In July of 2008, the New York Times published an article about college students who don’t leave town after they graduate. The article, by Brown grad Rachel Aviv, featured a picture of me set against the Providence skyline.

The caption under the photo was, “Come commencement, many linger for months or become townies for life. Megan Hall, a 2004 Brown graduate from Oregon, stayed on in Providence, R.I.” 

The article gave the impression that young graduates were loafing around their college towns until they found some direction. At the time, I was 26 and already a Fulbright Scholar and a full-time radio reporter.

I’m proud to say living in Rhode Island wasn’t a passing phase.

This just in- the EvSynth team is headed to the 25th Cochrane Collaborative Colloquium in Edinburgh!

The Cochrane Colloquium is an annual event that brings people together to “discuss research into important global health questions and promote evidence-informed health care.” This year, the theme is “Cochrane for all – better evidence for better health decisions” and patients, not just researchers, are encouraged to attend.

The MHC Group has been helping the Center for Evidence Synthesis in Health (CESH) design free, online courses about evidence synthesis for the past year. At the Cochrane Colloquium, the EvSynth team will be giving a short oral presentation about that process. The talk is called “Free and open access online systematic review curriculum for broad audiences.”

Stay tuned for more details!

If you listened to Rhode Island Public Radio on Sunday at 2 pm, you might have heard the pilot for our new show: Possibly.

More than a year ago, Brown professor Stephen Porder approached Torey Malatia from Rhode Island Public Radio with an idea:  we all know that humans are destroying the planet, but how many of us know what to do about it? What if a radio show could use science to break down the difference between nice ideas and real solutions?  Torey was intrigued and asked Stephen to make a few episodes.

The MHC Group worked with Stephen to take that initial idea and turn it into a 20-minute episode on the future of food. We worked hand in hand with journalist Nancy Pick to develop the script and enlisted musician Tom Van Buskirk to create theme music and sound design.

We’re now hard at work on episode 2. Stay tuned!