Oct 06
I was 28 when I heard the words that changed my world forever. “You have breast cancer.” At the time I was working full time, finishing my graduate degree, and living a healthy life. My diagnosis completely knocked my life into a new reality that was dark and frightening. I did not look or feel sick, …
Aug 23
Health is a basic human right. Health equity, by definition, is providing every person with the same opportunity to stay healthy, regardless of their race, gender, age, economic conditions, social status, environment, and other social determined factors. It’s a huge goal that people everywhere are working for. Health Equity Initiative (HEI) is a nonprofit organization …
Jul 19
Have you ever seen a Coca-Cola commercial? No, I mean really seen one. What are they selling? A refreshing beverage? Hardly. Coca-Cola sells happiness. Proof is provided by the closing image of the commercial below (“open happiness”). And this message is almost anywhere you look. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts_4vOUDImE If you just watched the above commercial, you might …
Jul 12
If you’re a public student, or you read, hear, talk or even just care about public health you’ve most likely come across the term “multisectoral”. It’s thrown around a lot when discussing things like community and population health or health disparities. But what does multisectoral mean? And why is it so important to the public …
May 31
Imagine there was some kind of disease that killed more than 30,000 people a year. Imagine this disease affected all kinds populations all over the country. Don’t you think if such a disease existed the CDC, NIH and the government would be all over it? What if I told you this “disease” is gun violence? That’s …
Apr 01
The other day I went to see a speaker on my college campus. Her name was Renata Schiavo and she is the founder and president of the Health Equity Initiative, a non-profit organization that is dedicated to building community, capacity and communication resources for health equity. Staying true to her mission of spreading awareness, she …
Mar 26
Having shadowed a good number of doctors in my past I’ve had the opportunity of being familiar with a lot of the difficulties they face with patients. One such difficulty is trying to get parents to vaccinate themselves and their children. There have been several occasions in which a doctor has expressed to me his …
Feb 25
How many times have you heard someone say something like, “the world’s population is growing and we need to dramatically increase our food production”? And then, heard someone talking about how more pesticides, fertilizer and genetic engineering is going to help us do it. While the intentions of these people may seem good, these proposed …
