Trainers:
Sarah Stewart, M.Ed, MPH., Community Health Specialist at the Regional Center for Healthy Communities
Sarah works closely with coalitions such as Somerville Cares about Prevention (SCAP) and the Watertown Youth Coalition (WYC) on their underage drinking prevention efforts and participates in the Underage Drinking Prevention Workgroup with representatives from other Regional Centers and the Bureau of substance abuse services. She also work closely with the Blue Hills Community Health Network Area (CHNA 20) as well as works on a project with Walk In My Shoes, a health care access simulation.
Before working in public health, Sarah spent a few years as a high school teacher in St. Louis, MO, where she taught special education and health classes. During this time, she developed an interest in adolescent health promotion, and eventually went back to school to study public health. There, she had the opportunity to develop a curriculum for a community level violence prevention project that was based in positive youth development and a youth empowerment perspective. As a result of both of these experiences, she sees adolescent health and educational attainment as inextricably linked, and believes that many social forces are the drivers of both. Ultimately, she believes that “…a healthy community (in the broadest sense) will produce healthy youth…” Because of her experience as a teacher, she likes to think about ways to create interactive learning experiences with real world applications for adults and youth alike. She is also interested in public policy, especially in thinking about how to best frame policy issues.
K. “Vish” Viswanath, Ph.D., Associate Professor at the Harvard School of Public Health
Dr. Vish is a faculty member in the Center for Community-Based Research (CCBR) at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), and Director of the Health Communication Core of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC). He also Chairs the Steering Committee for the Health Communication Concentration at HSPH. Dr. Viswanath received his doctoral degree in Mass Communication from the University of Minnesota.
He has written more than 100 journal articles and book chapters concerning communication and health disparities, public health communication campaigns, e-health and digital divide and the delivery of health communication interventions to underserved populations.
His research, both in the United States and the developing world, is funded by the National Institutes of Health among others. He has consulted for the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and the American Cancer Society. Prior to his arrival at Harvard, he was the associate director for behavioral research and a senior health communication scientist at the National Cancer Institute.
In addition to his various professional activities, Dr. Viswanath received the Mayhew Derryberry Award from the American Public Health Association (APHA) for his contribution to health education research and theory (2009). He was elected Fellow of the Society for Behavioral Medicine (2008) and the Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research (2006). He is also chair of the Board of Scientific Counselors for the National Center for Health Marketing at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Rahul Bhargava, MSc, Freelance Consultant
Rahul Bhargava creates explanatory data visualizations, educational museum exhibits, and creative robotics workshops for youth and educators. He has held workshops on 3 continents, leading to a special interest in finding ways to meet the disparate needs of varying audiences. Rahul is currently a freelance computer consultant, developing hardware and software for museum exhibitions. You can find examples of his work online at www.rahulbotics.com.
