Teaching

I teach the following four courses for the Health Education and Community Health Education programs at Teachers College, Columbia University. Students who are interested in learning more about any of these classes should email me.

HBSS 4160: Introduction to Biostatistics (Fall)

This course provides an introduction to the field of biostatistics and the application of statistics to health education and community health data. This course covers the following: the collection, storage, retrieval, analysis, and interpretation of data; design and analysis of health-related surveys and experiments; concepts essential to statistical data analysis; and, the practice of statistical data analysis. The course includes a review of basic descriptive statistics, introduces statistical tests that can be used to test research hypotheses, and covers a brief introduction to epidemiology terms and measures. Details on hypothesis testing, normality, and types of error are incorporated into several of the lessons. Research methodology (i.e., study design, data collection) and data management skills are also taught. The overall goals of this course are to foster a comprehensive understanding of basic data collection and analysis methods used in health education and community health research and to help students become more comfortable working with and managing data in SPSS.

HBSS 5112: Social Marketing and Health Communication (Fall)

This course provides a detailed study of social marketing and health communication efforts and their role at facilitating behavior changes at both an individual and community-wide level. It incorporates reviews of current research being conducted on social marketing and health communication efforts on a range of health issues and across different communities. The course includes a semester-long project, through which students develop, implement, and monitor an original social marketing campaign that is informed by peer-reviewed literature and key social marketing principles.

HBSS 4161: Environmental Health (Spring)

This course provides an introduction to the field of environmental health, while focusing upon those environmental factors that affect the health of communities -- including biological, physical, and chemical factors. The relationship between the natural and built environments on human health is focused upon, including both individual and community-wide levels. In addition, the course accomplishes the following: introduces basic environmental health terms and concepts; identifies sources of environmental pollutants (i.e., solid and hazardous waste, air pollution, water pollution, pesticides), their means of transmission, and their direct impact on individual and community health; and, discusses current environmental policy and regulation efforts. The course incorporates the use of case studies to promote knowledge acquisition as well as reviews of current research being conducted on health education. Several lessons focus upon contemporary policy efforts intended to mitigate the effects of environmental pollutants on health. The course includes a detailed review of appropriate program planning steps and program evaluation methods.

HBSS 6520: Advanced Seminar for Doctoral Dissertation Data Analysis in Health Education (Spring)

This practical hands-on course is designed for doctoral candidates in health education who have dissertation data for analysis. This course: 1) provides an overview of data analysis techniques, research methods, and statistical concepts key to the completion of a successful quantitative or mixed methods dissertation; 2) facilitates data management and analysis skill development via use of SPSS—while, students specifically, work on analysis of their own data set; 3) provides a forum in which students prepare a series of oral presentations on the results of their data analysis, including sharing tables for group discussion and analysis that leads to refinements in data analytic strategies so that students emerge with more refined results of data analysis; 4) supports development of critical thinking and analytic skills as students discuss in a group setting the implications of their results of data analysis for health education; and, 5) ensures that students emerge with (a) a highly refined results chapter of their dissertation, and (b) a professional PowerPoint that effectively communicates key findings and implications for health education which will be presented both in class and at the oral defense of the dissertation.

Guest Lectures and Invited Talks

It is always such a privilege to guest lecture in other courses here at Columbia and elsewhere. Below are a sampling of classes and invited talks that I have given over the past few years.

Reimagining Solutions to the Persistence of Gun Violence in K-12 Schools

P8628: Evidence to Action in Child Health

Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Research Design

Gun Violence as an Adverse Childhood Experience: Reflections from Research and Practice Perspectives

Gun Violence as an Adverse Childhood Experience: Implications for Youth Well-Being

Inheriting Anxiety: A Focus on Youth and Technology

Risk and Resilience in the Face of Community Violence

Firearms in Urban Settings: Intersection of Race and Violence

Reimagining Solutions to the Gun Violence Epidemic: The Possibility of Schools

A Multilevel Approach to the Prevention of HIV among Adolescent Youth: Recommendations, Gaps, and Next Steps