Publications and Presentations

Community Health Alliances Podcast

During my tenure at WellShare International, I engaged in outreach to promote the culturally-specific family home visiting program I managed. One of the organizations I connected with was Care Resource Connections, an innovative nonprofit in the Twin Cities that builds connections between emergency responders, social service providers, and healthcare to help community members access the care they need. I joined a health equity project they were implementing in Fridley, Minnesota and had the opportunity to talk on their podcast with my colleague Andrea Ross. I deeply believe that community health workers are an essential strategy for addressing health disparities, so it was a joy to talk with them about it. You can listen to the episode on Spotify.

Perspectives Podcast

In spring of 2020, I was invited to speak on the University of Minnesota School of Public Health podcast “Perspectives” about sexuality education. You can listen to the episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Thoughts about Sexual Difficulties and Related Anxiety Among a Predominantly Female Sample of Adolescents

This qualitative data analysis examined adolescents’ thoughts and feelings about difficulties that can emerge during sexual experiences. The sample consisted of 53 sexually experienced, ethnically diverse, predominantly female, non-pregnant adolescents participating in a web-based sexual health intervention. As part of a message board discussion, adolescents described anxiety-enhancing attitudes and beliefs (e.g., men should be skilled sexually, women should express satisfaction even if they do not feel it). Several adolescents advocated for condom use despite potential difficulties when attempting to use them. Health professionals should equip adolescents with skills to communicate with partners about sexual difficulties and cope with related anxiety.

Check it out at the American Journal of Sexuality Education.

Positive Youth Development in Talking about Sexuality Topics

We continued the conversation about how a positive youth development lens can improve the comfort and confidence of youth workers when addressing sexuality topics with young people in a live online training through the Youth Intervention Programs Association (YIPA). While people have varying levels of comfort talking about sexuality, there are frameworks, skills, and tools that can help folks feel better able to have those conversations with the young people in their lives. If you're interested in seeing the recording of the training, you can find it here. 

Sex Ed Through a Positive Youth Development Lens - SXSWEdu '17 -

It was a huge honor to be chosen to present a core conversation at SXSWEdu 2017, especially on something as near and dear to my heart as the intersection of sexuality education and positive youth development. The opportunity was really exciting, and we had a great turn out of people who are engaged with fostering healthy youth development and having nonjudgmental, honest conversations about sexuality with youth and adults alike. 

Luckily for you, they recorded our conversation! Give it a listen by clicking here. You can also view our slides here if you're interested in having the full experience ;). 

Sexually Active Adolescents' Thoughts About Sexual Pleasure - the Journal of Sex Research

Little research on adolescents has examined developmentally normative facets of sexuality that are not obviously linked to physical health. The purpose of this secondary data analysis was to qualitatively analyze adolescents’ thoughts about and experiences with sexual pleasure. The study sample consisted of 56 sexually experienced, ethnically diverse, predominantly female adolescents who were participating in a Web-based intervention to promote healthy sexual decision making. Comments on one message board, “Sexual Pleasure: Does It Matter to You?,” provided an opportunity to examine adolescents’ thoughts about and experiences with sexual pleasure, as well as their communication with partners about that topic. Adolescents’ comments demonstrated that they experience difficulties with pleasure in their sexual relationships. Adolescents generally believed that men are more likely than women to feel pleasure due to differences that include biology, understanding of one’s body, and control over partnered sexual behavior. Adolescents defined inequality of received pleasure differently and discussed contexts in which inequality may be acceptable. Adolescents expressed motivation to communicate with partners about sexual pleasure. However, their statements suggested they often lack the skills to do so. Future prevention and intervention programs should equip adolescents with skills to communicate with partners about sexual pleasure.

Read the whole article on the Journal of Sex Research site. 

Sex in the Context of Substance Use: A Study of Perceived Benefits and Risks, Boundaries, and Behaviors among Adolescents Participating in an Internet-Based Intervention

Little research has examined adolescents’ perspectives of sex with substance use. This study examined (1) adolescents’ perceived benefits and risks of sex with substance use, as well as boundaries; (2) the potential for positive and negative social influences among adolescents when they discuss these topics; and (3) whether exposure to health-promoting content is associated with trajectories of sex with substance use over a 6-month period. To address the first two objectives, 176 comments were analyzed from 71 adolescents (90% female) aged 14–18 years who participated in an Internet-based sexual health promotion intervention and posted to at least one message board addressing sex with substance use. Adolescents’ perceived benefits and risks of sex with substance use primarily reflected concern for the experience of sex in the moment; perceived risks and boundaries primarily reflected concern for the ability to develop and maintain meaningful relationships. Comments of 63% and 22% of adolescents, respectively, were evaluated to have potential for health-promoting and risk-promoting social influence. To address the third objective, trajectories of self-reported sex with substance use were compared between 89 intervention and 54 control participants. No significant differences were observed. However, a dose–response effect was observed; intervention participants who completed less than one third of assigned tasks reported increases in sex with alcohol or marijuana use over time, while no marked changes or much smaller changes in sex with substance use were observed among intervention participants who completed one third or more tasks. Implications for prevention and intervention programs are discussed.

Read the article on the Archives of Sexual Behavior site

Communication about Sexual Consent and Refusal: A Learning Tool and Qualitative Study of Adolescents’ Comments on a Sexual Health Website

Sexual communication skills are needed to create healthy romantic relationships. Arguably, these skills also can be used to prevent some instances of unwanted sex. This study presents a qualitative analysis of adolescents’ comments after reading a teen-friendly article on sexual consent as part of a web-based sexual health promotion intervention. The sample was comprised predominantly of female adolescents recruited from a Midwest urban region in the United States. Adolescents varied with respect to self-efficacy to request, provide, and deny consent, as well as the perceived need to ask for consent in the context of established relationships. Many adolescents perceived that nonverbal methods of communication were sufficient to request, provide, or deny sexual consent. Factors that make it difficult to discuss sexual boundaries and say “no” to unwanted sex included low self-efficacy and an underlying desire to nurture or preserve a relationship. Cultural norms must be changed to support verbal, affirmative sexual consent. In addition, adolescents must be aided in the development of skills to request sexual consent, say “yes” to specific activities, and say “no” to others. Without supportive norms and skills to enhance self-efficacy, adolescents may be unwilling to engage in verbal communication about sexual consent and boundaries.

Read the article on the American Journal of Sexuality Education site.

Teens Aim Higher - Healthy You, Healthy Hennepin

I am a Project AIM triple threat - facilitator, trainer, and programming coordinator. Project AIM (Adult Identity Mentoring) is an evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention program, that my organization implements through Hennepin County's teen pregnancy prevention initiative, Better Together Hennepin. The work Better Together Hennepin and their community partners have done to address unintended pregnancy and sexual risk taking through the implementation of Project AIM highlighted in a Hennepin County Public Health newsletter.