Linda Neuhauser, a 1986–87 AAUW American fellow, is currently serving as clinical professor in the Division of Community Health and Human Development at the University of California, Berkeley. She is also a co-principal investigator at the Health Research for Action center. In 1989 Linda helped found the center — then called the Center for Community Wellness — drawing on her understanding of the importance of research and communication in public health initiatives.
As a doctoral student at Berkeley, Linda did research in California soup kitchens as part of a study on food insecurity and hunger in the local area. She enjoyed “meeting the people there, having lunch with them, and learning about their lives.” The AAUW fellowship she received was one of the only sources of funding available for studying hunger problems. “It came at a very important time when I needed funding to complete my doctoral research,” said Linda.
After earning her doctorate, Linda worked as a health officer with the United States Agency for International Development in Mauritania and other West Africa countries. “When I went to work in Africa, it was clear that communication problems were the root of many failures of health programs,” explained Linda. In Mauritania practitioners had been developing vaccination programs for 20 years, and still large numbers of children were dying from preventable diseases. By working with her African colleagues, Linda helped identify complex technical, social, organizational, and economic barriers. “After two years of grassroots work with communities and at all levels of the health system, we succeeded. The new vaccination program effectively reached 85 percent of children in that country.” Linda said that, in all public health situations, working closely with beneficiaries increases program effectiveness.
Linda is now applying those lessons at the Health Research for Action center, “a hybrid organization that links researchers, interventionists, government, and policy people and that connects the university more directly with communities, government and the private sector.” One of the center’s most successful projects — developed with input from parents, health care providers, government staff, media, and others — is a kit that provides “operating instructions” for new parents to 500,000 families in California each year.
Linda’s deeper understanding of community, which started with her dissertation work, has had a great influence on her students in the Berkeley public health program. As a result, some of them are now developing strategies to improve emergency preparedness for groups affected by Hurricane Katrina and working with the Mexican government to provide better HIV/AIDS programming.
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