Week 13 - Global

Guest Lecturer Asher had a very interesting presentation and I really enjoyed the Global perspective he presented to us. I had an idea of how policy worked at the local/ state level but I definitely found the global level interesting. I am interested in working for an organization like WHO, PAHO in the future so learning where they would fit in the global policy model was very informative. I took notes but I would definitely find it helpful if he could upload his slides on blackboard, just a thought.

The readings for this week were interesting and very informative. One particular thing that resonated as I read was from the Grier & Bryant (2005) reading. They discuss how there are not many social marketing courses or even a division within public health departments and that is the case with our School of public health. I believe this course is the only course that touches upon social marketing in detail which is interesting because we will be health promotion specialists and should be able to apply social marketing concepts to our specific campaigns. This course has definitely introduced me to different strategies and ways to approach different health behavior change issues but it might be good to offer other courses maybe even one's in which what we learn in 663 is taken to a whole other level. I feel that students who know that this particular area is what they might be doing in the future would benefit from having more advance courses in public health communication or hey maybe starting to develop a division that makes this their focus. Although, being trained in social marketing will also be beneficial for those of us that will be developing interventions. It will help us create interventions/ campaigns with more chances of being successful. As Grier & Bryant put forth the first step is to enhance the knowledge of public health professionals when it comes to the key elements of social marketing and its application.