Expertise and experience:
1. Advising and mentoring Amherst College students and young alumni who seek to explore and pursue careers in health.
2. Teaching (until December 2010 at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, and as adjunct lecturer at UMassAmherst School of Public Health), mentoring, advising, dialogue, organizing, advocating, and experience to learn, practice, and pursue health in all its dimesnions. Has included courses on health disparities, and cultural and linguistic competence,
internships, independent study, research, seminars to build leadership capacity of young people and future public health work force.
3.
Synthesizing research on social determinants of health, resilience, traumatic childhood experiences, racism, chronic stress, and conditions for productive dialogue that will have a significant impact on future public health practice.
3. Translating this research into humane MCH and public health practice to improve the health of women and children, with systems that honor families, communities, and cultures.
4. Integrating cultural understanding and respect as a key strategy to end health disparities.
5. Changing the language of public health and medicine to better reflect our ideals and purpose.
6. Bringing multiple stakeholders together to untangle complex public health challenges and take collaborative action to solve them.

Service
1. Inspiring a new generation of leaders in public health and service through a wide range of local, national, and global opportunities.
2.
Until January 2011, consultation to individuals, communities, organizations to build capacity in the above, by
a) Inspiring keynotes, presentations, workshops.
b) Organizing forums to build essential but previously unlikely partnerships.
c) Serving as catalyst for intergenerational and cross-cultural dialogue.
c) Writing papers and grants.
3. Organization and facilitation of interactive meetings with broad stakeholder participation to unite diverse parties and spark action to create public health equity.

For more information, contact:
raaronson69@amherst.edu


"A smile is the light in the window of your face, which tells people that your heart is at home."
- Kolawole Bankole, M.D, M.S

Monday, April 6, 2009

Amherst, AIDS, Activism: Launch Event Public Health Collaborative

By Jodie Simms, Amherst '09

Hello Members of the Amherst College Public Health Collaborative, including all who want to join!

This is to let you all know about the official launch event for the Amherst College Public Health Collaborative, which will be happening this Friday, April 10th, 2009, at 7:30 in the Cole Assembly Room, Converse Hall, at Amherst College. The title of the event is AIDS, Amherst, and Activism. The event is a way to excite students about the importance of public health, inform them about the developments in the AIDS field, and establish the collaborative as a resource on campus for students interested in public health. After a brief introduction of the Collaborative, we will be hearing from leading infectious disease specialists, Dr. Bruce Walker and Dr. Bisola Ojikutu, about their work addressing the global AIDS epidemic in South Africa with special regard to grassroots health care initiatives and community involvement and activism. Following the talk, there will be a discussion led by Dr. Walker, Dr. Ojikutu, and members of the Collaborative about public health in the community context and more specifically about how the Collaborative can be an effective grassroots initiative. Thanks to Jamie Cohen '11 for organizing this!

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