Who’s Involved
Liz Slagus, Founder & Director
Liz consults in the areas of art and technology education, public programming and community engagement. She is currently an adjunct faculty member of Parsons-The New School, founder and co-curator of the SexEd Project, and Director of Public Programs for the NY Hall of Science. In 2009, the State Library of Queensland awarded her the Creative Fellowship for Art & Technology to develop the programming and outreach strategy for Brisbane’s new digital culture center, The Edge. During 2008, she produced the youth component for the 01SJ Biennial (San Jose, CA), and co-curated “1800 Frames” for City Without Walls (Newark, NJ)—beginning a curatorial partnership with Norene Leddy. Between 1998-2008, Slagus developed and managed Eyebeam’s education programs, exploring new teaching and learning techniques and models for engagement. As Director of Education and Public Programming, she co-curated and oversaw large-scale exhibitions, and Eyebeam’s public presentations. She holds a BA in Art History and Anthropology from Bucknell University and an MA in Visual Arts Administration from NYU.
Liz conceived of SexEd armed with 10+ years working with artists/art collectives and youth enrolled in the NYC public school system, and a growing sadness over the huge gap between the sexual health education she received growing up in the public schools of NJ in the 80s, and the current curriculum.
Norene Leddy, Co-Director
Norene Leddy creates platforms to talk about technology, history, sex, art, and social justice. Projects include working with LGBTQI youth, sex workers, young women, and others to create shoes, garments, alarm systems, maps, DIY electronics kits, and other ways to explore high and low technology for protection and self-expression. Her work has been shown internationally at venues including Eyebeam (New York), Henie Onstad Kunstsenter (Norway), and Sarai Media Lab (India). She has been the recipient of numerous grants, awards and residencies including a Fulbright Fellowship, two Eyebeam residencies, and funding from NYSCA, Bronx Council for the Arts, and the Experimental Television Center. In 2011 she was nominated for a World Technology award. Norene earned her B.F.A. from Boston University in 1994 and a M.F.A. from Parsons The New School for Design in 2000, where she is now a Part-Time Assistant Professor. In 2008, she started an ongoing curatorial collaboration with Liz Slagus. Together they have curated exhibitions for Cuchifritos Art + Project Space, City Without Walls, Kean University, and Gallery Aferro among others. She is online at http://www.nobetty.net.
Norene came to SexEd with the belief that accurate sex education is a human right. She works with Liz to develop radical pedagogies that combine art, reproductive health, and participatory tools.
Sexual Health Advisory Board
Caitlin Hanson, MA
Caitlin Hanson is the Director of School Based Health and Adolescent Medicine at the Institute for Family Health. Caitlin currently manages three SBHCs in Manhattan serving ten public schools. Before working with the Institute, Caitlin received an undergraduate degree in Sociology from Clark University in Worcester, MA, where she stayed to earn a master’s degree in Community Development and Planning. Caitlin spent four years working for Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts in a variety of roles, from Grassroots Organizing & Political Action, to Health Care Assistant, to Central Massachusetts Outreach Coordinator. She also dedicated herself to charity work in Massachusetts as a board member of the Jane Fund of Central Massachusetts, which exclusively raises money to provide mini-grants to women who are unable to afford the cost of their healthcare. She continues to provide support to the Jane Fund, remotely. Caitlin began her work with the Institute in July, 2010, when she relocated to New York from Massachusetts to coordinate Community Outreach and Health Education for the Institute’s Washington Irving Campus Health Center. After years contributing to the direction and development of the IFH SBHC program, the position of Director of School Based Health and Adolescent Medicine was created for her to continue strengthening and growing the IFH SBHC program, while also working to ensure that all IFH sites are providing the same level of high quality care to their adolescent patients. Caitlin recently was elected to the New York State School-Based Health Alliance, the state chapter of the national School-Based Health Alliance where she currently serves as the chair of the Technical Assistance Committee.
Kerstin Pahl, Ph.D.
Kerstin Pahl is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at NYU School of Medicine. She received her Ph.D. in developmental psychology from NYU’s Steinhardt School for Culture, Education, and Human Development. Much of her research has focused on the longitudinal pathways to and the developmental patterns of health behaviors and well-being, including substance use and sexual behaviors, among adolescents and adults. Kerstin’s other interests include the development of ethnic and racial identities, the impact of discrimination on development, and resilience factors that promote well-being among youth and adults. She has worked on several longitudinal studies of human development over the course of her career. One of her recently funded NIH grants explores factors related to HIV sexual risk behaviors among African American and Latina women in NYC.
Kerstin’s experience encompasses both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Her publications have appeared in scientific journals in the areas of psychology and medicine and she has presented her research at national and international conferences.
Cory Silverberg
Cory Silverberg is a sexuality educator, trainer, author, and was a founding member of the Come As You Are Co-operative. He received his Masters of Education from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. He served as the chair of sexuality educator certification for the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT), was a board member of YTH Live, and teaches across North America on topics including sex and disability, sex and technology, and pleasure, inclusion, and access.
Cory also worked as a sexuality consultant for both media and industry as a frequent contributor to local and national print, radio, and television media. He is currently working on a series of three books for children about sexuality for Seven Stories Press. The first, What Makes a Baby, was released in 2013. Cory can be found online at sexuality.about.com, where he writes and blogs about sexual politics, education, culture, and health.
Bryana Williams
Bryana Williams is a Community HealthCorps member currently serving as an Adolescent Health Educator at the Washington Irving Campus. Bryana has been working directly with SexEd in the classroom, cafeteria and after school outreach projects. She received her undergraduate education from Columbia University where she volunteered with Peer Health Exchange for four years teaching alcohol awareness and sexual decision-making in NYC public schools.
Partners
