Renata Schiavo, PhD, MA, CLL

Renata Schiavo, PhD, MA, CCL, is a well-recognized expert in public health, global health, health equity, health communication, community/population health, and social innovation. She is a Senior Lecturer at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, Department of Sociomedical Sciences; the Founder and Board President of Health Equity Initiative, a member-driven nonprofit organization, and a Principal at Strategic Communication Resources, a global consultancy. She is also the Editor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed Journal of Communication in Healthcare: Strategies, Media, and Engagement in Global Health, and serves on the editorial board of Health Equity.

Dr. Schiavo is a passionate advocate for health equity and a committed voice on the importance of addressing and removing barriers that prevent people from leading healthy and productive lives. She has experience in 20+ health, medical, and human rights areas, including epidemics and emerging diseases, infant mortality inequities, maternal and child health, vaccine hesitancy, cultural humility, implicit and institutional bias, health systems strengthening, chronic malnutrition, early childhood development, and immigrant health, and has worked in the United States and several countries in Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Central Asia.

As a researcher, advocate and practitioner, Dr. Schiavo is interested in community- and system-driven multisectoral models, partnerships, and interventions to address health, equity, and social issues, and to build social support for improved outcomes via policies, information, and community-based resources that encourage healthy behaviors and social change. She has significant experience in community, patient, and citizen engagement and multisectoral parternships/interventions.

Dr. Schiavo has served on advisory/expert panels for the World Health Organization (WHO), U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), the International Federation of Red Cross/Red Crescent, UNICEF, and the American Public Health Association (APHA), and has published in leading peer-reviewed journals. She is the author of Health Communication: From Theory to Practice (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, an imprint of Wiley), now in its second edition, as well as 145+ scientific presentations and 35+ publications. Her capacity building and training experience includes staff members and community leaders from 350+ organizations

Dr. Schiavo was awarded the 2018 Distinguished Career Award of the Public Health Education and Health Promotion (PHEHP) section of the American Public Health Association for lifetime work “to advancing health communication and health equity”; is the recipient of a 2016 Presidential Citation by the Society of Public Health Education (SOPHE); and was recognized as one of 300 Women Leaders in Global Health by the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. Dr. Schiavo is an elected Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine; and a Chair, Feature Sessions of the American Public Health Association (APHA) Global Public Health Film Festival.

Her diverse background includes past academic positions at the CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College, New York University, and The College of New Jersey; Executive Vice President, Cooney Waters Group (now Health Unlimited); and Head, Corporate and Marketing Communications and Social Responsibility Programs, Rhodia Farma (now Sanofi Aventis), Brazil. Dr. Schiavo is fluent in English, Italian, and Portuguese, and can read and understand Spanish and French.

For a list of most recent publications visit http://www.renataschiavo.com/publications.html or go to Dr. Schiavo's Google Scholar profile.

Follow Dr. Schiavo on Twitter at @RenataSNYC