Laurie Behrman, who will graduate in May 2003 with her Master's degree in Health Education, recently presented her Masters project "Educational interventions to Prevent Dating Violence" at the Harvard Graduate School of Education 2003 Student Research Conference and International Forum on February 28th.

The conference was a competitive, peer-reviewed symposium, where more than 120 proposals were reviewed and less than half were accepted. Behrman's study, which was part of a conflict resolution panel, discussed teen dating violence, which is estimated to affect more than one third of all adolescents in the United States. It also examined and evaluated current educational efforts to prevent dating abuse among adolescents.

Behrman is a current Health Education Merit Fellow and a former Teachers College Merit Fellow. Behrman recently left her position in TC's Department of Development and External affairs to work in the school system. She will be getting her NYS teaching certification in Health in May, and her certification in Social Studies within the next several months.

Currently, Behrman is finishing up her student teaching at Great Neck North Middle School, in Great Neck, New York. She hopes to teach in the NYC metro area.
Behrman has always been interested in public health issues. In the summer of 2000, Behrman went to Nicaragua to AMNLAE, a Nicaraguan woman's organization concerned with Domestic Violence, for 3 weeks as a volunteer where she led an educational talk in Spanish to previously battered women.

While an undergraduate, Behrman studied environmental science and spent time in Kenya. She acted as a consultant/public affairs intern for PROFAMILIA, the family planning Association of Colombia, and designed a brochure called "Mujer y Violencia," about domestic violence, for PROFAMILIA's clients. This work enabled her to apply public health thinking about education.

As a public affairs intern at International Planned Parenthood in London, she researched cultural and statistical information and attended a conference on Reproductive Rights. At the annual meeting of American Public Health, she presented on "Vasectomy Decision-Making Process among Kenyan Men and Their Partners."

In the future, Laurie sees herself working in the family planning arena, and in gender equality education. She also would love to continue teaching health education and implement different ideas into the learning process. Eventually, she would like to pursue a doctoral degree at Teachers College.

Published Thursday, May. 15, 2003