Sandra de Castro Buffington, the director of the Hollywood, Health & Society program of the Norman Lear Center,delivered an address on the power of popular TV health storylines to reach the Latino community at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Public Policy Conference on Tuesday, Sept. 13 in Washington, D.C.
Sandra de Castro Buffington was an invited guest at Singularity University's "Women at the Frontier 2011: Power and Progress" forum, on Aug. 16, 2011. The panel featured top women entrepreneurs, humanitarians, innovators, scientists and techies, addressing issues relevant to humanity's future. Among them were Lt. Col. Jacquelyn Susan "Jackie" Parker (pictured), the first woman Air Force pilot to attend U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards AFB in California; Dr. Francine Gordon, an executive coach and organization consultant; and Joy Buolamwini (also pictured), the founder of multiple startup companies dedicated to gaming, mobile apps and web design. The keynote speaker was Marylene Delbourg-Delphis, a Silicon Valley executive and serial entrepreneur. Buffington addressed 10^9+ ("Ten to the Ninth, Plus"), a yearly challenge to SU students to develop a product or service that will positively affect 1 billion people within 10 years leveraging exponential trends, innovation and the power of entrepreneurship.
Hollywood, Health & Society Director Sandra de Castro Buffington moderated a panel discussion titled "How Youth Drive Change" at the 7th annual UNESCO Youth Forum, held Oct. 17-20 at the organization's headquarters in Paris.
Hollywood, Health & Society Director Sandra de Castro Buffington brought together entertainment representatives at Writers Guild of America, West to share their inspiring stories from a research trip to India and South Africa. Saying that there was nothing more powerful than "direct experience," Buffington shepherded a group of directors, writers and producers on an inaugural "Tales from the Field" visit to Mumbai and Johannesburg, staying one week in each location.
During their immersion in South Africa and India, members of the entertainment community participated in two successful, inspiring panel discussions with local TV and film writers, and others involved in entertainment education in-country. The South Africa panel was titled From California to Cape Town: How TV Reaches Global Audiences on Key Health Topics, and the India panel was called From Hollywood to Bollywood: How Film & TV Reach Global Audiences on Key Health Topics. The American writers and producers were joined by local representatives of the entertainment community. All panelists showed clips of their work to the audience, and shared their thoughts on writing about health topics, their approaches to writing dramas with impact; and television as a vehicle for education and social change.
For two weeks in May 2011, Hollywood, Health & Society Director Sandra de Castro Buffington took six TV and film writers on research trips to Johannesburg, South Africa and Mumbai, India, to learn about global health challenges and low cost, effective solutions. The groups explored each city, learning about health problems and social issues and meeting with individuals and organizations working for positive change.
During their immersion in South Africa and India, members of the entertainment community participated in two successful, inspiring panel discussions with local TV and film writers, and others involved in entertainment education in-country. The South Africa panel was titled From California to Cape Town: How TV Reaches Global Audiences on Key Health Topics, and the India panel was called From Hollywood to Bollywood: How Film & TV Reach Global Audiences on Key Health Topics. The American writers and producers were joined by local representatives from the entertainment community. All panelists showed clips of their work to the audience, and shared their thoughts on writing about health topics, their approaches to writing dramas with impact, and television as a vehicle for education and social change.
At this Hollywood, Health & Society panel discussion held at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, health and entertainment experts spoke about the science behind climate change and the way it affects life on Earth, emerging solutions and the entertainment media's portrayal of these issues. Simply put, "human survival is dependent on managing climate change," said Sandra de Castro Buffington, the director of Hollywood, Health & Society. The keynote speaker, Dr. George Luber of the Centers for Disease Control, said the scientific findings about the planet's warming were "unequivocal" and a direct result of an increase in the emissions of greenhouse gases during the past 50 years.
On November 3, 2010, HH&S held the global health panel discussion: “5 Simple Ways to Save a Life,” featuring Dr. Rajeev Venkayya, director of Global Health Vaccine Delivery for The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Larry Kaplow, consulting producer for the hit FOX-TV series House, MD, and many others at Writers Guild of America, West. Dr. Venkayya oversees late-stage development of health technologies and interventions, as well as efforts to expand access to health solutions in the developing world. In a former post, he served as senior director for biodefense at the White House, where one of his key responsibilities was development and implementation of the U.S. strategy for pandemic influenza.
In 1974, Annenberg Journalism Professor Joe Saltzman produced what has been acknowledged to be the first TV documentary on breast cancer, an hour-long program called Why Me? This groundbreaking documentary addressed a subject not seen before on television. The award-winning program was viewed by one out of every three women in the Western world, and it has been credited with saving thousands of lives. It is hard to imagine a time when women would not speak publicly about breast cancer, but in 1974, it was an act of courage for a woman to appear on television to talk about what was considered a deadly disease. In addition to the screening of the documentary, a panel of communication experts, moderated by Judy Muller, an Emmy Award-winning television correspondent and associate professor of journalism, will discuss the making of the documentary and how it paved the way for contemporary approaches to documentary making, as well as current television dramas and how they approach the discussion of breast cancer, cancer awareness programs and treatment. The event was moderated by Saltzman, who is the director of the Lear Center's Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture (IJPC) project. Sandra de Castro Buffington, director of the center's Hollywood, Health & Society program, was a panel participant.
