Renata Schiavo, Ph.D., M.A. is a global health/public health specialist with broad experience in developed and developing country settings. She focuses primarily on strategic health communication for behavioral, social behavior and organizational change/results, non-profit strategic planning and strategic partnerships in public health and/or for non-profit ventures. She is an accomplished leader with significant expertise on strategy design, program development and direction, and research design and analysis. Renata has experience in 20+ health areas, combining outstanding program and people management skills with technical savvy. Renata is the Founder and Principal of Strategic Communication ResourcesSM, which provides strategic counseling, professional training, program design and evaluation, qualitative research design, implementation and analysis; and other technical support/services on health communication, strategic planning, and strategic partnerships only to non-profit health organizations, professional associations, foundations and other U.S. and international organizations in the field of public health/global health. She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Public Health at New York University, Steinhardt School, Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health, where she is on the faculty of the Community Public Health and Global Public Health M.P.H. programs (Courses: Health Communication: Theory and Practice; Cross-Cultural Health Communications).
Renata has almost two decades of international healthcare/global health experience, which includes the US, and several countries in Europe, Latin America and Africa. She has had the opportunity to work on staff or as a consultant for non-profit organizations, corporations, communications agencies, universities, research laboratories and governments. Her work has focused, in addition to others, on the following health areas: oncology/cancer, HIV/AIDS, malaria, leishmaniasis, CNS disorders/mental health, cardiovascular diseases, women's health, respiratory diseases, obesity, biotechnology, infectious diseases, childhood immunization, adolescent immunization, flu immunization, global handwashing, kids' cancer, Lyme disease, tuberculosis, oral health, pandemic flu, public health and humanitarian emergencies, and primary nocturnal enuresis.
Renata's fields of technical expertise include: global health/public health; strategic planning; strategic health
communication for behavioral, social behavior and organizational change
(including interpersonal communication, community mobilization, mass
media and new media communication, patient/professional relations/
communication, constituency relations, public advocacy, etc.); reaching
vulnerable populations; professional training; audience/market
research; field studies; corporate communication; social marketing;
branding; strategic roadmap development; strategic partnerships.
Renata's experience extends to include leading organizations such as the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP), the National Malaria Program of the Ministry of Health of Angola, the New York University College of Dentistry, Solving Kids' Cancer, the World Bank, the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, and the US Office of Minority Health Resource Center (OMHRC), among others. In addition to her strategic planning and program-related experience, Renata has been providing training as well as contributing to the capacity building efforts of prominent non-profit health organizations, foundations, and other US and international organizations on a variety of topics in her fields of expertise.
Renata served as Executive Vice President at the Cooney Waters Group (CWG), one of the largest independent healthcare communication agencies in the United States. Prior to joining CWG, she formed and headed the Corporate and Marketing Communications Department of Rhodia Farma, the Brazilian affiliate of Rhone-Poulenc Rorer (now Sanofi-Aventis). Previously, she worked in the healthcare divisions of the New York communication agencies Manning Selvage & Lee and Noonan/Russo Communications.
Renata also worked as a senior advisor to UNICEF-Angola and the local Ministry of Health on designing national malaria prevention strategies as well as on evaluating local communication and public health programs.
Formerly, Renata was a post-doctoral research scientist at Columbia University and New York University, where she worked on numerous molecular and cell biology projects in the areas of cancer and cystic fibrosis.
Renata is a member of the American Public Health Association (APHA), the National Association of Medical Communicators (NAMC), the Public Health Association of New York City (PHANYC) and the Society for Public Health Education and Promotion (SOPHE). She was elected and served as the 2007-2008 Chair of the APHA Health Communication Working Group (a group of 300+ members and 20-30 active volunteers per year) as well as on the 2007-2009 APHA Governing Council as a representative of the APHA Public Health Education and Promotion section (PHEHP).
She continues to be a member
of the Steering Committee of the APHA Health Communication Working Group, where
she chairs the Fundraising Committee and is a member of the Awards
Committee.In addition to her
experience with the APHA, Renata has other significant non-profit management
experience.Renata is a Member of
the Board of Directors of Solving Kids Cancer, a NY-based non-profit charity,
which she has advised on issues related to strategic planning, program
development, medical/scientific relations, and health communication since its formation, and in her prior role as senior strategic advisor/consultant.Previously, she was a Member of the
Board of Directors of the Italian American Committee on Education (IACE), a
NY-based non-profit organization, where she served on a variety of
subcommittees, including human resources/ personnel, strategic planning, and
by-laws development/revisions. Renata is a member of the supervising editorial board of Cases in Public Health Communication and Marketing, an on-line peer-reviewed journal, and was appointed by the APHA Executive Board to serve on the 2009-2011 Advisory Board of The Nation's Health, the official newspaper of the APHA. She is also a member of the Italian group SaCS (Salute-Cura-Societa'; Health-Cure-Society), which includes leading Italian sociologists, academics, and other professionals whose work focuses on the social aspects of disease prevention and health communication/promotion. Renata has also contributed with articles and opinions to the Communication Initiative (CI) and is a member of the COMBI (Communication for Behavioral Impact) Global Technical Network (GTN), which is maintained by the World Health Organization (WHO).
She is the author of a book on Health Communication: From Theory to Practice (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, April 2007) and other peer-reviewed, print and electronic publications. She is a frequent speaker within academic, conference and other professional settings.
Renata holds a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the University of Naples (Italy) and a M.A. in Journalism and Mass Communications from New York University. She is fluent in English, Italian and Portuguese and can read and understand Spanish and French.
