If you find yourself skimming the morning news and skipping the evening news, you're not alone. Columbia Journalism Review reports that there is a clear pattern of decline regardless of media format — online, print, or TV. What are the implications for change makers?
Recent posts by Pat Heffernan
1 min read
Slowly Ever So Slowly More Female CEOs
By Pat Heffernan on Jun 4, 2021 5:31:19 PM
Over the past 20 years, the number of female CEOs at Fortune 500 companies has increased by nearly 14-fold. Sounds good until you realize in 2021 that represents only 8 percent of CEOs at Fortune 500 companies. Improvement but far from the more than 50 percent of the population and the workforce who identify as female.
2 min read
Ageism, Economic Development and Entrepreneurship
By Pat Heffernan on Mar 31, 2021 11:15:00 AM
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Is Your Trust in the CDC Eroding?
By Pat Heffernan on Sep 13, 2020 8:42:54 PM
Despite missteps amid a charged political season, I believe the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) remains a public health institution worthy of our trust. Here is why.
A Steady Stream of Essential Information
For decades I have relied on the CDC for timely, important public health information, helpful resources, and useful tools to help spread the word near and far. For example, as we head into flu season, the CDC offers the following animation in its public media library.
1 min read
Public Health-Food System-Public Interest Communication Challenge
By Pat Heffernan on Apr 7, 2019 1:32:24 PM
The most compelling and convincing of the many pieces I've seen during National Public Health Week 2019 are an article and a video in The New York Times. The excellent, brief video captures (without oversimplifying) the interrelated problems of:
- antibiotic resistance,
- the lack of animal ID-tracking,
- access to farms for outbreak investigations,
- and timely hospital reporting in the U.S..
The State of Vermont, which prides itself for leading on public policy solutions for farm-to-plate, organic farming, and public health issues, is likely to find taking the lead here challenging.
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Toxic Chemicals: States Are Doing What EPA Won’t
By Pat Heffernan on Jun 28, 2018 9:43:44 AM
Image Credit Patrick Kyle
Since residents of Bennington, Vermont found PFOA in their tap water last year, it seemed a given to many of us that a broad, preventive response to chemical contamination would be crafted and approved by the State Legislature and Administration in 2018.
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Unplugging: How To Power Down In A Wired World
By Pat Heffernan on Feb 12, 2018 4:50:00 PM
Ryan Johnson for NPR
NPR shared an excellent piece today on the impact of technologies on our brains. This is the subject of near-daily discussion in our offices because marketing communication has become a technology-driven field -- and we find ourselves coaching our clients, particularly the nonprofits and government agencies, to add more so-called martech (marketing technology) to their world in order to advance their cause cost effectively.
5 min read
How to Support Women Entrepreneurs in Rural Areas
By Pat Heffernan on Jun 6, 2017 11:12:00 AM
The need is well documented. The Kauffman Foundation and others have detailed the female-male gap in business startup rates, gross revenues and number of employees for comparable businesses, even within the same industry. The challenge has become identifying promising, practical solutions -- especially in non-metro areas.