What's Happening

By The ETR Team | June 2, 2020

Our hearts are heavy as we have watched these recent tragic events unfold. The violent, senseless, preventable deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Tony McDade are an all too familiar reminder of the issues that systematically and disproportionately impact Black and under-served communities across the nation.

By Vignetta Charles, PhD | May 4, 2020
Chief Executive Officer, ETR

What a year to be recognizing Star Wars Day, am I right? With so much grief in the world, it feels a little challenging to celebrate anything, including May the 4th.

By Vignetta Charles, PhD | September 17, 2019
CEO, ETR

Elizabeth Taylor started her AIDS activism in the late 1980’s. She was watching friends fall tragically ill from a preventable disease, and she wasn’t seeing an appropriate response. She leveraged her celebrity and her fierce determination and took action.

I actually have something in common with Elizabeth Taylor. 

By ETR | August 21, 2019
 

David Torres is one of ETR’s great data wranglers. This means he spends a lot of his time making sure the raw data collected on his projects is clean and consistent before running analyses on it. “That’s actually about 80% of my work on a project,” he explains. “The analysis is the fun part, but the cleaning is the most important. If you start with inaccurate data, you get inaccurate interpretations.”

By ETR | August 1, 2019
 

Emma Schlamm’s got activism in her blood. Born and raised in New York City, she shares a birthday with both Malcom X and Ho Chi Minh. Following her urban upbringing, she chose a small town community for college—Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the heart of Amish country. “This was a fascinating experience for someone with a big-city background,” she recalls, “and it fueled my interest in learning about other cultures and communities.”

By ETR | July 23, 2019
 

Bhupendra Sheoran jumped into the health-tech arena early. Not to build ways for health care systems keep to keep better track of medical records or billing. Not to build programs that persuade health care providers to use iPads during patient visits. Rather, to build ways to support transformation and empowerment in communities, both locally and globally. We are delighted that Sheoran was invited to speak at the recent TEDxSantaClaraUniversity event.

By Vignetta Charles, PhD & Bhupendra Sheoran, MD, MBA  | July 17, 2019
CEO (VC) and Vice President of Global Development (BS), ETR

We are beyond thrilled about the recent merger of ETR and YTH. Of course, a huge amount of practical footwork needed to be done. There are challenges, some anticipated and some not. There is discovery and confusion. Adjustments must be made.

But when we take a moment, take a breath, and think about where we are and how we see the road ahead, our overarching feeling is…excitement!

By Coleen Cantwell, MPH | June 21, 2019
Vice-President, Business Development, ETR

ETR has brought considerable attention to creating a workplace culture that builds and sustains growth mindset over time. Our 2019 all-staff retreat offers a fine example of this. Our distributed workforce of 100 gathered for a full day in Santa Clara, CA, travelling from four worksites with co-located staff, and 25 remote locations across the nation.

Our retreats are not ordinary. They do not pay mere lip service to building organizational engagement. They do not bore. Neither do they entertain for a day and then take a break until next year.

By Lance Sprague | June 11, 2019
Former Associate Publisher, ETR

It didn’t take long for Bill to figure out I was a baseball fan. One day he walked up to me and said, “Did I ever tell you about the time I hit a double off Satchel Paige?”

“What?!” I said.

Now, Satchel Paige was one of the greatest pitchers of all time—certainly the most legendary. 

By Vignetta Charles, PhD | May 3, 2019
Chief Executive Officer, ETR

May the fourth be with you! It's a pretty awesome day for many of us at ETR because we love the chance to applaud/hail/praise Star Wars. In 2019, we are particularly celebrating how Star Wars inspires youth.

By Ivan Garcia, with Erin McKelle | March 26, 2019
Youth Advocate and Sophomore, Head Royce School (IG) and Communications Associate, YTH (EM)

Erin: When we say we center youth-voices at the YTH Live conference, we mean it. Up to 25% of attendees and speakers are young people. We always feature a young member of our Youth Advisory Board as the face and voice of the event, in the role of emcee. This year, we are proud to announce that person is Ivan Garcia. 

By ETR | March 14, 2019

Here at ETR, we are crazy for science. In fact, science is deeply engrained in our organizational values, which proudly proclaim that “Science is Foundational” to all the work we do.

You can imagine how excited we get about Pi Day—a day to reflect on the power, wonder and promise of science. Last year in our Pi Day post, our team talked about some of the reasons we celebrate science. This year, we’re sharing up some thought-provoking bits of scientific research that we just think are mighty cool.

By Josh Bettenhausen | March 8, 2019
Lead Technology & Marketing Officer, YTH

I’ve been working with youth-centered projects for well over a decade, both through my work at YTH and my experience as a designer. Here’s an essential point of learning from my experience: when it comes to youth, most of our assumptions are wrong. At the very least, they’re way off base, especially if we make those assumptions without getting youth directly and deeply involved in what we’re doing.

By Lilly Thomas | January 4, 2019
Customer Service/Sales, ETR

I have the brain of a sociologist. I’m interested in other people, in their day-to-day lives. I’m curious about how people live in different parts of the country—how they talk, what they eat, how they connect with one another.

I got my college degree in urban planning, which I call “sociology with solutions.” 

By Marcia Quackenbush, MS, MFT, MCHES | December 21, 2018
Senior Editor, ETR

ETR is about to jump into its annual holiday break period. After our offices close today, our staff will be off duty until January 2, 2019. Our blog will go quiet during this time, too.

Last year, our CEO Vignetta Charles wrote a beautiful end-of-year post. I love it. This year? “What she said.”

By Vignetta Charles, PhD | November 16, 2018
CEO, ETR

A poem by one of my favorite poets has been running through my head as we enter the holiday season. I have been overwhelmed with gratitude as I bear witness to people returning to each other, whether it’s mobilizing for those devastated in the California wildfires and supporting the firefighters still in harm’s way, or the continued global response to the #metoo movement. I am hopeful because I believe we can find peace when we find authentic connection and express our gratitude for that.

By Matt McDowell | November 1, 2018
Director of Product Development and Dissemination, ETR

I often refer to myself as “the mere mortal” here at ETR. We have big idea people. We have super creative people. We have nationally and internationally recognized research people.

Me? My job is to help put the work of all those folks into practice—and into your practice when it fits.

By Laura Perkins, MLS | October 25, 2018
Editor, ETR

With cannabis legalized for recreational use in some places, people have questions about all the new products available, especially edibles. If marijuana is legal, it’s safe to use, right? How much of an edible can you eat? ETR has new materials to help people understand how to make smarter decisions. See our fact card here, and our poster here.