While change is occurring rapidly within society, influencing the positive change we desire is becoming frustratingly elusive.  Using the philosophical principles of photovoice as an invitation to inclusive discovery, Dr. Strack will explore the important role individual and collective identities, values, and interests should play in our thinking and why these are essential for 'finding our angle.' Careful planning of photovoice efforts include both an analysis of self as well as other, a road map for guiding the way, and a passion to consider the angle of our approach for increasing success. 

BIO

Joseph Campbell said, “If you want to change the world, you have to change the metaphor.” Robert Strack couldn’t agree more and is the reason he created the visual storytelling platform www.PhotovoiceKit.org.  Three NIH grants supported his research team in the development of the complete web-based toolkit for carrying out a photovoice project that combines photography, dialogue, storytelling, public photo exhibits and social action to address issues a community identifies and is passionate about. His academic career has taken him from the University of South Carolina, through Johns Hopkins University, to now being the Chair of Public Health Education at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.   

This talk will ground photovoice and other visual media within the philosophy and methodology of Paulo Freire applied to Community Based Participatory Research.  

BIO

Nina Wallerstein, Dr.P.H, Distinguished Professor of Public Health, College of Population Health; Director, Center for Participatory Research (http://cpr.unm.edu), University of New Mexico (UNM), has been developing community based participatory research (CBPR) and empowerment/Freirian interventions for close to 40 years. Among over a 180 publications are:  Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) for Health: Advancing Social and Health Equity, 3rd edition, 2018; and Problem-Posing at Work: A Popular Educator’s Guide, Grassroots Press, Canada. In 2016, she received the inaugural UNM, Community Engaged Research Lecture award. To strengthen the science, art, and equity advocacy of CBPR and CEnR, she is multiple Principal Investigator of the PCORI, Engage for Equity PLUS Award to test an institutional change intervention to enhance institutional trustworthiness and patient/community-led research. This builds on long-term NIH funded research since 2006, with national partners, to identify best partnering practices associated with health outcomes, to identify and validate metrics, and to make available a partnership collective reflection/action toolkit (https://engageforequity.org). She was an appointed member of the NAM committee for measures of community engaged science for health services and policy. She has worked with tribal partners for close to 30 years as an NIH-Principal Investigator and co-investigator to co-develop and test the effectiveness of the Family Listening Program, an evidence-based intergenerational culture-centered family prevention program with three Southwest tribes. She has collaboratively produced with Latin American colleagues a train-the trainer Empowerment, Health Promotion, and Participatory Research curriculum (initially sponsored by Pan American Health Organization in 1999) with its 2024 third edition (Wallerstein, Mendes, Santana and Parajon), available in Portuguese (Hucitec Publishers), to be followed by Spanish and English. She has coordinated the annual UNM summer Institute in CBPR for Health: Indigenous and Critical Methodologies since 2009.