As of: 04-30-2013

Laura S. Lorenz, PhD, MA, MEd, CBIS  Biography
 

Laura is a researcher and educator with international experience communicating research, program, and policy impacts for global audiences. She is senior research associate and lecturer in the Institute for Behavioral Health, Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. Laura has a broad work and research background in lived experience with chronic conditions, community-based participatory research, visual and narrative methods of research, military health, health policy advocacy, health communications, disability policy, and translation of research findings to community interventions and continuing education. Her current assignments include serving as a member of teams a) investigating payment incentives on patient adherence to medical treatment, b) studying the health of combat veterans, c) studying harm reduction for problematic drug use, and d) studying lived experience with transitions from skilled nursing facilities to community living for individuals with chronic brain injury.

Since 2004, Laura has been investigating lived experience with brain injury and psychological health using innovative visual and narrative methods and ways to include patient perspectives health and healthcare in the policy-making process. She became interested in brain injury because her brother, who was a youth hockey player in the 1960s and 70s, had multiple concussions and suffered cognitive and mental health challenges—perhaps as a result. She is Program Director for the Supportive Living Inc Brain Injury Rehabilitation Research and Wellness Center in Lexington, MA working with a group of inter-disciplinary colleagues to plan and implement a program of research to support the social, cognitive, and physical rehabilitation of individuals living with chronic brain injury.

Before coming to Brandeis, Laura worked 20 years in international development as a photo-journalist, writer, and editor for UNICEF, World Food Programme, CARE, the US Information Agency (USIA), US Agency for International Development (USAID), and Management Sciences for Health. She lived 14 years in Africa, Asia, and Latin America; her assignments often involved encouraging community partnerships, project replication, and behavior change—for example, to improve girls’ access to education and prevent transmission of HIV. Since 2001 she has pioneered the use of participatory visual research methods (including “photovoice”) in the US and South Africa to engage patients, youth, and communities in picturing local problems and strengths and motivating action for change. She has published in peer review journals in the fields of sociology, health, visual studies, and medicine.

Laura has presented and published on identity after brain injury, the patient-provider relationship, issues of voice and representation in health policy research, the use of visual research methods to involve communities in health, and visual and narrative methods of research and analysis. She teaches social policy and regularly leads trainings and continuing education workshops. Her book Brain Injury Survivors: Narratives of Rehabilitation and Healing was published by Lynne Rienner Publishers under their series Disability in Society. She has peer review publications in sociology, health, visual studies, and medicine. Laura received her PhD in social policy from Brandeis University (2008) and a Master of Education (Instructional Design/Adult Education) from the University of Massachusetts Boston (2001). She holds a BA in English Literature from Bowdoin College (1976), and is a Certified Brain Injury Specialist (CBIS) from the Academy of Certified Brain Injury Specialists ACBIS (2010).
 

View Laura's Curriculum Vitae for more information about her work. Click here for Dr / Prof Lorenz:   Heller School for Social Policy Faculty Profile   Brandeis University Faculty Profile.

Do you have a QR Code Reader on your Smartphone or Tablet device?

                 
Scan, click, or touch the pattern above to visit
Dr / Prof Lorenz's Heller faculty profile.


 

Sr Research Associate and Lecturer
The Heller School for Social Policy and Management
Institute for Behavioral Health
Schneider Institutes for Health Policy
Brandeis University
Waltham, MA
Office: 781-736-3847

Learn about Dr. Lorenz's 2010 book: Brain Injury Survivors: Narratives of Rehabilitation and Healing

Please visit the other portions of the site listed below as well, view further information about her work and what she is doing now !