Parsons Fellows Provide Information Design Support for Public Health Program Grantees
By Paul Silva
The Parsons Fellowships in Information Design initiative enters its sixth year this year, and a new crop of Fellows will be heading to their host organizations in late May to begin work on a range of exciting projects. Each year since 2007, Communication Design and Technology graduate students from Parsons The New School for Design have spent their summers sharing their expertise in information design and media production with Public Health Program grantees, in order to boost the grantees’ advocacy on health and human rights issues.
There were five Fellows last year. Tianhua Duan helped develop a new website for the Public Service Accountability Monitor in Grahamstown, South Africa. Lea Faminiano designed infographics for the Treatment Monitoring and Advocacy Project in Pune, India. Kellyn Loehr came up with a new logo and a website for the Social Services Initiative in Baku, Azerbaijan. The remaining two Parsons Fellows helped develop campaigns to advance advocacy on Hepatitis C issues. Kenneth Roraback worked with the Eurasian Harm Reduction Network in Vilnius, Lithuania, to develop a campaign focused on reducing the cost of Hepatitis C treatment, entitled The Real Cost of HCV. Ben Norskov worked with the International HIV/AIDS Alliance in Kiev, Ukraine, to develop a public awareness campaign to coincide with World Hepatitis Day called Do you see the C?
More details on the Parsons Fellowships over the years can be found at http://osf.parsons.edu/.
Until October 2012, Paul Silva was a senior communications officer for the Public Health Program of the Open Society Foundations.