Children’s Programs and Prevention Work

Across decades of public health and narrative practice, my work with and for children has centered around one essential truth: children deserve to be safe, seen, and believed. My programs have reached across borders and systems—from rural classrooms to federal policy tables—building hope where harm once lived.

I’ve led and advised national and international initiatives focused on child wellness and protection. As Director of the New York State Center for Best Practices to Prevent Childhood Obesity, I helped design and evaluate school-based programs across the state. I evaluated the Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s early childhood and school wellness programs and contributed to the development of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign. I’ve worked with pediatricians and ethicists to develop end-of-life care guidelines for medically fragile children and explored the moral tensions in pediatric obesity treatment, especially among underserved families.

My deepest commitments lie in child sexual abuse (CSA) prevention and survivor support. In New Zealand, I co-led a national CSA prevention and mitigation initiative with MYRIVR Trust and Stop the Silence®, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Together, we trained community leaders in culturally grounded, trauma-informed strategies—guided by Māori and Samoan values and the belief that solutions must emerge from within the communities they serve. Our work involved partnerships with marae, school boards, ACC, and local elders, anchoring prevention in both relational witnessing and indigenous knowledge.

In Albania, I supported advocacy efforts led by an incest survivor who pushed for CSA training in her university despite overwhelming systemic silence. In the U.S., I’ve built hope-centered frameworks that blend research, narrative, and community engagement—helping teachers, parents, and health professionals recognize early signs of trauma, and respond with care rather than control.

Whether writing child-friendly curriculum, training professionals in trauma-sensitive practices, or helping youth survivors tell their stories, I approach children’s programming with humility and a long memory—for the systems that failed us, and for the possibilities that still remain.