Leveraging Theatre and Storytelling Pedagogies: A Theatre for Health Workshop

Linda E. Forys, EdM, MCHES? retired in 2017 after 37 years in public health.? She was Director of Health Education and Promotion with Harris County Public Health (Houston, Texas) where she provided consultation, leadership and direction in the development and implementation of community and evidence-based health education and promotion components of the department?s interventions and programs.? Ms. Forys has been member of SOPHE for many years and served on the Board of Trustees as Secretary.? She is currently Co-Chair of the SOPHE Continuing Education Committee.

Shana? Burch is a theatre maker pursuing a doctorate in public health education at Teachers, College, Columbia University. She is an alumna of Emerson College and Harvard University where she earned her B.F.A in Acting and Ed.M in Arts in Education respectively. Shana??s research in health behavior explores the relationship between arts participation and cultural engagement with health outcomes. Shana??s interests include the use of theatre and storytelling as a tool to examine and address complex issues such as the societal determinants of health, and her central focus is to conduct research on how social connectedness and creativity translates to improving health literacy and overall well-being. Shana? is proud to be a Gates Millennium Scholar, RWJF Health Policy Research Scholar, as well as member of Actors' Equity Association. Her regional credits include Lyric Stage Company: The Treasurer (Female Actor), Bridge Rep: Mrs. Packard (Mrs.Tenney), Central Square Theatre: Journey to the West (Pig), and Huntington Theatre Company: Milk Like Sugar (Keera) as well as performances with African American Policy Forum, Israeli Stage, Bad Habit Productions, Fresh Ink Theatre, and Hibernian Hall. She believes in the power of storytelling to revive health and reconcile hearts, so she?s working to leverage arts and culture for health promotion. She was born in Los Angeles and partly raised in Buena, NJ. Shana? has run three World Major marathons. www.shanaeburch.com

Saharra Dixon is Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES), Community-engaged Theatre Artist, and Arts in Health Practitioner from Atco, NJ, using theatre, arts-based inquiry, storytelling and other mixed-method approaches to health, wellness, and social justice. She is interested in theatre and arts' impact on health and health research. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Soul Circle LLC, a Women's Arts & Health Collective working to redefine paths to health, wellness, and justice by empowering the "artist" in each client through a holistic and cross-cultural approach. She believes the arts can break down barriers to health and healthcare, and she does this by offering cross-cultural, holistic, and positive approaches to self-liberation and wellness for the betterment of ourselves and our communities through Soul Circle. In her freelance work as "The Dramatic Health Educator," Dixon curates interactive and educational arts-based health and social justice interventions, workshops, performances, and other programming. Some of this work includes theatrical projects such as The #StayHome Project and the We're Having a Party! Saharra is particularly interested in using theatre and storytelling pedagogies in health to address Black maternal and child health, adolescent health, and intervention-based research. Saharra has presented at the North Atlantic Drama Therapy Association (NADTA) 40th annual conference and the National Organization for Arts in Health (NOAH) 4th annual conference. With a social justice as public health approach to her work, Saharra is passionate about the arts? ability to heal, inspire, and foster change across cultures and lifespans. Similarly, she's fascinated with the arts' ability to dismantle systems of oppression and tackle social inequities in health. In addition to this work, Saharra also serves as a Sexual/Reproductive Health Educator for youth. She received her BS in Health Behavior Science from University of Delaware and MA in Educational Theatre/Applied Theatre from New York University Steinhardt School. Thedramatichealtheducator.com SoulCircleArts.com IG: @dramatichealtheducator and @soulcirclearts

Jasmine L. Blanks Jones is the Founder and Executive Director of Burning Barriers Building Bridges Youth Theatre (B4YT)- a cultural performance company dedicated to radical community empowerment through the arts. As a global leader in arts and advocacy since 2010, Jasmine recently extended the scope of B4YT with a consulting practice, Creating Brave Stages. B4YT has partnered with organizations including UNICEF, Oxfam, the US Department of State, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, and the APEX Museum. In 2014-15, B4YT's awareness campaign on the Ebola crisis in Liberia reached 300,000 people motivating action towards prevention. Jasmine designed a new MPH course at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine which brings together theatre practitioners from Liberia with public health research students to improve communications in global health. Her doctoral research explores how youth cultural production and everyday performances expose the global race-based inequities in education and health by engaging communities in co-creation. www.B4YouthTheatre.org.

Whitney Danielle Bell, MA is a Drama Therapist, Educator, and Community-Engaged Theater Artist. Originally from sunny Southern California, Whitney relocated to New York City where she obtained her BA in Theater and Psychology from The New School and her MA in Drama Therapy from New York University. She is the Artistic Director of Soul Circle Arts, a Woman’s Arts and Health Collective, and a member of The Collideoscope Repertoire Theatre Company. Her recent devised therapeutic theater projects within the NYU As Performance Series include Turbulence and DTAT: Our Family, Our Story: Being Black and Strong in Drama Therapy. Whitney is passionate about holistic and sustainable approaches to healing within communities. She specializes in providing trauma informed care for children, adolescents, and their families. Whitney aims to create accessible, brave spaces for all those she serves to express themselves creatively and reclaim their power in support of our ongoing mental health.