Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
German-American journalist, innovator, scholar and strategist with 30+ years of experience in international media, academia, and global public health. Former White House Senior Policy Advisor.
I direct the Information Futures Lab at Brown SPH, which we created in 2022 in response to the urgent need to address the information crisis that threatens to undo major achievements in public health and erode the foundations of democracies. The Lab investigates the harms of information gaps, outdated communications practices, misleading information and other barriers to meeting the information needs of communities. It brings together researchers and practitioners across fields to co-design, implement and evaluate solutions, one pilot at a time.
At Brown SPH, my academic work is focused on the impact of information inequities, chaotic information environments and outdated communications practices on health outcomes. Partnering with under-resourced communities, experts, public health practitioners, journalists, and policy makers, I create co-designing and capacity-building opportunities and research initiatives aimed at meeting the information needs of diverse populations. I also work with the School's leadership team and school community on innovative ways to teach and practice public health communications at Brown SPH and beyond.
As part of the Brown University School of Public Health's leadership team, I served as a key strategic advisor on thought leadership, innovation and communications to the Dean. I also created and oversaw the Incubator in the Dean’s office, where we developed new areas of engagement for the school and new approaches to public health, and built bridges between research and practice. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, I led projects aimed at improving pandemic responses, including research collaborations, modeling and data projects, state-to-state collaboration, congressional efforts, and crisis communications. During my first year at Brown SPH, I also led a needs assessment and developed a new communication and engagement strategy for the School. I initially oversaw its implementation and built the team that now leads the school's communications, including the creation of a new associate dean for communications role.
Puente News Collaborative is a bilingual nonprofit news organization, convener, and funder committed to preserving local news as a public good by investing in newsrooms, supporting journalists, and filling critical gaps in reporting across the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Trust for Trauma Journalism provides funding to advance innovative, exemplary reporting on violence, conflict, tragedy and their aftermath, and to sustain global initiatives that prepare news professionals for the impact of covering traumatic events.
RiffReporter is a cooperative journalism organization for journalists, graphic designers, translators, copy editors, illustrators and others who work on coverage of science, technology, society, culture and the environment. RiffReporter offers professional freelance authors a dynamic platform that enables them to create, publish and expand their readership independently – as well as a community of colleagues who learn and grow together. In November 2017, RiffReporter received the Netzwende Preis, a new award honoring visionary innovations in journalism presented by Vocer, Der Spiegel and others.