About Health Communication

More information coming soon!

For now, visit the HSPH Health Communication website and the Viswanath Lab.

Mohan Sundararaj BMus MD MPH

Dr. Mohan Sundararaj is a physician trained at Asia's first Harvard-Affiliated academic institution located in Chennai, India. After medical school, Dr. Sundararaj trained in music therapy at Berklee College of Music, Boston to nurture a strong background in classical piano since age four. On returning to India to complete general medicine residency training, Dr. Sundararaj served as Medical Officer at a large corporate hospital setting in Calcutta and later began engaging in philanthropic projects using music and medicine, particularly with street girl children who were also orphaned. These experiences enabled him to be distinguished as a Catherine B. Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship at the Center for Public Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School concurrent to his graduate program in health policy and management at the Harvard School of Public Health. While at Harvard, he founded a student-musicians' network leveraging the musical expertise of the student community and organized concerts, including a Spring fundraiser for pediatric cancer featuring 43 musicians representing 7 institutions from Harvard and Greater Boston communities.

Dr. Sundararaj is also Founder & CEO of a new non-profit initiative, The Global Music Therapy Project engaged in the globalization of evidence-based music therapy. He has performed extensively as a solo pianist and accompanist in over 200 concerts and has over 50 awards and scholarships to his credit. Dr. Sundararaj also holds an Associate degree and the Performer's Certificate in piano performance from Trinity College, London and is an American Board-Certified music therapist.

A Harvard commencement press release featured Dr. Sundararaj as one of thirteen "Faces of the Future" in May 2009. Dr. Sundararaj is currently based in Washington DC where he is investigating the US engagement on global HIV/AIDS policy at the public policy offices of The Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR).

email: msundararaj@post.harvard.edu

Katelyn Mack

Katelyn Mack is currently completing her ScM at the Harvard School of Public Health in the Department of Society, Human Development, and Health. In 2008, she founded Veritas Health, a public health blog that discusses news and controversies in the field. She is committed to translating the latest research for use by policymakers, public health practitioners, and for public audiences. She believes addressing the most pressing threats to population health must involve addressing the social determinants of health, as well as the impact of food and nutrition policy on environmental influences on health decision-making (e.g. advertising, marketing, access to fruit and vegetables, etc.).

Aside from Veritas Health, Katelyn writes in her food blog, TastyKate, which is currently chronicling her local food journey.

Katelyn Mack is the Co-Editor in Chief of HSPH Connection.
kmack@hsph.harvard.edu

Bernice Raveche

Bernice received her B.A. in international health and nutrition from the University of Pennsylvania in 2005, and her M.P.H. in health promotion from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University where she worked on a research project looking at the health and physical activity of adolescents in the South Bronx. Her research interests are primarily centered on adolescent mental health development, with a specific interest in eating disorder prevention, weight based stigma and the influence of the media on body image satisfaction.Outside of the classroom, Bernice loves to ski, run, and play field hockey. Bernice is a doctoral student in the Society, Human Development and Health.

Amenah A. Babar

Amenah A. Babar grew up on a small hobby farm in rural Minnesota—where cows outnumber the people. The youngest of 3 siblings, Amenah and her older brother Imran would spend hours wandering in the forest collecting random critters, rolling down hills, planting rows of crop for harvest, and chasing stray sheep back into their pastures. During the college years, Amenah claims to have flirted with English and chemistry, before committing to a degree in biology at Carleton College, located in another small town in Minnesota. Having earned the name Amena Acid, she wrote a slightly melodramatic senior thesis on the bubonic plague—arguing about aDNA (ancient DNA) and whether or not Yersinia pestis truly caused the “Black Death”. Her many affectionate nicknames include: Dorko, Memers, A^2 (as in Amenah and Akochi), Amochi (as in...you know already...) but P.S. don't call her Acid! Before receiving her MPH in epidemiology from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Amenah spent one year in Montana working in the Genomics Facility of the NIH/NIAID Rocky Mountain Lab branch where she continued her love for DNA within a DNA sequencing lab doing research relating to Coxiella burnetti, prion related protein resistance, and Granulibacter bethesdensis. It is rumored she met a certain someone here…;) Her master’s work in epidemiology centered on examining gender differences in psychosocial risk factors for tobacco use among urban youth in India. During her master’s program, Amenah traveled to Mali as an intern with the Malaria Vaccine Development Branch of the NIH, where she trained researchers in data entry for clinical malaria vaccine trials. As a doctoral student in Society, Human Development and Health, Amenah is interested in examining how communication inequalities play a role in sustaining health disparities for disadvantaged groups, particularly pertaining to minority health and those from a lower SES. Additionally, she has interests in tobacco prevention and mental health issues. In her spare time, Amenah enjoys playing piano, singing, dancing, cooking (eating!), and writing. A typical Thursday evening will find her watching the latest netflix movie pick by her favorite partner in crime, Akochi--a medical student at HMS-- and eating deep dish Chitown pizza and chocolate. Her older sister Azra-- a family practice physician and Mom-- and older brother Imran--a molecular biology grad student studying lung cancer-- remain her source of inspiration.

Amenah A. Babar is the Co-Editor in Chief and Creator of eConnection.
email: ababar@hsph.harvard.edu

Adebola Odunlami

Coming soon...