2021-22 Vot-ER Civic Health Fellowship
The Vot-ER Civic Health Fellowship is a 10-month leadership development program that aims to support, teach, and train a learning community of Vot-ER users across the country. Through a variety of learning settings, including lectures, small-group sessions, and more, fellows will leave the Vot-ER Civic Health Fellowship with a nuanced understanding of civic engagement, related health equity issues, and community organizing and activation practices. Throughout the program, teams of fellows will also build Civic Health Action Projects to apply their newfound knowledge and skills to a problem or opportunity in their local community.
Leading Faculty
Srdja Popovic (he/him) is the Founder and Executive director of the Center for Applied Nonviolent Actions and Strategies (CANVAS), a non-profit organization based in Belgrade, Serbia that aims to teach the use of nonviolence to make a change. Apart from being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2012, Popovic is the author of the recent book Blueprint for Revolution.
Dr. Pedja Stojicic (he/him) is passionate about enabling health leaders to use community organizing practices to advocate for equitable health and well-being. He currently serves as an executive lead for People Power Health. Dr. Stojicic is also an instructor for the DrPh Program at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Stojicic completed a fellowship at the Harvard Kennedy School studying Leadership and Organizing with prof. Marshall Ganz and later worked as a member of Ganz’s HKS Teaching Team.
Guest Speakers
Alexis Anderson-Reed
Chief Executive Officer at State Voices
Andrea Benjamin, PhD
Associate Professor of African and African American Studies at the University of Oklahoma
Ali Raja, MD, MBA
Director of Network Operations and Business Development for the Department of Emergency Medicine and the Associate Director of Trauma for Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Brooke Wojdynski
Owner at Verve Creative, LLC
Ijeoma Opara, PhD, LMSW, MPH
Assistant Professor at Stony Brook University School of Social Work and Research Faculty at Yale School of Public Health
Meet the Fellows
“I am so thankful to be a part of this community. You are role models and are teaching me so much that I have never heard before. Also, this is extremely well run. The Vot-ER team is working incredibly hard and this fellowship is incredibly organized. Thank you.”
“This first session definitely made me more excited than I ever expected. Having this collaboration makes me feel like I’m not alone or lost on how to get things started. Furthermore, I’m realizing there is strength in numbers and diverse backgrounds when getting communities organized!”
“I think the structure of the Civic Health Fellowship is a really great way for us to work through our ideas. The collaboration between different teams is one of my favorite aspects of this fellowship and really reinforces how important other people are in my own journey.”
*The testimonials on this page have been edited for brevity and clarity.