philosophy

promotion & prevention

Our society must shift upstream rather than reacting to problems and crises. We can make this shift if leaders and teams leverage upstream approaches – promotion and prevention – to enhance care and reduce harm for all people.

This philosophy guides my work and our work at Promote Care & Prevent Harm where we empower leaders to create a more proactive culture through research and programs that not only prevent violence, disease, mental ill-health, and isolation, but promote peace, health, mental wellbeing, connection in schools and communities.

problems

My research and practices applies promotion and prevention science to multiple problems and possibilities.

- social behavior : prosocial behavior and antisocial behavior

- mental health : mental well-being and mental ill-health

- safety : peace and violence

values

I believe the people we collaborate with, the research we do, the participants we collect with, the questions we ask, the assumptions we hold, and the way we conduct research matters. 

research transparency and reproducibility: I believe workflow and organizational activities should be transparent and reproducible by following best practices from the Center for Open Science and BITSS. 

collaborative science: I believe the best science comes from a diverse team of scholars with varying experiences, perspectives, disciplines, methods, and analytical approaches.

social constructionist: I reject the pervasive nature of positivism and aim to take a social constructionist view that appreciates cultural variation and context. 

integrated lens: I aim to take a social, political, commercial, cultural, historical, and power-relevant critical lens when conducting research. 

power sharing: I aim to include stakeholders in the research process as citizen scientists through participatory action research and other community-based methods in lieu of doing research “on people” as the subjects.