{"id":147727,"date":"2019-06-20T14:50:15","date_gmt":"2019-06-20T18:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/?p=147727"},"modified":"2020-09-17T10:20:56","modified_gmt":"2020-09-17T14:20:56","slug":"imparting-messages-for-the-greater-good","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/articles\/2019\/imparting-messages-for-the-greater-good\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Imparting Messages for the Greater Good\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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June 20, 2019<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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\"\"Trained in health education, School of Public Health alum Whit Taylor (SPH\u201912) is passionate about conveying complex health information to the public in a digestible way. Now, she has turned what originated as a hobby into a powerful and effective medium for highlighting critical public health issues.<\/p>\n

Founder of Whit Taylor Comics<\/a>, Taylor is a New Jersey-based cartoonist, comics editor, and writer who has embraced the resurgent fields of comic journalism and graphic medicine to share personal, historical, and evidence-based knowledge about public health challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsing visuals to appeal to people is very effective, and the reason I like comics is the same reason I like public health\u2014<\/em><\/span>it’s a way of communicating on a larger scale to people and imparting messages for the greater good, to impact health in a positive way,\u201d Taylor says.<\/p>\n

She adds that communicating about public health is especially important many people don\u2019t know what public health or how it affects the general public. \u201cI want to give people context for public health history, and a lot of the things I write about in my comics originate from my studies at SPH,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

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Artwork by Sophia Foster-Dimino.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From personal reflections on her struggles with anxiety and depression, to educational commentary on the threat of pandemics, Taylor\u2019s works<\/a> span a variety of informative and relatable topics. Her comics have also spotlighted the Food and Drug Administration and its lack of regulation, as well as the\u00a0Tuskegee syphilis experiment and its impact on the African American community\u2019s trust of healthcare workers. Her work has been published in The New Yorker<\/em>, Buzzfeed<\/em>, The Nib<\/em>, and PEN Illustrated<\/em>, and won her a Glyph Comic Rising Star Award.<\/p>\n

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Artwork by Chris Kindred.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Taylor says she receives a lot of positive feedback from readers who say her comics bring awareness and insight to issues they didn\u2019t understand or were not aware of before they read her work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese days we’re bombarded with articles and studies that are difficult to evaluate if you don\u2019t have a background in data,\u201d Taylor says. \u201cMy goal is to help people understand complicated subjects, and to also help them feel good about who they are and what they\u2019re experiencing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014Jillian McKoy<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Whit Taylor is taking over the SPH Instagram account from June 24 through 28. Follow along at\u00a0Instagram.com\/BUSPH\/<\/a>\u00a0and with the hashtag\u00a0#BUSPHSummer19.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alum Whitney Taylor uses comics to share personal, historical, and evidence-based knowledge about public health challenges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15205,"featured_media":148016,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[1750,2013,2569,2102,2038,1871],"bu-publication":[3516],"sphnews-article-category":[3519,3520,3531,3541],"sphnews-topic":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"profile_tax":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/147727"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15205"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147727"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/147727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":173100,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/147727\/revisions\/173100"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147727"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=147727"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-article-category?post=147727"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-topic?post=147727"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=147727"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=147727"},{"taxonomy":"profile_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile_tax?post=147727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}