Awareness Is Never Enough
I help organizations that know what they want people to do but can’t figure out why it isn’t happening – because the answer is usually as much about social context as individual behavior.
Awareness is never enough — and most people working in this field already know that. The harder problem is knowing what to do instead. How do you design a program that accounts for social context? How do you assess whether it’s working? How do you improve it while it’s running?
That’s where I come in.
My understanding of how communities change — and resist change — was shaped by my service as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania. Since 2009 I’ve applied that foundation as an SBC consultant across dozens of contexts, from UNICEF country offices in Palestine, Zambia, and Timor-Leste to the Vermont Department of Health. The contexts vary enormously, but the results are consistent: programs that work better and teams that are more capable of sustaining and improving them long after the engagement ends.
Research
Effective programs begin with understanding. I design and conduct both qualitative and quantitative research across the full program cycle — from formative and baseline studies through assessments of individual, social, and environmental drivers of behavior, to endline evaluation and impact assessment — using participatory, community-centered approaches.
Strategy Development
Understanding the problem is only the first step. I work with organizations to translate research findings into actionable communication strategies — grounded in behavioral science, responsive to social context, and designed to be implemented by the people closest to the community.
Capacity Building
The most effective programs are run by people who understand why they work. I help organizations build internal expertise in social and behavior change — through training, facilitation, and hands-on strategy development — so that good practice outlasts any single engagement.