social justice It seems we’ve all been thinking deeply about race and racism in the United States. My interest in public health stems from a desire to work towards equity and social justice. One of my favorite TEDTalks is by Mary Bassett: Why Your Doctor Should Care About Social Justice. Dr Bassett is the Health … Read More
It is now the beginning of April — if you are like the masses, you likely have not been keeping up with your New Year’s resolution. The reason why, that habits are hard to create and then sustain, is an excellent lesson for instructional design and teaching. We think of the mind as a bottomless … Read More
I’ve been working hard on a few great contracts! It’s been feeding my creative side as I love, love, love, thinking about how people learn complex topics. Training tools. I went out and bought some puzzles to add to my training toolkit (which is literally a big box of stuff–from blocks, to rubber bands, to … Read More
What should we call areas in the country where healthy foods are at a minimum? Activists have often used the term “food desert”. But, as time has passed, many activities believe it is a misleading term as food often is available, it may be of a lesser quality (think mealy tomatoes or wilted lettuce) or … Read More
Every year on Martin Luther King day, I like to read something of his. This year, I am reading and reflecting on excerpts from The Other America, a speech Martin Luther King gave in 1968. If you prefer to watch, here is the video. There are times, and I must confess it very honestly as … Read More
ThanksgivingABOUT THE DOCUMENT: Three hundred fifty years after the Pilgrims began their invasion of the land of the Wampanoag, their “American” descendants planned an anniversary celebration. Still clinging to the white schoolbook myth of friendly relations between their forefathers and the Wampanoag, the anniversary planners thought it would be nice to have an Indian make an … Read More
A while back, I worked on developing a training for ICAP at Columbia University on training on the optimization of HIV treatments. Meaning, simply, that HIV treatment has to be effective, simple to take, and affordable. We created a series of trainings for health care workers on new HIV medications. Check it out here if … Read More
I’ve been thinking a lot about this article, No More Working For Jerks!, since I read it back in January. My basic take-away is that there has been a shift between folks feeling an undying loyalty to an employer, even the jerks, to a realization that working for a jerk is just not worth it. … Read More
In 2007, former United States President Bill Clinton published Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World to give us a mandate for how to think about our charitable giving and how to make sure that we, every day people, contribute to big impacts. If you’d like, watch this 15 minute interview with Clinton … Read More
Perhaps this is less of a book report and more of my musings on The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. The premise of the book is that there are “the moment(s) of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point” and those moments can create widespread social changes that can become part of our everyday. So, … Read More