Healthy NewsWorks is pleased to welcome Jennyfer O’Brien, M.P.H., as our new communications associate. Jennyfer has a background in public health and a passion for advancing health information accurately and to audiences of all ages.
“I love the whole story-telling part of public health, curating information that’s relatable,” she said. “I love blending creativity with purpose and that’s shaped the work that I want to do.”
After graduating from Temple University with a bachelor’s degree in communication sciences, Jennyfer received her Master in Public Health from The George Washington University where she specialized in health communications. She worked for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health for five years, developing and managing communication strategies for newsletters, social media, and web platforms, as well as partnering with community-based organizations to promote health equity.
Her work at the health department encompassed the COVID-19 pandemic and shutdown. “With COVID, I was focusing on how to put out information to diverse audiences so that they understood what COVID was and what was going on,” she said. “There was a lot of information in medical terms that people didn’t understand. It was my job to take the information and make it easy to understand.”
At Healthy NewsWorks, Jennyfer, who is bilingual in English and Spanish, said she hopes to give students the tools to ask questions and become trusted voices in their schools. “Little sparks of curiosity can grow into big changes,” she said.
Jennyfer said Healthy NewsWorks “gives students the space to do research and put their voices out there through different channels.”
