In this episode of JPHMP Direct TALK, guests Dr. Juliet Iwelunmor, Dr. Ucheoma Nwaozuru, and Ms. Alexis Engelhart describe a new public health literary journal called LIGHT that aims to center the public in public health.

Leaders Igniting Generational Healing & Transformation (LIGHT) reimagines public health as we know it, particularly with bringing the “public” back into health. LIGHT believes that art, letters, poems, and stories are great avenues through which we can become more responsive to and representative of people’s daily realities with health. LIGHT is a go-to literary journal in public health, a movement that connects, creates, and curates content for the public by the public, ultimately centering the public and its voice in public health.

LIGHT records personal experiences and stories through creative expressions and literary works. It is a non-traditional journal and unified space that the public can use to creatively connect and express themselves through narratives of their own health. LIGHT actively listens to, engages with, and learns from the public with the goal of bridging the divide between the public and public health experts through creativity. LIGHT creates conversations for the public, for youth, and for researchers, aims to advance work that pushes the margins of public health, and fosters a new generation of change in the public health field, one that has the public first in mind.

LIGHT will be a themed, biannual journal that utilizes crowdsourcing to create its content. With two-themed open contests each year, they envision a journal that is built off the inclusivity and narratives of the people. They invite everyone to this space as a way to connect with each other using the dialogue, expressions, and language that they resonate with best, whether that’s through poetry, letters, stories, art, spoken word, music, and more. Visit www.light4ph.org and follow LIGHT on Instagram and Twitter at @light4ph.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with three of the founders of LIGHT, Dr. Juliet Iwelunmor, Dr. Ucheoma Nwaozuru, and Ms. Alexis Engelhart. They are currently accepting submissions for their first issue. Learn more at www.Light4PH.org.

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About Our Guests

Dr. Juliet Iwelunmor is an Associate Professor in Global Health in the Department of Behavioral Science and Health Education at Saint Louis University. Her research is centered around the use of culturally salient implementation science strategies to develop, implement, and sustain in community settings, evidence-based health interventions that reduce health disparities and advance health equity. She is the PI of a UG3/UH3 phased grant aimed at assessing the effectiveness of youth-friendly implementation science strategies in increasing uptake and sustainability of HIV self-testing led by and for Nigerian youth. In addition, she has also led other implementation science trials focused on evaluating the scale-up and sustainability of well-proven chronic disease management programs targeted at hypertension and other cardiovascular risk factors in sub-Saharan Africa.

Dr. Ucheoma Nwaozuru is an Assistant Professor in Implementation Science at Wake Forest School of Medicine. Her research focuses on the role of participatory approaches, social innovations, and technologies to develop sustainable and contextually appropriate health interventions.

Alexis Engelhart is a master’s in public health student with a joint concentration in global health and biosecurity and disaster preparedness at Saint Louis University’s College for Public Health and Social Justice. She also serves as a research coordinator in the Department of Behavioral Science and Health Education. Alexis is passionate about creatively and effectively communicating research and health information to the public and is interested in the sustainability of interventions in diverse communities.