2016 Public Voices Fellows Announced

Twenty Columbia University faculty members are among the newest class of Columbia Public Voices Fellows. The fellowship funds participation in the OpEd Project, which scouts and trains underrepresented experts to take thought leadership positions in their fields. The project connects fellows with a national network of top-ranking media mentors to provide direct access to media gatekeepers.

The fellowship program is a collaboration of the Department of Medicine in P&S, the Mailman School of Public Health, the Humanities Division in the College of Arts and Sciences, and the OpEd Project to cultivate national leaders among scholars, scientists, and clinicians who can influence the larger public debate beyond the university. The program was created through the support of Robert L. Burch.

“To participate effectively in public debates, professors must learn how to talk about their areas of expertise to nonexperts. What better place to start than with a group that unites medical researchers, public health experts, and humanities faculty?” says Sharon Marcus, humanities dean in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. “As dean, I’m grateful to Dr. Henry Lodge for bringing the OpEd Project to Columbia and for recognizing the importance of the humanities.”

Columbia Public Voices fellows will participate in workshops to learn how ideas spread, when and why minds change, how credibility is built, and how impact is created and measured. The program also introduces participants to high-level media insiders and connects them with journalist mentors for dedicated coaching throughout the year. The combination of seminars and mentorship is intended to provide fellows with the tools to communicate their scholarship and ideas in all areas of the public sphere—in print, on television and radio, via social media, and through other channels.

“Columbia faculty are research leaders and experts on important issues including the biomedical sciences and health care,” said Henry Lodge, MD, the Robert L. Burch Family Professor of Medicine at CUMC and director of the Health Sciences Communication Project, which oversees the fellowships. “We are delighted that this partnership will help bring their expert voices and perspectives to the larger world.”

The 20 newest Columbia fellows embarking on a one-year program join the 40 fellows announced in 2014 and 2015 and a national network of fellowship alumni, allowing for continued knowledge-sharing and innovation after the fellowship ends.

The work of fellows at other OpEd Project programs has been published in a wide range of media, including the New York Times, the  Washington Post, the Atlantic, Forbes, U.S. News and World Report, Al Jazeera, and USA Today. The fellows have appeared on CNN, CNBC, and NPR.

The new fellows include 13 faculty members with appointments at Columbia University Medical Center. The 20 Columbia fellows for 2016, chosen through a competitive application process, are:

Ana Abraido-Lanza, PhD, Associate Professor of Sociomedical Sciences (Mailman)

Rachel Adams, PhD, Professor of English and Comparative Literature (Morningside)

Zainab Bahrani, PhD, Edith Porada Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology (Morningside)

Madeleine Dobie, PhD, Associate Professor of French (Morningside)

Helena Duch, PsyD, Assistant Professor of Population and Family Health (Mailman)

Jeff Goldsmith, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biostatistics (Mailman)

Eleanor Johnson, PhD, Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature (Morningside)

Patrick Kinney, PhD, Professor of Environmental Health Sciences (Mailman)

Miriam Laugesen, PhD, Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Management (Mailman)

Ana Paulina Lee, PhD, Assistant Professor of Luso-Brazilian Studies (Morningside)

John C. Markowitz, MD, Professor of Clinical Psychiatry (P&S)

Stephen S. Morse, PhD, Professor of Epidemiology (Mailman)

Frances Negrón-Muntaner, PhD, Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature (Morningside)

Lusine Poghosyan, MPH, RN, FAAN, PhD, Assistant Professor of Nursing (Nursing)

Raul Rabadan, PhD, Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics (P&S)

Shilpa Ravella, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine (P&S)

Benjamin Schwartz, MD, Instructor in Clinical Medicine (in Surgery) (P&S)

Helen Blair Simpson, MD, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry (P&S)

Josef Sorett, PhD, Assistant Professor of Religion and African-American Studies (Morningside)

Siqin Kye Ye, MS, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine (P&S)