‘My Goal Is to Make This World a Better Place Than When I Found It’.
Breakfast: A cup of hot coffee and Greek yogurt. Hometown: Groton, Massachusetts. Extracurriculars: Aside from environmental justice activities, I’m a long-distance runner and run at least one half-marathon each year.
Emily Barbo Communications Manager, The Activist Lab
What are the priorities of The Activist Lab, and what impact has its work had on the School of Public Health and South End communities?
The goal of The Activist Lab is to connect the entire SPH community, but especially students, to this idea of practice, and “doing,” which can take quite a lot of shapes. I describe the Activist Lab as a living laboratory—a place for students to bring their ideas about what they’re passionate about, and we connect them to the resources and expertise they need to take that idea to the next level, which is action. A perfect example of that is the “Yes on 3” campaign. We built an Activist Fellowship for a student to connect with Freedom for All Massachusetts. They were able to bring their work from the campaign back to the school and bring us all into action on this issue they were passionate about.
We also work a lot with faculty and staff, which I think is the less-told story. We’ve connected our epidemiologists with the local community so they can learn which research questions to ask, and then translate their data into storytelling. We’re the bridge between the SPH community and the local neighborhood communities that are on the front lines of public health. Our work is translatable not just in an academic setting, but in a practical setting.
Can you describe your role as Communications Manager?
I am a storyteller. There are so many stories going on here. We have the training work within the school and among our community partners, and we also have three grant-funded training centers that offer professional development and ongoing training for public health professionals. My job is to process all of that and put it into a format that is shareable, lifts up the work of our great partners, and challenges preconceived notions about what it means to be a public health professional and get an MPH degree. I create bridges between the students, the staff, the faculty, and our community partners, so folks can see where they belong in the Activist Lab, and I can spark their passion into action.
What attracted you to this type of work?
As an English major and writing minor in undergrad, I knew that communication and storytelling was what I was passionate about. I’m a natural extrovert who likes connecting with people and I really grasped on to this idea of corporate marketing and communications as a means of connecting people with ideas that could improve their lives or the world in general.
What has been one of your favorite moments working at the lab?
There are so many. One of the moments that showed me that I was in the right place was on my first day of work here almost two years ago. Students from the Blackstone Community Center arrived to explore BU’s medical campus. Even though the center is located near the SPH campus, a lot of these kids feel that this place doesn’t belong to them, that it isn’t part of their neighborhood. We’re trying to challenge that. I toured the campus with these kids, and we talked to students at the medical and dental schools about what they were learning, and why taking care of your teeth is so important. Then we went to the anatomy lab, where the kids got to hold a human brain. Some of the kids were totally excited and asking great questions. At the end of the day, they were saying that they wanted to be a doctor or a mathematician. Just watching those kids enter a space where they didn’t feel like they belonged, and then leave energized and excited about what they wanted to do was a really tangible way of connecting here and realizing that these are the stories that I want to tell.
How does the lab decide which public health issues to address?
So much of the work that we do is driven by student interest. We rely on the students to come to us and say “this is what is happening and this is something we will not accept.” In addition to the Yes on 3 work, we have participated in the walkout over gun violence, several marches, and a town hall meeting. The student energy is palpable around here.
Our location is also really important for the work that we do, especially on opioid addiction, homelessness, and the Life on Albany committee, where we try to create positive community engagement and reduce fear about working in this community. It’s amazing how much people will open up to you if you’re willing to listen. At the end of the day, we’re all people.
You’re also an advocate of environmental justice and recently wrote about a trip you’ll be taking to Washington, D.C. soon to speak with Congress members. Can you describe more about this trip?
I’ll be attending Coastal Recreation Hill Day from February 28 to March 1 with a national nonprofit organization called The Surfrider Foundation. There is currently a proposal to increase offshore oil drilling around our coasts by 90%. That would be devastating to the environment and to the coastal communities. Marine life would be affected—the lobster and fishing industries could collapse along the entire North Atlantic Coast. I feel really passionate that the proposal should not be approved, so I will be meeting with congressional staffers about these issues affecting our coasts. I’m really nervous, but excited, because I’ve never had this level of engagement with my federal government before. A lot of people, including myself, are intimidated about talking to our elected officials, and that’s something we really need to challenge because they represent us. If I can’t talk to them about a problem, how are they going to represent me?
I’m really grateful for the opportunity the Activist Lab has given me to attend events like this to improve my advocacy skills and tell these stories. I feel very much supported to continue my advocacy work at SPH, and also pursue my personal passions. My personal goal is to make this world a better place than when I found it.