Training
Positive Deviance (PD) facilitators are individuals who have experience training organizations in the PD approach in a given sector, have implemented a PD informed project or have carried out participatory action research using the PD concept. To learn more about PD facilitation, hear the Voices from the Field.
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Casey Blochowiak is the director of curriculum and learning for a K-12 public school district. She has 2 years of experience using the positive deviance approach in the U.S. to provide a framework for school districts to look within and identify teachers whose instructional approaches/strategies yield increased academic success for students.
Lucia Dura is an academic and consultant with areas of expertise in qualitative methods and evaluation with the positive deviance approach. She has prior experience implementing positive deviance in the areas of vulnerable populations, education, healthcare, and most recently, correctional prison populations. She has worked in many countries, including the United States, Uganda, and Indonesia.
Michael Gardam is the Director for Infectious Diseases Prevention and Control at the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion. Michael is a PD Champion for the reduction of the hospital-acquired infection MRSA. Within Canada, he has helped a number of hospitals control outbreaks and develop their infection control programs.
David Gasser has been interviewed for numerous Positive Deviance publications for his abilities to apply the Positive Deviance approach in diverse areas like the private sector, public agencies, health-care and education. David works as a consultant and has been applying the Positive Deviance approach for over 12 years.
Since 2002, Paul I Kadetz has examined health and development interventions in his research and scholarship from a perspective of assets-based approaches, particularly Positive Deviance. With over 18 years of experience with the PD approach on 5 continents, he specializes in population health and international development with a focus on China, Philippines, and the United States.
F. James Levinson has been practicing positive deviance since the early 1980s and has decades of experience applying positive deviance in the nutrition realm. He has worked with UNICEF, USAID, and the World Bank in many regions around the world including South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Curt Lindberg has 14 years of experience using the PD approach specifically within the healthcare and educational sectors in North and South America. His work has been received by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, among many other international organizations.
Jon Lloyd is a senior clinical advisor for Plexus Institute and a Senior Associate at the PD Initiative. He worked on a community-wide effort to eliminate endemic Methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Dr. Lloyd is currently coaching several of these hospitals and is also applying PD to the problems of youth violence and the twenty five year disparity in longevity that affects people with serious mental illness.
Christina Shoemaker Simmons is a consultant with areas of expertise in education, immigrant accultration, public health and pacific islanders. She has worked extensively in Hawaii, United States with social services and schools and community groups while applying the Positive Deviance approach for over seven years.
Dr. Arvind Singhal describes himself as a sense maker and amplifier of positive deviance. Dr. Singhal has been involved with the in-depth documentation of the Positive Deviance approach. He has served as a co-facilitator of numerous PD meetings, has guided several graduate theses on positive deviance, and has raised the “volume” on PD in his courses, lectures, and keynotes in the past six years.
Monique Sternin is one of the pioneers of the PD approach and has worked closely with diverse communities and organizations worldwide to teach and implement the PD approach for over 20 years. Her work spans various sectors including education, public health, and displaced populations, among others.
Cole Zanetti is a physician with areas of expertise in healthcare and specifically diabetes. He has worked extensively in New Hampshire, United States with the Positive Deviance Initiative while applying the positive deviance approach for several years.
Diane Baik is a consultant with over eight years of applying the positive deviance approach in the areas of health and nutrition. She has worked with World Vision and World Bank on various projects.