MARQUETTE, Mich.—Preserving brain health and function will be the subject of the next free presentation in the Your Health public lecture series at Northern Michigan University. It is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 11, in Reynolds Recital Hall.

            The featured speaker will be Dr. Gretchen Birbeck, director of the international neurologic and psychiatric epidemiology program at Michigan State University and also the epilepsy care team director of Chikankata Health Services of Mazabuka, Zambia. She will discuss steps one can take to prevent stroke, keep dementia at bay, stay sharp at any age and most effectively recover from stroke, physical or emotional trauma.

            Birbeck holds a doctor of medicine degree from the University of Chicago-Pritzer, a master’s in public health from UCLA, a bachelor’s from Indiana University and a tropical medicine and hygiene diploma from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. She completed a fellowship in clinical neurophysiology and pediatric epilepsies at Johns Hopkins Hospitals. 

Your Health is designed to provide qualified, general health information to area residents through a collaborative effort between MSU’s College of Human Medicine, NMU, Marquette General Hospital and the U.P. Health Education Corp.