Past Events

The Center for Health Communication at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health regularly hosts seminars, workshops, and other events to platform cutting-edge work in health and science communication and build community for health communicators.

Health Communication in a Changing World seminar series

On a monthly basis, we bring in an expert speaker to share insights from their ongoing work in health communication. We feature perspectives from across several fields, including:

• Journalists, such as Kai Kupferschmidt from Science Magazine, Apoorva Mandavilli, science and health journalist at the New York Times, and Linda Villarosa, contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine and author of “Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation.”
• Public relations experts, such as Christine Heenan, executive partner and chief communications officer at Flagship Pioneering, and Gabby Stern, director of communications at the World Health Organization.
• Scientists, such as Moira O’Neil, Vice President of Research Interpretation at FrameWorks Institute, Briony Swire-Thompson, head of the Psychology of Misinformation Lab at Northeastern University, and Jo Ellen Stryker, Chief of the Prevention Communication Branch in the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• Content creators, such as Kristy Drutman and Isaias Hernandez. 

Workshops

We regularly host hands-on workshops that teach participants practical skills they can immediately use to advance their careers.

Past workshops have included trainings in data visualization, social media content creation, and digital safety skills.

Annual events

We host two events on an annual basis, a fall social and a spring career panel.

The fall social brings together health and science communicators across the school to update them about opportunities to get involved with the Center and other health communication opportunities across Harvard Chan.

The spring career panel features experts with diverse career paths in health communication. Past experts have included Cristi Barnett, VP and Head of Corporate Communications at Editas Medicine; Emily Kontos, Managing Editor at EBSCO Health,  LaVerne Canady, Senior Vice President at JPA Health, and Mary O’Reilly, Director of Research Communications at Arena BioWorks.

Creator briefings and activations

Our Center works to provide content creators with access to cutting-edge information from the scientists working to bring new discoveries to light. As part of this, we host live briefings so content creators get their health questions answered in real-time.

We also host activations that build community for creators working to produce evidence-based health content. You can read about our last activation in The New York Times. 

Learn more about the Creator Program and sign-up to participate.