Ever wonder why the issue that you are passionate about hasn’t grabbed the public’s attention? Do you want to learn how to construct a winning platform to mobilize action and get a candidate to buy into your vision?

As our nation prepares for an important election year, the 2019 Jonas Salk Health Activist Fellowship will help emerging health activists learn how to grab the public’s attention on a major health and social issue and spur action, using medical error as a case study. Despite the horrific numbers of hundreds of thousands of deaths and various campaigns to drive change – little progress has been made to reduce preventable medical error in America.

The most effective way to mobilize action is to reach a candidate for high political office with a platform that excites broad public support. In this election year, we have a major opportunity to do just that: To build the reduction of lethal medical errors into a winning electoral strategy.

During the 9-week program (10 sessions), Fellows will interact with some of the region’s foremost leaders in developing compelling platforms and with successful politicians to learn how they select a platform. Fellows will develop new skills around social marketing and behavioral economics in order to develop appealing platforms and build public will. Fellows will also learn how to effectively pitch their ideas to different audiences. During the finale of the Fellowship, select Fellows will take the persona of a candidate and pitch their platform on medical errors to a live audience.

Applicants should include a description of their interest in being politically active, building public interest and will, and learning how to create change. In lieu of a written personal statement, applicants are also welcome to submit a video personal statement.

DATES & TIMES

Wednesdays from 4:00-7:30 PM (dinner included)
September: 25
October: 2, (Oct 7 or 10), 16, 23, 30 
November: 6, 13, 20

Finale on Thursday, November 21 from 5-8pm

WHERE

QI²T Center
650 Smithfield St., Suite 2600
Pittsburgh, PA 15222

WHO SHOULD APPLY?

Creative graduate students and young professionals from diverse disciplines who are interested in maternal health, quality improvement, implementation science, public health, and healthcare policy.

TO APPLY

Applications for the 2019 Jonas Salk Health Activist Fellowship have closed.

For More Information

Click here to view the flyer.

For more information, please contact Steven Guo, guo@jhf.org.

 

Testimonials

“Participating in this fellowship helped me realize that regardless of your current life stage you can always ignite a change if you are passionate enough. I have also learned the importance of storytelling and am more aware of different activist strategies that exist.” – 2017 Salk Fellow