Eliana Bukofzer, MPH, Research Associate II,
had her appetite for media advocacy whetted in her second year of graduate school, when she was a student in Lori Dorfman's mass communications and public health class. She started working at BMSG that semester on a content analysis of Internet food and beverage advertising to children. Since that time, she has assisted with various projects, including a content analysis of television food and beverage advertising to children, and framing analyses of the news coverage of health care reform and school food environmental policies.  In the meantime, she completed her Masters degree from UC Berkeley in the spring of 2007. She completed her undergraduate work at UC San Diego in the spring of 2004, with a degree in cognitive science and two minors, one in biology and the other in Hebrew language. In her spare time, Eliana volunteers on a crisis hotline and is an avid Israeli dancer, and has recently ventured out into swing dancing and blues dancing.  She also enjoys baking and spending time with her wonderful friends.

Andrew Cheyne, MA, Media Researcher,
combines his interest in political activism with his background in media analysis and social science scholarship. He received his B.A. cum laude in American Studies from Northwestern University; his honors thesis compared Northern and Southern media treatments of George Wallace’s racialized 1968 presidential campaign. He then spent several years working in research and analysis for consumer protection and digital media organizations. After earning his master’s and C.Phil. in political sociology at UCSD, Andrew decided his skills were best applied to a career of policy-oriented research. He is committed to using research to address health inequalities—especially the powerful role the media play in shaping perceptions about public health issues—and to helping other advocates achieve their social justice goals. When not working, Andrew is most likely exploring California’s backcountry.

Iris Diaz, Trainer,
Iris Diaz designs and conducts media advocacy training for community groups and young people working throughout California in violence prevention. She has extensive experience consulting with communities to understand and effectively use the power of the news media to promote policies that advance social and public health goals. Ms. Diaz is a co-author of News for a Change: An Advocate's Guide to Working with the Media.She continues to present at national conferences and to write articles about media advocacy. Prior to working with the Berkeley Media Studies Group, Ms. Diaz worked as an AIDS Counselor for the Shanti Project in San Francisco. She also has 10 years of television experience as Associate Producer and Producer of segments for children's programming, documentaries, specials and health-care related videos at KRON-TV, KPIX-TV, KQEDTV in San Francisco, and Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California.

Lori Dorfman, DrPH, Director,
was BMSG's first associate director in 1993, and became director in 1998. She earned her doctorate in 1994 from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health, where she studied how television news frames health issues. Her recent research examines how local television news and newspapers portray youth and violence, and family violence. Dorfman conducts training for grass roots organizations and public health leaders, consults for government agencies and community programs across the U.S. and internationally, publishes articles on public health and mass communication, and teaches a course for masters students on mass communication and public health at UC Berkeley's School of Public Health. She co-authored the major texts on media advocacy: Public Health and Media Advocacy: Power for Prevention and News for a Change: An Advocates' Guide to Working with the Media. She edited Reporting on Violence: A Handbook for Journalists, which encourages journalists to include a public health perspective in violence reporting. She is part of an interdisciplinary team that conducts workshops on violence reporting for newspapers and local TV news stations.

Ingrid Dries-Daffner, MPH, Strategic Communications Specialist,
provides media advocacy training to public health advocates working on myriad issues throughout California. She has also conducted health communications trainings in Mexico and Brazil and speaks Spanish and Portuguese. Prior to joining BMSG, she worked for more than a decade to broaden reproductive health access at the local, national and international levels. Ingrid has served as the associate editor of the Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report, and as a research consultant for the Population Council, Office on Latin America and the Caribbean. Her research interests include framing of women's health issues in the media and the impact of social marketing on contraceptive uptake. Ingrid received her Masters in Public Health from the University of California, Los Angeles, and her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley.

 

Heather Gehlert, MJ, Online Communications Specialist,
is a multimedia journalist. She's part writer, part editor, and part Web geek with a flair for design and development. Gehlert holds a master's degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley and a bachelor's degree in English and communications from Westminster College, a private school in mid-Missouri.  She became the first student to complete a minor in women's and gender studies at her old alma mater, which was all-male for 128 years, until 1979. Before coming to BMSG, Gehlert was managing editor for AlterNet.org, an online news magazine in San Francisco, and a journalism coach for San Francisco State University. In 2007, she played lead bugle in the San Francisco Renegades Drum & Bugle Corps.

Katrina Hayes, Administrative Coordinator,
is the pleasant voice that greets callers to BMSG. She has been with BMSG since 2001, coordinating and keeping the whole office running smoothly. When not at work, Katrina is busy with her family, which grew from no children to four children in a little over a year. To say the least, she works fast. Katrina earned her bachelor's degree in Biology and Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.

Sonja Herbert , MPH, Project Director,
is dedicated to helping advocates achieve policy change to improve public health. She specializes in training advocates to reframe news coverage and public debates in ways that highlight policy solutions. She earned her Masters in Public Health from the University of California at Berkeley and a B.A. in history from Oberlin College. Her public policy experience includes advocacy at the state and federal levels on issues such as women's health, sexuality education, and children's health insurance. She serves on the board of director's for the National Women's Health Network, an advocacy organization based in Washington D.C. She co-authored the BMSG publication, Making the Case for Early Care and Education: A Message Development Guide for Advocates. In addition, she has published a wide variety of women's health and advocacy articles including a chapter entitled  "Harnessing the Power of the Internet for Advocacy and Organizing" which appears in the public health textbook Community Organizing and Community Building for Health.

Katie Woodruff, MPH, Deputy Director,
oversees the administration of BMSG's programs and provides strategic consultation and media advocacy training for community groups and public health professionals nationwide. She has worked on a range of public health and public interest issues, including violence prevention, alcohol control, tobacco control, injury control, children's health, child care, and affirmative action. She also conducts research on news content and has published case studies and articles on applying media advocacy to public health and social justice issues. She has a Masters in Public Health, with a focus on Community Health Education, from the University of California at Berkeley, and a B.A. in Creative Writing from Brown University. Woodruff is co-author of News for a Change: An Advocate's Guide to Working with the Media.