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Quote by Ruth Simmons

“We wanted to see how access to care can be expanded and service quality can be improved when one uses a participatory approach to program development. We showed that major changes become possible if you work in a participatory manner, listen to local people, diagnose what the problems are, provide training and identify where there are opportunities for mobilizing local resources to take action. In time leaders from other municipalities expressed interest in replication and the project succeeded in expanding innovations to three other areas.”

Quote by Ruth Simmons

Author

Ruth Simmons (born July 3, 1945) is a distinguished American academic and educator, best known as the first African American woman to lead an Ivy League institution as president of Brown University. Born into poverty in Texas, she overcame racial and economic barriers through education, earning degrees from Dillard University and Harvard University. Simmons served as president of Smith College and provost of Princeton University before leading Brown from 2001 to 2012. She is a prominent advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education, and her leadership has been widely recognized with numerous honorary degrees and awards. Her memoir, 'Up Home: One Girl's Journey,' was published in 2023. more

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“In the late 60s, 70s and possibly early 80s, social scientists were interested in researching the diffusion of innovation and studying the link between applied research and policy and program development. Recently there has been less interest in these issues and we feel that this interest must be rekindled.”

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“Our practical purpose is to facilitate expansion of service innovations on a larger scale to improve access to, and the quality of reproductive health care. We are very grateful to have received support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to continue our work.”

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“A longer time perspective is needed because we face a daunting task both in an intellectual and practical sense.”

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“One of the things we have learned in the first year is that if you want to scale-up, the first thing you have to do is to expand your own team.”

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“We felt that the Gates Foundation looked at our track record and our publications and decided that "this is persuasive; this needs to be done. Let's see what they can do."”

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“We are trying to discover where this approach could have the greatest possibility of large-scale impact. We have to choose wisely and see where there is greatest interest and need.”

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“If we succeed in learning more about how to expand program innovations from pilot projects so that they have broader program impact, this should be very relevant for public health initiatives in Michigan and elsewhere in the US.”

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“My colleagues from the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education are working on participatory public health initiatives in Michigan, and there is much that we can learn from each other. In fact it is essential that we strengthen efforts to learn from each other, and stop considering public health in the third world and in the U.S. as separate intellectual and practical endeavors.”

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“We hope to organize team residencies and a conference bringing together professionals from Latin America and from other groups around the world who are also focusing on this issue. We want to bring them together so we can learn from each other, and then widely publicize our conclusions.”

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