What's Happening

By Marcia Quackenbush, MS, MFT, MCHES | October 23, 2018
Senior Editor, ETR

ETR has now hosted four Kirby Summits. These convenings bring together a small group of brilliant people with a shared commitment to promoting adolescent health and well being.

The key to the Summit’s uniqueness? While each one of the invited participants brings impressive expertise, as a group they come from different disciplines and perspectives.

By Clint Bruess, EdD, CHES, and Elizabeth Schroeder, EdD, MSW | October 16, 2018
Dean Emeritus, University of Alabama at Birmingham (CB) and Sexuality Educator, Trainer and Consultant, Elizabeth Schroeder Consulting (ES)

We’ve just finished writing a new edition of our book on sexuality education, which has been in print for almost 40 years. That’s a long time! A lot of people ask us, “What’s changed in sex ed over so many years?” The easy answer is, a lot has changed—and yet an astonishing amount has stayed the same. 

By Pamela Anderson, PhD | October 11, 2018
Senior Research Associate, ETR

The Kirby Summit is one of the highlights of ETR’s year. Today, we embark on the fourth occurrence of this remarkable convening.

While we know a lot about adolescent development from our own professional perspective, people with deep expertise from other perspectives know things we do not. When we bring these different groups together, amazing things can happen. This is what the Kirby Summit is about.

By Louise Ann Lyon, PhD | October 9, 2018
Senior Research Associate, ETR

The mainstream culture in the U.S. values independence. As a nation, we esteem individual actions and view them as paths to success. “Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” is an admirable trait.

However, that focus is not the full picture. 

By Jody Gan, MPH, CHES | October 4, 2018
Instructor, Department of Health Studies, American University

Three years ago, I became the first health educator to join a volunteer brigade providing medical and public health services to Honduras. For two decades, the Organization for Community Health Outreach (OCHO), based in Baltimore, Maryland, has sent a 40-person medical team to Atima, in the province of Santa Barbara. This is a mountain community of about 16,000 people in one of the most underserved and remote areas of the country.

By Jamie Barnett, MBA, CISSP | October 3, 2018
Parent Volunteer, Palo Alto Parents 4 Sex Ed

October is #LetsTalkMonth. This campaign is dedicated to frank conversations between young people and the adults they trust about sexual health. Thousands of parents, educators, administrators, social workers and students across the nation are joining in.

By Jamie Barnett, MBA, CISSP | October 2, 2018
Parent Volunteer, Palo Alto Parents 4 Sex Ed

October is #LetsTalkMonth. I’ll be tackling some great topics with my kids—healthy relationships, equity, inclusion, ethics, domestic abuse, technology. We’ll also be talking about #MeToo. (Full disclosure: I have these talks with my kids pretty much all year long.)

By Ifeoma Udoh, PhD | September 27, 2018
Senior Research Associate, ETR

Access to PrEP is changing minds and behaviors. As an HIV prevention option, PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV) has provided individuals who may be at risk for HIV an important tool in the way they conceptualize choices about sex partners.

The practice of serosorting—selecting a sexual partner based on HIV status—has often been seen as either stigmatizing or divisive. However, PrEP is changing this practice among both older and younger men who have sex with men (MSM). I contributed to a just-published paper that demonstrates this in some persuasive ways.

By Debra Christopher, MSM | September 25, 2018
Ambassador for Health and Learning, ETR

Last month, I stayed in the tiny village of Bennington, VT. I happened upon the tiny, cozy village bookstore and, of course, wandered in. (Stay with me. It is worth it.)

I picked up a book titled Scratchings, written by the "Scribble Sisters." 

By John Henry Ledwith | September 19, 2018
National Sales Manager, ETR

Hello, September! Like many of you, I am part of a team that has been getting local classrooms ready for the new school year. The hum and clatter and movement of all of that effort has left me thinking a lot about teamwork this week.

By John Shields, PhD, MSW | September 17, 2018
Senior Research Scientist and Director, K12T9 Initiative, ETR

We need the #MeToo movement. Widespread attention to sexual and gender-based harassment is long overdue. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t been affected in some meaningful way by this national conversation.

Here at ETR, we celebrate this opportunity for education, enlightenment and change. 

By Marcia Quackenbush, MS, MFT, MCHES | September 13, 2018
Senior Editor, ETR

I love science. I like the wonky part of research, and I really like seeing the practical applications. That’s why I was so pleased to see the FiveThirtyEight blog offer a series on the science of sex ed. These folks know their numbers!

By Tracy Wright, MAEd | September 10, 2018
Project Director, ETR

Trees, mountains, sky. That’s what I see from the window of my home in Golden, Colorado. I love it. Being able to live and work here is one of the splendid benefits of being a remote worker.

By Katherine McLaughlin, MEd | September 4, 2018
Founder and Director of Training, Elevatus Training

I remember the day Karen Topper asked me the question. “Can we create a sexuality education curriculum where people with developmental disabilities are the teachers? Can we have them be actively involved in creating this curriculum?”

By Suzanne Schrag | August 31, 2018
Editor/Product Manager, ETR

JJ is 11 years old and on the way to school. JJ usually stops at the bodega to buy a candy bar for a snack. But today is different. This week JJ is learning in school about increasing your heart rate through physical activity to stay healthy. So, instead of stopping at the bodega, JJ runs around the block three times. JJ shows up to school a little sweaty but excited and energized.

By Shawn Del Carlo | August 28, 2018
Warehouse Senior Supervisor, ETR

ETR is a non-profit. In some ways, we’re also a sort of family business. I’ve worked here for 21 years, and during that time, we’ve hired lots of employees’ kids, nieces, nephews and friends.

Sometimes people come for temp jobs, and sometimes they’re hired in standard positions. This has been good. I think it’s built a closer sense of connection among staff.

By ETR | August 23, 2018
 

Most books, even textbooks, don’t make it to a seventh edition. This one did. What’s so special about ETR’s new offering, Sexuality Education: Theory and Practice?

By John Henry Ledwith | August 21, 2018
National Sales Manager, ETR

I heard a story last night that’s had me thinking about inspiration. I was at a performance of the John Jorgenson Bluegrass Band. The amazing Herb Pedersen told us about how he came to write one of the finest and most popular bluegrass songs ever, “Wait a Minute.”