Storytelling and Photovoice as Tools to Promote Health

Bianca Reid hones a strong passion to enhance and improve the well-being of peoples' lives. Bianca takes pride in following my purpose through health promotion and education. As a Certified Health Education Specialist with the Riverside Community Health Foundation; having the opportunity to make an impact on enhancing lifestyle changes. Her role contains many hats such as; cultivating safe spaces in our programming, health equity, advocacy, collaboration efforts, health strategies, program implementation, evaluation, community event planning. Some efforts to reach the community are through active communication, engagement, empowerment, and sharing experiences through relational equity. A few programs within her scope of work include; the National Diabetes Prevention Program (NDPP) as a Certified Lifestyle Coach; Birth Doula; Certified Childbirth Educator/Mentor; Certified A.F.A.A. Group Fitness Instructor, and so much more. Bianca always looks forward to sharing the wealth of viable resources and information with the community at large.

Breanna De Leon is a second-year Master of Public Health student at Southern Connecticut State University. She is a Graduate Assistant working with Dr. Jean Breny on community-based participatory research (CBPR) through a social justice framework. As a proud Latinx womxn, she hopes to continue to address racial and social inequities in health and empower communities through CBPR.

Jean M. Breny is Professor and Chair of the Department of Public Health at Southern Connecticut State University. She has been on the faculty since 2000 and teaches undergraduate and graduate-level health promotion courses. Dr. Breny received her PhD in Health Behavior/Health Education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her MPH in Community Health Education from San Jose State University. Her scholarship aims to eliminate health disparities through community-based participatory research that informs public health practice. Dr. Breny was a Fulbright Senior Scholar, currently is an Associate Scientist at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (Yale University), and is a faculty collaborator with Liverpool John Moores University. She is the Immediate Past President of SOPHE.

Dr. Rebecca Rich is an assistant professor in the Department of Health at West Chester University. Her teaching responsibilities are primarily in the Bachelor of Science in Public Health program. Dr. Rich's research focuses on women's sexual health, and health and sexuality education pedagogy. Much of her work is done with a feminist theoretical lens.

Ucheoma is an implementation scientist, and her research interest centers on sustaining evidence-based interventions in resource-limited settings. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Saint Louis University College for Public Health and Social Justice where my research involves the use of innovative implementation strategies to expand and ultimately sustain evidence-based HIV prevention interventions targeting youth populations. Particularly, she has experience with implementation science research, including the feasibility, acceptability, adoption, reach, and sustainability of evidence-based interventions using innovative implementation research strategies. Ucheoma received her master's in community health and preventive science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her Ph.D. in Public Health from Saint Louis University.

Maya Welfare is a Public Health Graduate Student at Southern Connecticut State University.  She is a co-researcher for Dr. Jean Breny's Photovoice research project. Maya graduated from Spelman College with a B.S. in Biology and a concentration in Spanish.  She has worked for the City of New Haven, CT in the Mayor’s Office engaging constituents to assist them with navigating city and state policies and accessing government.  Currently, Maya is a student intern at UCONN’s Health Disparities Institute under the tutelage of Dr. Wizdom Powell.  Maya is a dedicated and passionate public servant who engages in community service and strives to improve global health equity.

Stacey Mason is a doctoral student in the Public Health Studies program at Saint Louis University’s College for Public Health and Social Justice. She holds her BA from Spelman College and her MPH from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health. Her research interests center on child and adolescent health disparities, mental health, sexual health, health literacy, and implementation science. Stacey’s current research involves the use of innovative and youth-friendly implementation strategies that are culturally and developmentally appropriate for youth from low-resource settings. She has specific interests in understanding more of the social and structural determinants that impact youth health and youth health interventions in low-resource areas and those that influence health literacy and health communication among youth into adulthood