Dr. Magda Peck Announced as 2016 A Day for Meta House Keynote

Dr. Magda Peck to Address 500% Increase in Heroin-Related Deaths
since 2005 at A Day for Meta House 2016

Milwaukee, WI – Dr. Magda Peck ScD, ScM, PA, Founding Dean of the Joseph J. Zilber School of Public Health and Founder and Principal of MP3 Health Group, will be a keynote speaker at the 2016 A Day for Meta House, “Bringing Hope & Healing to Our Community.” Dr. Peck, along with Meta House President and CEO, Amy Lindner, and a Meta House graduate, will present a thoughtful dialogue about the local impacts the heroin and other opiates epidemic continues to have on our region.

The Center for Disease Control cites that in 2010, enough painkillers were prescribed to medicate every American adult around-the-clock for a month. According to a recently-released report from the American Society of Addiction Medicine, four in five new heroin users started out misusing prescription painkillers. The same report cited that 94% of respondents in a 2014 survey of people in treatment for opioid addiction said they used heroin because prescription opioids were “far more expensive and harder to obtain.”

Since 2005, heroin-related deaths in Milwaukee County have risen almost 500% and continue to rise sharply each year.

Dr. Peck will discuss how the heroin epidemic affects the most fundamental aspects of our community – our families, our neighborhoods and our public systems, such as schools, courts and hospitals. This year’s event will both inform and inspire by introducing guests to women who have overcome opiate addiction through the holistic, family-centered treatment provided at Meta House.

Dr. Peck, a 2015 Milwaukee Business Journal Woman of Influence, holds masters and doctoral degrees from the Harvard (Chan) School of Public Health. Her work in the community health field includes tenures at CityMatCH and the University of Nebraska. Locally, in 2007, the Joseph J. Zilber School of Public Health at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee was established as the State’s first nationally-accredited public health school. Dr. Peck was named Founding Dean. Most recently, she founded the MP3 Health Group to catalyze great leadership, strategic collaboration and sustainable systems change for strong, healthy and just communities.

“We’re thrilled to have Dr. Peck share her insights with us at this year’s A Day for Meta House,” said Amy Lindner, President and CEO of Meta House. “She is at the forefront of convening influential leaders to identify and implement important solutions to Milwaukee’s most wide-reaching health concerns.”

A Day for Meta House is presented by Harley-Davidson, Assurance Laboratories, Boelter Companies, CliftonLarsonAllen and Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren.

A Day for Meta House is free to attend. Guests will have the opportunity to consider making a gift. Registration is open for the event, which will be held on Wednesday, April 27 at Carroll University and on Friday, May 6 at the Harley-Davidson Museum Garage. The lunch session on May 6 has already reached capacity. The annual event attracts over 1,000 attendees who come together to learn about and advocate for Meta House’s work to end the generational cycle of addiction by healing women and strengthening families.

To register for A Day for Meta House or to learn more about our work, visit our website at www.metahouse.org and like our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/metahouse.