Educator at heart

 

I teach because I am inspired by college students to engender meaningful societal change. I find hope in the opportunity to shape how to think about and relate to the world. My teaching philosophy is rooted in my public health practice facilitating conversations around sexual and reproductive health and justice with young adults. As such, I am outcomes-oriented, operate from a strength-based approach, and value respectful and direct communication to meet learning objectives contributing to students overall growth. I do this by emulating effective and influential teachers in my life who are compassionate, dedicated, listen with intrigue, ask why, and are excited about teaching, learning, and problem-solving. I refine my pedagogical methodology through peer-reviewed literature in the Journal of Interactive Technology & Pedagogy and Pedagogy in Health Promotion and seeking new approaches from the Center for Teaching and Learning on my campus. Below I articulate specific examples of instructional design and methods, assessment strategies, and support student learning.

Early in my teaching career beginning in 2000, I developed curriculum, planned, facilitated, and evaluated health education curricula of varying duration (i.e., two hours up to 10-week long sessions) with and for young people of color aged 14 to 24. Working with young people informed how I engender a respectful class environment to promote sharing and learning through active learning activities such as small- and large-group work, brainstorming activities on the board, or larger collaborative writing projects and classroom feedback, allowing for an iterative approach that shapes my identity as a teacher. For example, to prepare peer educators to facilitate engaging community sexual and reproductive educational workshops, I facilitated activities and discussions to address students’ concerns and offered feedback without undermining their efforts so they could, in turn, impart their knowledge confidently to their peers.

In advancing to a University environment, I implemented these skillsets when teaching Epidemiology and Research Methods Clinical Seminar to Physician Assistant students at the CUNY School of Medicine (2014-2015). This nine-month course taught Physician Assistant students, who committed to working in underserved communities upon graduation, how to identify a disease diagnosis, treatment, or management issue for which there was a lack of professional consensus and encouraged students to consider what role individual and structural level factors played in individual health. I created space for students to highlight any research or practical experiences to enrich the classroom learning experience, allowing students to solidify theoretical information. Students also reviewed, summarized, and analyzed the literature and proposed an evidence-based solution culminating in a final paper and presentation to a panel of peer and faculty reviewers. I found these conversations especially inspiring as they afforded students the opportunity to impart their knowledge and have engaging discussions to connect themes around health disparities and their future roles as providers in underserved communities. I found this active learning has been effective and applied a similar structure to Health Disparities, and Sociology of Public Health courses I taught. Teaching at public and private institutions in NYC has afforded me the opportunity to teach diverse populations. In particular, at CUNY I taught courses where the majority of students are first-generation students, immigrants, or students with varying abilities; thus, it has been rewarding for students to see themselves in my Mexican-American and working-class identity.

I strive to be an adaptable professor to meet class objectives and provide freely available course materials to unburden students from purchasing textbooks when possible. In one class, I modified the syllabus to incorporate fundamental epidemiological concepts needed to understand and assess the quality of peer-reviewed literature, a skill needed to appropriately research and write their final papers. Drawing from a mixture of didactic lectures and a flipped classroom, students read and dissected peer-reviewed articles during class allowing them to critically analyze and engage with material to internalize concepts by applying them during the same session. The modifications I made continue to be implemented in the curriculum today.

This past semester, I adapted a master’s level course on Translating Public Health Research to Practice that resulted in a student-centered and active learning collaborative writing project rather than individual papers when we transitioned to a virtual classroom. Students documented a case study around the novel Coronavirus. This scaffolded assignment resulted in multiple chapters documenting the global, federal, state, and local impact of COVID-19 in NYC, emphasizing health disparities highlighted by the disease. Students analyzed peer-reviewed journals, media, white papers, and case studies to facilitate dialogue around social determinants of health. I incorporated multiple benchmarks and opportunities for students to receive feedback from their peers and myself via the Google Docs commenting feature to ensure continuous progress on written work. The class additionally utilized Classes, the classroom management platform, to share events and other resources with fellow classmates on topics they were not writing, and this encouraged social cohesion for improved learning outcomes.

For a fully online course I taught on Social Structures and Health at Hunter College, a writing-intensive course, I utilized a mixture of asynchronous writing and video presentations on VideoThread where students made interactive comments (by text, audio, or video). In addition, I engaged with students synchronously each week to facilitate weekly discussions drawing from reading and from my own pilot RCT digital health research among underrepresented college students to provide concrete examples for students. I offer grading rubrics for written work and presentations in advance so students understand the assessment components to have every opportunity to succeed.

I am qualified to teach a range of health courses given my public health practice, theoretical, and research experience. Some examples include Health Disparities, Social Determinants of Health, Principles of Epidemiology, Research Design, Digital Health Communication, and Public Health Entrepreneurship.

I strive to make the world more equitable for underrepresented populations through my public health and education. This, in turn, drives me to promote a teaching and learning environment where everyone is treated with dignity and respect so students can engage in meaningful and respectful conversations about issues they are yet to explore. Facilitating conversations where students share their interpretations of readings and their own lived experiences is not only empowering but also brings people together to deepen their understanding and perspectives different from their own; there is great strength in this.