of the tobacco industry documents archives. A recording of the Symposium will be available on the CTCRE website in the coming weeks.
Keynote Presentations:
Eliminating menthol to reduce harm in African American communities and to help end the tobacco epidemic
- Robert N. Proctor, PhD, Professor of History and Medicine, Stanford University
- Valerie Yerger, ND, Professor, UCSF Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences
- Yolonda C. Richardson, JD, MPH President and CEO, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
Presentations by UCSF Tobacco Control postdoctoral scholars and researchers
- Leila Mohammadi, MD, PhD, Assistant Professional Researcher, UCSF
- Sabrina Islam, PhD, MS, Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education
Discussant: Catherine R. Lucey, MD, MACP, UCSF Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost
Poster session on research on tobacco and related substances
Archives and Why They Matter
- Polina Ilieva, Associate University Librarian for Collections-Archivist, UCSF Library
Whoever controls the media controls the mind: Media, Marketing and Tobacco Archives
- Robert K. Jackler, MD, Sewell Professor Emeritus, Stanford University School of Medicine (SRITA)
- Peter Kovacs, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education
The Department of Justice Case against the Tobacco Industry
- Sharon Eubanks, Former Director, U.S. Department of Justice Tobacco Litigation Team
- Ruth Malone, RN, PhD, Professor, UCSF Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Leveraging AI for Document Analysis in Archival Research and Publishing
- Geoffrey Boushey, MS, Head of Engineering, UCSF Library
The Opioid Epidemic, Oral History, and Why Stories Matter
- Amy C. Sullivan, PhD, Assistant Professor, Modern U.S. & Oral History, Macalester College
Community Archives – Whose Story is told? Who Tells your Story?
- Braunz Courtney, HIV Education and Prevention Project of Alameda County (HEPPAC)
- Britt Creech, Vanguard Lab, a project of the San Francisco Drug Users Union
- Ivy Jean, Vanguard Lab, a project of the San Francisco Drug Users Union
- Mary Howe, Homeless Youth Alliance (HYA), San Francisco (HYA)
Why History Matters
- Brian Dolan, PhD, Professor, UCSF Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
Watch the 2024 symposium and past years’ symposia.
