William J. Degutis Women in Science and Health Lecture Series

2025 Keynote Speaker Dr. Linda Degutis with CSH's Dean Dance-Barnes and the Degutis Lecture Chair Dr. Kipp (photo credit: Nupur Bosmiya).

2025 Keynote Speaker Dr. Linda Degutis lecutruring.

Keynote Speaker Maggie Amsler recieving a Keynote Speaker Award from Committee Chair Jingjing Kipp

2024 Keynote Speaker Margaret "Maggie" Amsler during lecuture.

2024 Degutis Lecture Q&A

2023 lecture attendees listen to a message from the Lecture Series sponsor: Dr. Linda Degutis. (photo credit: Olivia Huber)

2023 Degutis speaker Dr. Duncan and Lecture Committee Chair Dr. Kipp pose next to registration table. (photo credit: Olivia Huber)

2023 Degutis Lecture Q&A (photo credit: Olivia Huber)

The William J. Degutis Women in Science and Health Lecture Series is an annual event in the College of Science and Health, generously supported by Dr. Linda C. Degutis (’75, BS Nursing). The purposes of the lecture series are to promote the accomplishments of women in the natural and health sciences and in the closely related fields, as well as create scholarship and community among faculty, students, staff, and the public. Each lecture is presented by a prominent scientist at the forefront of these fields, and the speaker usually participates in additional programming with DePaul students and faculty.

About the Lecture Series Donor:

The William J. Degutis Women in Science and Health Lecture Series has been generously supported by DePaul alumna Linda C. Degutis '75, BS Nursing, DrPH, MSN, FRSPH. Dr. Degutis is a nationally recognized leader for her policy, advocacy, and work on initiatives focusing on prevention of violence and injury, in addition to suicide prevention and intervention. She is also the former Director of the National Center for Injury Prevention & Control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and serves as Chair of the CSH Advisory Council .

The lecture series is named after Dr. Degutis' father, William J. Degutis. Mr. Degutis, a WWII veteran, worked at Ford Motor Company and for the US Department of the Interior - Federal Water Pollution Control Administration for many years protecting waterways. He instilled in his daughter a similar love for science and public service. Follow this link to hear a message from Dr. Degutis.

The 2026 Lecture:

Degutis Flyer 2026.png

The 2026 lecture was given by Mana Kasongo-Robinson, MD and MS FACEP, on May 18, 2026. You can read more about the event and view a recording of the 2026 William J. Degutis lecture on the CSH YouTube channel.

Born in the then Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, Dr. Kasongo-Robinson has spent much of her adult life in the pursuit of both of her passions: medicine and journalism. After graduating from DePaul with a degree in American Studies in 1993 and receiving a Master’s degree from the Columbia School of Journalism, Dr. Kasongo-Robinson worked as a freelance reporter for many news venues including InStyle Magazine and Institutional Investor. Additionally, Dr. Kasongo-Robinson co-founded the Black Star News, a weekly investigative newspaper in New York City.

While maintaining her journalism roots, Dr. Kasongo-Robinson went on to receive her medical degree from Rush Medical School and completed her residency in emergency medicine from New York University/Bellevue in 2006. She has had articles published with ABC news, Newsweek, Real Health Magazine. Presently, Dr. Kasongo-Robinson is an attending physician and the director of the emergency room at Phoebe Worth Hospital in Sylvester, Georgia . She has an interest and expertise in emergency health care issues, rural medicine, African and African-American politics, and women’s health and health equity. She has spent time doing medical mission work in Kenya several times and Haiti days after the devastating earthquake in 2010. She is currently a member of the advisory committee for the College of Health and Science Advisory Council at DePaul.

As an emergency physician in rural southwest Georgia, she had been an essential frontline physician during the Covid 19 pandemic and in addition to taking care of very sick patients with limited resources, she has been a frequent guest on Newsy, the largest web-based newsroom. Dr. Kasongo-Robinson enjoys spending time with her wonderful husband, Mark (DePaul, philosophy, 92) and two young children, Marshall and Malaika. She has also been named 2021 top doctor as well as top emergency medicine specialist in 2021 along with top woman in medicine in 2022, and is currently a fellow on the Academy of Emergency Physicians. She also spends once or twice a month treating residents at one of Albany’s nursing homes. In addition to being an active member of her community and church, Kasongo-Robinson is also a member of Jack and Jill of America and the National Medical Association.

The 2025 Lecture:

2025 Lecture Series flyer for Linda Degutis

The 2025 William J. Degutis Women in Science and Health Lecture was given by Linda C. Degutis, DrPH, MSN. on April 16th, 2025. The title of the 2025 lecture was "Injuries Are NOT Accidents". A recording of the 2025 William J. Degutis lecture can be found on the CSH YouTube.

Linda C. Degutis, DrPH, MSN is a Lecturer at Yale School of Public Health. In addition, she serves as a consultant on several projects related to suicide prevention, and also consults on other public health issues, including gun violence. An internationally known expert in injury and violence prevention and policy, she was Executive Director of Defense Health Horizons, a program of the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine based at the Uniformed Services University following her tenure as Director of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Previously, she held faculty positions in Emergency Medicine, Public Health, Surgery, and Nursing at Yale University after serving as one of the first trauma program coordinators in the US and working clinically in trauma and emergency care. She Past President of APHA, a former Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow working in the office of the late Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MN), and former Chief Science Officer for The Avielle Foundation. She has been actively involved in policy initiatives to prevent firearm violence through APHA as well as Connecticut Against Gun Violence. She has published numerous articles on injury and violence prevention and intervention, and served as a technical advisor for the film “The Sweetest Land”. She is the co-editor of “Gun Violence Prevention: A Public Health Approach” that was published in 2021 by APHA. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, and continues to serve on several non-profit boards.

Dr. Degutis, a native of Chicago, Illinois, earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing from DePaul University, and MSN and DrPH degrees from Yale University. She currently lives in Decatur, Georgia.

The 2024 Lecture:

The 2024 lecture was be given by Margaret "Maggie" Amsler, M.S. on May 2nd, 2024. The lecture was held in McGowan South (1110 W. Belden Ave) Room 104, with both in-person and virtual attendees. A recording of the 2024 lecture can be found on the CSH YouTube channel.

Amsler herself is a part of Antarctica's history. After earning her undergraduate degree at DePaul, she pursued her master's degree and continued her Antarctic studies at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. A career move brought her to the University of California Santa Barbara, where as a staff research associate, she participated in an additional ten expeditions in Antarctica.

In the years since Amsler was on the first-ever US sponsored winter cruise along the Antarctic Peninsula, on one of the first-ever manned submersible in Antarctica, logged 500 dives, and even has an island named in her and her husband's honor for the work that they have done in the past 35+ years.

The 2023 Lecture:

The 2023 lecture was given by Francesca E. Duncan, PhD on April 13th. This lecture was titled "Modulating Female Reproductive Function across the Lifespan". A recording of the 2023 lecture is uploaded to the CSH YouTube channel available now.

Dr. Duncan is the Co-Director at the Center for Reproductive Science and a part of the Department of Obstetrics and Genecology at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr. Duncan leads a research program focused on understanding the cellular mechanisms of how aging - both physiological and iatrogenic - impacts reproductive potential at the levels of the gamete and ovary.

She has co-authored more than 90 manuscripts in the area of productive biology, and her work has been highlighted by the BBC radio, in Discover Magazine, Marie Claire Magazine, and CNN Health.

The 2022 Lecture:

2022 Degutis speaker Kalogera — Click the icon to watch the 2022 Degutis Lecture.

The 2022 lecture was titled "Einstein's Waves: Cosmic Sounds from Black Holes and Neutron Stars" and was presented by Dr. Vicky Kalogera of Northwestern University.

Dr. Kalogera is an expert in the astrophysics of compact objects, black holes and neutron stars (the death remnants of stars), studying their formation and evolution especially in systems of multiple stars. In 2018 she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and in 2021 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

This lecture took place on April 14th, 2022.

The 2021 Lecture:

2021 Degutis Lecture program — Click the icon to watch the 2021 Degutis Lecture.

The 2021 lecture was titled "On the Origins of Gender: Brain Sex Differences, Neuroplasticity and Women's Advancement in STEM" and was presented by Dr. Lise Eliot of Rosalind Franklin University.

Lise Eliot is a Professor of Neuroscience and Executive Chair of Foundational Sciences & Humanities at the Chicago Medical School of Rosalind Franklin University. She received a B.A. degree Magna Cum Laude in History & Science from Harvard University, a Ph.D. in Cellular Physiology & Biophysics from Columbia University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Division of Neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine.

The Lecture Series Legacy:

The predecessor of this series was the Jeanne LaDuke Women in Mathematics, Science and Technology Annual Lecture Series, which ran from 2005 through 2016. The LaDuke Lecture Series honored Dr. Jeanne LaDuke, Associate Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, who taught at DePaul for 30+ years and conducted groundbreaking research on the contributions of women mathematicians in the early twentieth century in the United States.

Scroll through the gallery below to learn more about speakers from the Jeanne LaDuke Lecture Series (2005 - 2016). Click here for a list of past speakers and titles.