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Pandemic Center

Jennifer Galvin, Sc.D., MPH

Filmmaker in Residence
pandemic_center@brown.edu

Biography

Jennifer Galvin is a public health and environmental scientist turned prized filmmaker. Determined to drive societal progress, she combines three areas of deep expertise and accomplishment: science, media, and catalytic investment. In 2006, she founded reelblue, an independent production company based in New York. Her directorial debut Free Swim (2009) travelled the globe to reduce youth drowning, promote diversity in ocean-related sports, and ignite community coastal conservation. While she most loves having the camera in her hands, Galvin’s ability to direct, produce, write, and shoot led her to being compared to a Swiss Army knife when named to the 2014 GOOD 100, representing the vanguard of artists, activists, entrepreneurs, and innovators from over 35 countries making creative impact. Her acclaimed feature The Memory of Fish (2016) was named to The Definitive List of River Movies by American Rivers and was a Wildscreen Panda Award nominee, the highest accolade in the wildlife film and TV industry. With Radical Media she produced The Antidote (2020), an Oscar-qualifying feature film exploring kindness in America, and with Ad Council Tuskegee Legacy Stories (2021), a 6-part documentary campaign featuring descendants of the USPHS Syphilis Study at Tuskegee to build back trust in medicine. Drawing on her knowledge, networks, and accolades, she builds effective levers for storytelling at the intersection of health, environment, and justice. Commercial to indie, documentary to fiction, moving image to print—her motivations remain fueled by the maxim ‘protect the vulnerable.’ 

Recent News

Brown Daily Herald

Director of ‘Power of the Dream’ discusses collective action amid upcoming elections

October 24, 2024
On Wednesday, community members gathered to watch “Power of the Dream,” a 2024 documentary by Dawn Porter following the WNBA’s historic 2016 and 2020 seasons and the Black Lives Matter movement. The event was part of “Our Storied Health,” a film and media series hosted by Brown’s Pandemic Center.

The film starts in 2016 with the killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, two Black men, by police. The film follows the league through 2020, when players from all teams came together to fight for justice for Black Americans, helping Rev. Raphael Warnock win his 2020 U.S. senate election in the process.

After the film, Porter spoke with Lucia Hulsether, a professor of religious studies at Skidmore College, in a panel discussion moderated by Jennifer Galvin ’95, a filmmaker-in-residence at the center.

Porter discussed how important visual mediums are in displaying and spurring political action. “Every story can help social change. The common element with visual storytelling is its ability to empathize with people in a very visceral way,” she said. “You can always find the humanity in people in every story.”

Reflecting on the WNBA players’ unified front, both Hulsether and Porter emphasized the importance of “thinking beyond the individual” as the 2024 election approaches.

“They had to rely on one another … they had to abide by their own social contract,” Porter said of the players. “We think about the safety of others in the same way we think about our own safety.”

“Life or death stakes are with us every day, not just during presidential elections,” Hulsether added. “Get people to the polls, help people vote … but what can we do to get people primed to act before the moments are essential such that there is greater power when something big is at stake?”

Hulsether and Porter criticized the way Black WNBA players are often depicted in the media. The film shows “how deep the solidarity is” within the WNBA, Hulsether said. “Perhaps, people who think the WNBA needs to be catering to a racist fanbase could watch this film and say, ‘Maybe there’s something here that’s full of potential if they don’t.’”

While many of the films in the “Our Storied Health” film series directly focus on public health issues, Galvin and Jennifer Nuzzo, Director of the Pandemic Center stressed the tie between voting and public health.

“The traditional way of communicating information about health and science just doesn’t work,” Nuzzo told The Herald. “If we were going to reach people in the way that we truly need to reach them to save lives, we have to speak to their beliefs. That’s not something science does well or easily, but it is what the arts do.”

“Health is political. People are making decisions about your health and your family’s health every day.” Galvin said at the panel.

In an interview with The Herald, Galvin added that “‘Power of the Dream’ speaks to the heart of the values of public health. Everyone deserves a healthy and safe place to live, learn, work, and play.”

“My hope is that people will remember that every vote counts, that their voices matter,” Nuzzo followed. “We are a nation of individuals. Elections are individual votes rolled up. Individual acts compound to larger impact.”



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News from SPH

‘Our Storied Health’ Spotlights the Overdose Epidemic

April 5, 2024
The latest installment of the Pandemic Center’s film series featured a screening and panel discussion with experts in addiction and harm reduction.
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Brown School of Public Health

David and Goliath in “Mossville: When Great Trees Fall”

February 8, 2024
The second installment of the Pandemic Center’s “Our Storied Health” series highlights environmental injustice in the American South, and explores the potential of storytelling to advance public health.
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Brown School of Public Health

“Our Storied Health” Examines Public Health Communications, Anti-Vax Movement

November 9, 2023
The Pandemic Center kicks off Brown Arts IGNITE film and media series with pre-release screening of Scott Hamilton Kennedy’s “Shot in the Arm,” followed by panel discussion.
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Brown Daily Herald

Documentary on vaccine hesitancy to kick off new public health initiative

October 29, 2023
Excerpt: The School of Public Health’s Pandemic Center will host a screening of the new documentary “Shot in the Arm” Monday, Oct. 30 at 6 p.m. Directed by Scott Hamilton Kennedy and executive produced by Neil deGrasse Tyson, the film explores the history of vaccine hesitancy and its relevance in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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News from the Pandemic Center

Pandemic Center Launches Groundbreaking Media Program with Brown Arts Institute

October 25, 2023
"Our Storied Health Film and Media Series" opens with a screening of 'Shot in the Arm,' a film that explores vaccine hesitancy in COVID-19 and more.
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Brown University School of Public Health
Providence RI 02903 401-863-3375 public_health@brown.edu

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Jennifer Galvin, Sc.D., MPH