Staff Directory
Name: Emily Bhargava, Director
Email: ebhargava@healthier-communities.org
Telephone: 617-441-0700 ext. 206
Education: Masters in Medical Anthropology
Current Work: In addition to coordination and administration for the Regional Center, I am involved in working with CHNA 17 on an initiative to incorporate the social determinants of health into the CHNA’s planning process, and I convene quarterly Inter-CHNA meetings of the five CHNA's in the Metrowest region. I am the project coordinator for the Waltham Wellness Initiative, and I am involved in OPEN, the Overdose Prevention and Education Network in Cambridge. I am a member of the state’s Epidemiological Workgroup and a member of the Department of Public Health’s CLAS coordinating committee to adapt the Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services standards to non-hospital settings. I am also coordinating a year-long pilot project to adapt Walk in My Shoes, a healthcare access simulation developed by Community Catalyst, into a kit that can be used by community organizations to address health disparities.
Background and Interests: Having worked in Public Health for many years, particularly with Latino communities in Boston and abroad, I am interested in finding ways to make prevention and health promotion programs relevant and impactful for the many populations that make up a community. Not only along ethnic and language lines, but along many other lines, communities are varied in terms of health beliefs, health practices and health needs. This has spurred my ongoing interest in health equity, cultural competency, inclusion and program design and evaluation.
Name: Stacy Carruth, Community Health Specialist
Email: scarruth@healthier-communities.org
Telephone: 617-441-0700 ext. 209
Education: Masters in Public Health
Current Work: I work with the substance abuse prevention coalitions in Cambridge, Weymouth and Quincy. My experience with these groups includes: coaching to coalition members on group processes and developing workplans; providing templates and tools; supporting the development and planning of social marketing campaigns; sharing best practices and recent research from the prevention field; connecting groups to other Metrowest communities doing similar work; and providing trainings on topics related to substance abuse prevention. I also support Cambridge and Quincy in their work to reduce fatal and non-fatal overdoses in their communities by reviewing outreach materials, and training curricula. My work experience includes legislative advocacy and policy change. Since starting at the Regional Center, I have worked with a collaborative to support legislation to ban alcohol ads on state-owned property in Boston. In addition to substance abuse prevention work, I also work with the Community Health Coalition of Metrowest (formerly CHNA 7) on work to address vulnerable populations in emergency preparedness by supporting the crafting of a survey to use with local health departments.
Background and Interests: I have an interest in and experience with Community Based Participatory Research. I wrote and was awarded seed funding to work on developing research questions around alcohol advertising in Greater Boston. This work has also given me the opportunity to learn more about legislative advocacy in Massachusetts, and I’m eager to share what I’ve learned with others. I enjoy developing training curricula and materials development. I have several years’ experience developing educational interventions, most recently for research studies on caregivers at the Boston University Medical School. I have also had experience teaching and living abroad, and I enjoy working with diverse populations. As a Peace Corps volunteer in the Comoros Islands, I taught English at the secondary level, conducted adult education classes, and implemented community health projects. I also taught English at the primary school level in Seoul, Korea. I have a master’s degree in public health from Boston University and I joined the Regional Center for Healthy Communities (Metrowest) in January 2007.
Name: Laura Cody, Community Health Specialist
Email: lcody@healthier-communities.org
Telephone: 617-441-0700 ext. 210
Education: Masters in Public Health, Boston University
Current Work: I am the key RCHC staff member providing support to Impact Quincy (primarily on their underage drinking prevention work), CHNA 15, and CHNA 18. I also work with groups in our region who are using healthy communities principles and coordinate support with Peter Lee at the MassPartnership for Healthy Communities. I have been closely involved with Healthy Waltham’s wellness initiative focusing on school gardens and fruits and vegetables in schools to improve health. At the Regional Center, I write and distribute e-News to keep the region up to date on events, trainings, funding opportunities, job opportunities, and resources. I also work on many aspects of evaluation - both our internal evaluation process and encouraging and assisting community groups with their evaluation efforts. I enjoy thinking about evaluation from the ground up: logic models, developing questions, finding data, and interpreting results.
Background and Interests: In addition to my general background in public health and focus on evaluation, I have worked in the areas of domestic violence (including teen dating violence); bullying; healthy weight; screening brief intervention and referral to treatment (SBIRT, motivational interviewing); emergency medicine; and natural childbirth and breastfeeding. I am particularly interested in the topics of adolescent health including youth development and the intersection of public health and health care.
Name: Sarah Stewart, Community Health Specialist
Email: sstewart@healthier-communities.org
Telephone: 617-441-0700 ext. 205
Education: Masters in Education; Masters in Public Health; Graduate Certificate in Science, Technology, and Public Policy
Current Work: Although I work with all of our coalitions in some capacity, I work most closely with Somerville Cares about Prevention and the Watertown Youth Coalition on their underage drinking prevention efforts. I participate in the Underage Drinking Prevention Workgroup with representatives from other Regional Centers and the Bureau of substance abuse services. I also work closely with the Blue Hills Community Health Network Area (CHNA 20), where I am taking on a coordination role. I am also working on a project with Walk In My Shoes, a health care access simulation.
Background and Interests: Before working in public health, I spent a few years as a high school teacher in St. Louis, MO, where I taught special education and health classes. During this time, I developed an interest in adolescent health promotion, and eventually went back to school to study public health. There, I had the opportunity to develop a curriculum for a community level violence prevention project that was based in a positive youth development and a youth empowerment perspective. As a result of both of these experiences, I see adolescent health and educational attainment as inextricably linked, and believe that many social forces are the drivers of both. Ultimately, I believe that a healthy community (in the broadest sense) will produce healthy youth. I also think that young people are a huge resource and can be important drivers of community change. It is with these lenses that I approach my work.
Because of my experience as a teacher, I like to think about ways to create interactive learning experiences with real world applications for adults and youth alike. I am also interested in public policy, especially in thinking about how to best frame policy issues. Lastly, I am kind of a numbers geek and like to think about evaluation.
Name: Bill Holden, Office Supervisor & Librarian
Email: bholden@healthier-communities.org
Telephone: 617-441-0700 ext. 200
Education: Masters in Library and Information Science, Florida State University.
Current Work: I'm the Librarian, Office Supervisor and Coordinator of Administration and Financial Operations for the Regional Center (Metrowest).
Background and Interests: I was the LGBT Studies Librarian and Rare Book Cataloger at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia where I was involved in various outreach programs centered on campus diversity, including co-chairing the Presidents Commission on LGBT Concerns. My work has focused on community building and collaboration around LGBT issues both current and historical. I've authored 5 bibliographies centered around LGBT issues in Religion. Prior to becoming a librarian, I spent many years working in the corporate arena in accounting and office management.
Name: Charlene Julien, Community Health Specialist
Email: cjulien@healthier-communities.org
Telephone: 617-441-0700 ext. 201
Education: Masters in Political Science
Current Work: I provide technical assistance for the 5 CHNA's that we represent. This work involves many of my interests such as consulting, interfacing with community members on health related issues that they care about, research, providing trainings, writing as well as learning and teaching best practices for coalition building.
Background and Interests: Sustainable economic and agricultural development practices have always fascinated me partly because of my family and educational background. My studies in Political Science focused primarily on Human Rights and Political Economy under the umbrella of the Political Science discipline and my professional experience draws mostly from years in the healthcare, education and non-profit fields where I've had the joy of wearing many hats such as coordinator, teacher, consultant and manager. Other than working on public health and socio-economic development issues, my personal interests include reading, dancing and traveling.