Archives of Press Releases, Recent News, and Media Mentions
Media Inquiries
For general media queries, please contact Catherine Broussard at catherine@phoenixzonesinitiative.org.
Archives of Press Releases and Media Advisories
December 7, 2021
Why Ecological Justice and the Right to Health Matter: Human Rights Journal’s Special Section Focuses on the Interconnectedness of Humans, Animals, and the Planet
The connections between ecological justice and the right to health are the focus of the December 2021 special section of the Health and Human Rights Journal. Phoenix Zones Initiative’s President, Dr. Hope Ferdowsian, is the section’s guest editor. Six articles from esteemed scientists and researchers challenge long-standing assumptions about relationships between humans, animals, and the planet in light of moral, legal, and scientific advancements and offer meaningful solutions.
August 11, 2021
Preventing Future Pandemics Act of 2021 Remains Stalled in Congress: A Public Health Expert Fears We Have Collectively Become Complacent in Thinking the Pandemic Was “Unprecedented” and Urges Immediate Passage of the Bill
A bipartisan bill that would help significantly reduce the risk of future pandemics by stopping the trade of wild animals for food and breeding is stalled in the US Congress. Phoenix Zones Initiative President Dr. Hope Ferdowsian, a double board-certified physician and public health expert, is urging Congress to pass the bill immediately to save lives and prevent future public health catastrophes.
July 14, 2021
Concerns Raised Over the UN’s High-Level Political Forum Ministerial Declaration: Key Recommendations Regarding Global Response to COVID-19 Are Being Ignored
Phoenix Zones Initiative, a member of the NGO Major Group, has raised concerns that government delegations at the High-Level Political Forum have yet to agree on vital issues, including climate change, healthcare, and biodiversity. Of special concern are some governments’ attempts to downplay the importance of key recommendations regarding a global response to COVID-19, its impact, and the prevention of future pandemics.
June 1, 2021
Phoenix Zones Initiative CEO Dr. Hope Ferdowsian Provides Recommendations to the UN High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development
Dr. Ferdowsian was selected as an expert to advise on the preparations for the UN HLPF on Sustainable Development, which is the UN’s core platform for follow-up and review of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Dr. Ferdowsian provided expertise on SDG 3: “Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages.”
May 3, 2021
Phoenix Zones Initiative Advances a Just One Health Approach: Phoenix Zones Initiative and Project ECHO Announce New Partnership
This partnership will afford Phoenix Zones Initiative the opportunity to provide a Just One Health foundation on which public policies, institutions, and practices can promote optimal health.
Archives of News and Opinion Pieces
December 10, 2021 (Marie Claire)
Today, on Human Rights Day, the US Must Abolish Child Marriage
Child marriage is an everywhere problem. In all but six US states, adults can marry children ages 17 and under. US laws don’t do enough to protect children, and COVID-19 is putting more kids at risk. In this op-ed, Phoenix Zones Initiative experts Dr. Hope Ferdowsian and Saryn Chorney explore why the US must ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as an important step to protecting and uplifting vulnerable children.
December 9, 2021 (Health and Human Rights Journal)
Special Section: Ecological Justice and the Right to Health
This special section, the first of its kind to be published in a health and human rights journal, addresses the explicit connections between the treatment of humans, nonhuman animals, and our shared environment. Six articles from esteemed scientists and researchers challenge various long-standing assumption about relationships between humans, animals, and the planet in light of moral, legal, and scientific advancements and advocate for a Just One Health approach. The special section was edited by Phoenix Zones Initiative President, Dr. Hope Ferdowsian.
December 8, 2021 (Issues in Science and Technology)
Ethics in Animal Research
In this invited letter responding to an opinion piece by philosopher and lecturer Dr. Jane Johnson, Phoenix Zones Initiative President Dr. Hope Ferdowsian discusses how extending principles such as respect for autonomy and duties to nonmaleficence and justice to decisions about the use of animals in research could lead a national research agenda that favors more translatable, human-centered, modern research methods.
September 16, 2021 (Scientific American)
Stop Torturing Animals in the Name of Science
We know that animals feel pain and fear, but we’re still acting as if that’s not true. This op-ed by Phoenix Zones Initiative President Dr. Hope Ferdowsian calls for the creation of a more ethical, modern research paradigm in which animals receive the same protections that humans get.
May 18, 2020 (American College of Preventive Medicine)
COVID-19: Challenging the Way We Produce and Consume Food
Phoenix Zones Initiative President Dr. Hope Ferdowsian underscores how the COVID-19 pandemic provides opportunities to change how we produce and consume food in a way that values the rights, health, and wellbeing of people, animals, and the planet.
March 27, 2020 (Albuquerque Journal)
Movement–Animal and Human–Key to Pandemics
Phoenix Zones Initiative President Dr. Hope Ferdowsian outlines how the novel coronavirus pandemic has tested how Americans respond to restrictions of their civil liberties, and that it provides a deeper opportunity to reevaluate how we view the right to freedom of movement.
January 29, 2020 (Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics)
A Belmont Report for Animals?
As Phoenix Zones Initiative President Dr. Hope Ferdowsian and her colleagues note, responding to historical abuses in the conduct of human research, in 1979, the Belmont Report published key ethical principles to which human research should adhere. They describe how the same principles could be extended to nonhuman animals.
November 3, 2019 (Albuquerque Journal)
Animals Deserve Research Protections People Get
Dr. Hope Ferdowsian, President of Phoenix Zones Initiative, outlines how Americans have a deep, but often ambivalent, relationship with animals, and that societal changes beg the question of how our institutions might better respond to monumental shifts in our understanding of and concern for animals.
Archives of Media Mentions
May 5, 2021 (Danbury’s HamletHub)
WCSU Professor Releases New Book, Explores the Impact of Animal Sanctuaries on Animals and Humans
In his new book, Dr. Elan Abrell, Phoenix Zones Initiative’s vice president of programs, shares what he learned about the ethics of care around animal sanctuaries, and how they can serve as a model for a proactive ethos of care and empathy that can help us build a more resilient future.
May 5, 2021 (Psyche)
My Cancer Scars Map the Pain of Animals Held in Research Labs
Using her experience with cancer as a foundation, author and professor Dr. Barbara J. King advocates for an evolved moral and scientific calculus recognizing that the most successful and ethical human health research will not involve nonhuman animals. She references Phoenix Zones Initiative President Dr. Hope Ferdowsian’s work on a Belmont Report for Animals.
March 23, 2021 (Faunalytics)
Why We Need Proper Ethical Guidelines on Animal Research
This essay highlights the need to adopt a Belmont Report for Animals and to revolutionize how research works.
March 22, 2021 (The Concordian)
The Ethical Dilemma of Animal Testing
This opinion piece on whether animal research is ethical quotes Phoenix Zones Initiative President Dr. Hope Ferdowsian about the importance of pushing research innovation forward.
October 10, 2020 (The Regulatory Review)
Regulation of Animal Subjects Research
This scholarly discussion of whether the Animal Welfare Act achieves its aim of protecting “animal research subjects” references Phoenix Zones Initiative President Dr. Hope Ferdowsian’s article on a Belmont Report for animals and its recommendations for stricter ethical guidelines.