What's Happening

By Michael Everett, MHS | June 26, 2018
Project Co-Director, ETR

Are you a trainer? If so, you are likely to already know this truism. Changes in knowledge come pretty easily. Changes in skill take a little more effort. But let’s face it—changing attitudes sometimes feels impossible.

By Sarah Axelson, MSW | June 20, 2018
Director of Training, ETR

It’s 10:30 on a Thursday night, and I’m somewhere over the Midwest, flying home. I’ve spent the last few days training a group of professionals who, for the most part, I haven’t worked with before. The training as a whole was fantastic. Well-planned, intentional, engaging, and the list goes on. I couldn’t be more proud of our team for putting it together. 

What I wasn’t proud of was my own section, or more specifically one activity within the day-long session that I delivered.

By Ryan Watson, PhD | June 18, 2018
Assistant Professor, University of Connecticut

To come out, or not to come out? That is a very real question constantly facing LGBTQ youth, as well as a fair number of young adults, across their entire lifespan. As a researcher, one of my interests is the choices queer youth and adults make about being out. Who do they come out to? How does this affect their health and well-being?

By Stacy Soria, MPA | June 14, 2018
Lead Consultant, Stacy Soria Consulting, LLC

We need to hear some stories. Then, through listening to these stories, we need to make some commitments. It’s time to join in the process of raising up a community. Whatever your role, your gender, your experience—this is my take-home message about leadership in the transgender community: you have a part to play.

By Theresa Boschert, JD | June 12, 2018
Project Director, ETR

I’d like to tell you a story about a woman I’ll call Minnie. She’s a single mom with two pre-school aged children. She called my office one day asking for help about her housing situation.

Minnie and her children lived in a second floor apartment in a privately owned low rent housing unit. She was routinely sleeping in her car with her kids because her downstairs neighbor came home from work each day around 6 PM and began smoking. By nine o’clock, her children, one of whom had asthma, were coughing and having problems breathing.

By JT Perez | June 4, 2018
Transgender Advocate & Prevention Educator, Alianza of New Mexico

For some reason, I am seen as a leader. This isn’t something that comes naturally to me, but it’s a role I’ve done my best to step up to. I’ve received help in this effort from mentors, friends, community and family, and it’s made a world of difference to me.

Leadership is transformative. I’ve seen it change individuals, organizations and communities. It can save lives. It can lead the charge for social justice.

By Louise Ann Lyon, PhD | May 31, 2018
Senior Research Associate, ETR

What comes first for young adults? Education? Or Work?

In this culture, we usually view education and work as sequential stages rather than part of a mutually enhancing cycle. Our ideal seems to be that secondary and post-secondary students need to focus on school and should not be working during the school year. At the same time, we expect education to give students skills they will need in the workplace.

By Michael Everett, MHS | May 29, 2018
Project Director, ETR

I believe in the power of advocacy. It fits nicely within my belief system. But more than that, I’ve seen the power of advocacy at work. This is a strategy that can transform and empower organizations.

Today, I’m pleased to share two stories with you from organizations that participated in the Intentional Advocacy project.

By Michael Everett, MHS | May 22, 2018
Project Director, ETR

Advocacy is an extraordinary and powerful tool. This is a strategy that can tailor itself to the unique needs and culture of any service-related organization. It’s also genuinely exciting to offer technical assistance to organizations interested in putting advocacy to work.

These are just some of the reasons ETR’s team embraces any opportunity we are given to support organizations in building advocacy skills and practices.

By Sarah Axelson, MSW | May 15, 2018
Director of Training, ETR

I’m a training and facilitation nerd. Anyone who knows me knows I embrace that label and use it lovingly. I’m constantly trying to think of new, more engaging ways to help people learn.

I’m so entrenched in this work that at a recent dinner with friends, as we were settling our tab, I found myself digging through my purse searching for my wallet. It finally turned up under a copy of one of the books I’m currently reading.

By Lia Cassanego | May 10, 2018
Professional Learning Services Specialist, ETR

Here’s a different type of quick tip: a set of tips to help any trainer deliver more effective PowerPoint presentations. If you’re newer in the PowerPoint world, or you’ve never had a chance to learn about best practices in slide development for trainings, these tips can help.

In 15-20 minutes, you can learn to give your slides a whole new attitude!

By Marcia Quackenbush, MS, MFT, MCHES | May 8, 2018
Senior Editor, ETR

LGBTQ students have plenty of reasons to feel like they don’t “fit” in a lot of schools. They are likely to experience pervasive harassment and discrimination, which may be delivered by peers, educators or administrators. Most attend classes that make no reference to their relationships, LGBTQ contributions to society, or the history of the gay and transgender rights movements.

ETR's Health Equity Framework gives us a way to examine issues such as these and be more focused and intentional about the steps we take to address them.

By Vignetta Charles, PhD | May 3, 2018
Chief Executive Officer, ETR

Star Wars fans—this post is for you. And anyone exploring new partnerships—this post is also for you!

When the first teaser trailers for Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens hit the internet in 2015, I was gleeful. More Star Wars! Yes, please.

But I must admit that I didn’t know how I’d feel about the new characters in the Star Wars movies.

By Debra Christopher, MSM & Marcia Quackenbush, MS, MFT, MCHES | May 2, 2018
Ambassador for Health and Learning (DC) & Senior Editor (MQ), ETR

Sometimes, you want training participants to spend some moments in reflection to distill the essence of a message. This Group Haiku activity does exactly that! Groups work together to synthesize an essential point of information. In the process, they are likely to connect to each other with a shared understanding and vision as well.

By Beverly Iniguez-Conrique | May 1, 2018
Research Assistant, ETR

In 1994, two very important events happened in my life. First, one of the earliest papers on Social Dominance Theory was published. Second, I was born.

Social Dominance Theory holds that people develop a set of beliefs—“legitimizing myths”—that support their attitudes about social inequities.

By Debra C. Harris, PhD, MST | April 26, 2018
Senior Instructor, OHSU-PSU School of Public Health & Adjunct Instructor, Graduate School of Education

Come take a ride with me. We’ll climb into an old BMW and drive on up from Red Lodge, Montana, to the Beartooth Pass (elevation 10,947 feet). Our chauffeur will be Dr. Bill Kane, which is why we’ll be stopping along the way to look at the beautiful fall colors, listen to the birds, hear the wind, and maybe spot some deer. Bill needed to do these things. He was that kind of person.

By Vignetta Charles, PhD & Karin Coyle, PhD | April 24, 2018
CEO (VC) & Chief Science Officer (KC), ETR

At ETR, we advance health equity through science-based solutions. We’ve been doing it for 37 years. But it wasn’t until recently that we developed our own framework to explicitly and transparently ground our work in health equity. This more intentional approach to health equity has energized our mission-driven work.

By Shawn Moore, MBA | April 19, 2018
Senior Vice President for Product Management at ActiveHealth/ETR Board Member

Everyone wants a healthy workplace, right? In a healthy workplace, workers are more productive. Missions are supported. It’s a more pleasant environment for everybody.

So why are there so many challenges to establishing a healthy workplace? Especially workplaces like health organizations, service organizations and non-profits. What’s holding us back?