Kevin Gogin, MFT

Something I do to strengthen my practice:

I have the good fortune to work with competent and compassionate professionals from a wide variety of backgrounds: teachers, nurses, social workers, therapists.  Consulting with them has improved my skills and makes the work we do more enriching.  In addition, I started yoga four years ago, and I swear it is making me calmer.  No one agrees, however.

A person that has inspired me:
Any number of people have inspired me –from Eleanor Roosevelt and Martin Luther King Jr. to a psychologist/priest teacher I once had.  However, the experience that drives me is that of being a parent.

Ilsa Bertolini, MA

Something I do to strengthen my practice:

Listen to the experiences and stories of LGBTQ youth

A person that has inspired me:

A 12-year-old boy whom I mentored

Petra Jerman, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Something I do to strengthen my practice:

I'm a curious person, and I’m always looking to learn something new. I’ve always been drawn to multiple fields at the same time, and deciding what I wanted to do with myself in terms of work and career was very difficult. But I think an interdisciplinary approach to problems is beneficial, as problems don’t typically confine themselves to neat, little boxes. So I feel that this trait of mine will in the longer term offer professional and personal benefits.

A person that has inspired me:

My uncle passed away a few years ago due to cancer; it was unexpected and sudden. He and my aunt had worked, only worked, since they were in their early teens, and they were barely a couple of months into their retirement when he passed away. They had wonderful plans for their retirement years.... Since my twenties, during which life passed in a flurry of undergraduate and graduate school and work, my take on life has become to do things beside work every day, things that make me happy and enrich my life, because I don’t know what tomorrow will bring.

Robin P. McHaelen, MSW

Something I do to strengthen my practice:

Read something new every day and ask for feedback/evaluation at every meeting or training I run – what worked, what didn’t.

A person that has inspired me:

A 15-year-old who came to my first conference in 1994. He glowed all day and told me he had realized a life-long dream – he danced with another boy and no one laughed at or made fun of him. And then he told me what his dad said, “if I find out you are a faggot, I will get my shotgun and kill you!”  That is the moment I decided to make this my life’s work.

Itege Bailey, MA

Something I do to strengthen my practice:

In order to strengthen my skills and increase my knowledge in this field, I believe it is critical to maintain relationships and open communication with people working on the ground in regards to state and local programs that focus on teen and unplanned pregnancy prevention.  By understanding the obstacles they face, as well as hearing their success stories, I am enabled to provide better technical assistance and advocate for their needs as best I can. 

A person that has inspired me:

While teen pregnancy prevention and promoting healthy relationships have always been critical missions of mine, my experience working for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health opened my eyes to the capacity and capability states have to make a difference in the lives of youth.  It is recognizing how collaboration and communication between the federal, state, and local entities as well as youth themselves are the keys to making progress in regards to these issues. 

Kurt Conklin, MPH

Something I do to strengthen my practice:

I read the two SOPHE journals “Health Education & Behavior” and “Health Promotion Practice,” and participate on a listserv of sexuality education trainers though which we share questions, resources, and strategies.

A person that has inspired me:

Peggy Brick, a sexuality education trainer who has worked for decades with Planned Parenthood of Greater Northern NJ. Peggy started out developing model teaching materials for adolescent learners, and now in her 9^th decade of living has been a tireless champion of sexuality education for older adults.

Joy Robinson-Lynch, MA, LMHC

Something I do to strengthen my practice:

Listen to teens

A person that has inspired me:

Margaret Sanger

Phyllida Burlingame, BA

Something I do to strengthen my practice:

Think about all the different ways people have a stake in health education, and try to reach out beyond the usual suspects to develop new allies.

A person that has inspired me:

A mother in Southern California who became an advocate for comprehensive sex education in her children’s schools after seeing the gender bias in the existing abstinence-only-until-marriage curriculum. She told me she didn’t want her sons to be taught in school that boys had no control over their actions and girls bore all the responsibility for saying no. She fought successfully to remove that curriculum from her district, joining with teachers to educate the community and the school board.

Melissa Fahrenbruch, M.Ed

Something I do to strengthen my practice:

Lift weights.   No really, I have to keep up to date on all the latest trends in professional development.  I read a lot of Journals and attend PD events every chance I get.

A person that has inspired me:

Deb Christopher- her mentoring has made me the person I am today.

Jennie Anderson, MS

Something I do to strengthen my practice:

Make time to listen and learn (even when things are super busy)... and I'm not afraid to get my feet wet and try new things (when I started working on the AIDS.gov project over 4.5 years ago I hadn't ever listened to a podcast...didn't have a facebook page... and now I'm giving training on these tools!).... ...I try to follow Beth Kanter (a social media guru) philosophy "listen, learn, adapt"

A person that has inspired me:

Seeing people talk about HIV on social network spaces and sharing this information with their friends...for example last year for World AIDS Day (Dec 1) nearly 1, 600 people joined AIDS.gov is sharing personal messages and photos about why they were helping to face AIDS. In addition, a few people shared information on Facebook and Twitter about taking an HIV test. Sometimes it's challenging to know how and if you're really reaching people using social media and when I see personal messages like these, I know we're helping to spark a conversation, address stigma around HIV, and make a difference in peoples' lives.