Promoting Women's Health and Empowerment with Open-source Digital Tools

Event Date: 

Wednesday, December 5, 2018 - 12:00pm

Event Location: 

  • 1310 SSMS

Come and join us for a talk with CITS affiliate Dr. Melissa Smith: "Promoting Women's Health and Empowerment with Open-source Digital Tools". Continue reading for more information on the talk and Dr. Smith.

How can digital resources help women in poor and remote communities gain access to information to promote their health and empowerment? This talk will describe how an open-source digital platform and mobile apps have been used to advance women’s health and rights in the Global South. As a medical editor and author of low-literacy public health manuals published by Hesperian Health Guides, I will describe how we have engaged grassroots groups in the development of these digital resources which are translated in many languages and available on Hesperian’s digital platform, accessed by millions of people from around the world.  I will show how web analytics inform our efforts, and share opportunities for interested UCSB students and faculty to collaborate in this work. Finally, I will discuss an emerging collaborative research agenda for an interdisciplinary team of UCSB colleagues and community partners focused on understanding how community organizing efforts using such resources can promote youth health and empowerment in Santa Barbara County and Oaxaca, Mexico.

Dr. Melissa Smith is a family medicine physician, Director of Health Equity Initiatives at UCSB, and deputy director of Education and Training for the Women’s Health, Gender and Empowerment Center of Expertise of the UC Global Health Institute. Read Dr. Smith's full bio here.

Melissa Smith