From the Director
S. Bryn Austin, ScD
Photo by Beth Beighlie
Greetings and welcome to the Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders. It seems like yesterday when we launched STRIPED, fueled by hope, hard work, and the generous support of Ellen Feldberg Gordon to pursue our goal of jump starting graduate-level public health training in eating disorders prevention. It was exciting to see but, in the early days, still too untested to know if we could succeed. Now flash forward as we near the four-year mark: We are not just succeeding, we are thriving.
This year alone, we added four outstanding scholars to our team:
- Faculty Jerel Calzo, PhD: Specializes in male eating disorders, masculinity norms, and sexual orientation health disparities.
- Affiliated Faculty in Health Law Jennifer Pomeranz, JD, MPH: National leader in legal strategies to solve public health problems.
- Visiting Scholar Christina Roberto, PhD: Focuses on novel policy approaches to health promotion.
- Collaborating Mentor Davene Wright, PhD: Expert in economic and decision analysis methods for health promotion planning.
A sign of STRIPED’s growth and broadening appeal, this year we are enjoying an uptick in students from around the globe, including South Korea, China, and Chile. Also, with 10 trainees, we now have more on board than ever before, and this spring we are celebrating our second doctoral graduate.
So what’s our appeal? If I had to point to one thing, I’d say it’s our inquiry-centered training model. We don’t teach through traditional, expert-down instruction. With STRIPED — in the words of pioneering educator Donald Finkel — “It is the inquiry that teaches,” inspiring us in our common quest. Everything we do is organized first around one question: “How can we create a society where girls and boys alike can grow up at home in their own bodies?” From this flow all our follow-up questions, the ones that shape and give meaning to each of our many projects. Shared inquiry is at the heart of our STRIPED community.
-S. Bryn Austin, ScD