Breaking the Poverty Cycle

Dr. Susan Pick, founder of the Mexican Institute of Family and Population Research, and Tufts’04 and EPIIC Alumna Jenna Sirkin will present on the Framework for Enabling Empowerment (FrEE) and the step by step strategy “Programming for Choice,” based on the practical experience and evaluation of IMIFAP’s programs.

Susan Pick
Professor of Social Psychology born in Mexico City, Dr. Susan Pick has committed her life work to research, development, implementation and evaluation of pioneering programs in health promotion, education and poverty reduction.  She is the founder and President of the Mexican Institute of Family and Population Research (IMIFAP) where through their “I want to, I can” programs they have benefited over 19 million people in 14 countries.  Dr. Pick is author and coauthor of over 270 works, including articles, training manuals, children’s books and textbooks that are part of the Mexican school and health promotion national curricula, and has had extensive radio and TV participations in Mexico, Chile and Venezuela.  Dr. Pick holds the highest level in the National System of Researchers, and is the former president of the Interamerican Society of Psychology (SIP). She has received numerous awards.

Jenna T. Sirkin (A’04, EPIIC’03)
Jenna is a health services researcher and a doctoral student at The Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University, and an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Doctoral Training Fellow. Her research interests, experience and publications are in health policy and the international development field.  She was awarded the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship in 2006 to support her research with IMIFAP in Mexico City.  She received her M.A. in Social Policy from Brandeis University, and her B.A. from Tufts University (2004) in International Relations and Spanish.  The Tufts Institute for Global Leadership and the Anne E. Borghesani Memorial Prize provided generous support for Jenna’s undergraduate research in Mexico; she participated in the 2003 EPIIC colloquium on Sovereignty and Intervention.