This summer, as well as this Summer Institute, is flying by. It seems only yesterday I was teaching my last class in Everett, MA and packing for San Francisco. As a community health educator, I seek to bridge the space between research and practice.

Inevitably when meeting someone, I am asked, “what do you do?” and often my condensed answer is “I teach sex ed.” The range of responses I’ve received have been from the bewildered – “How can you do THAT?” – to joyous – “I’m so glad YOU’RE the one teaching them” and everywhere in between. Sexuality, as well as the teaching of anything sex-related, evokes a strong emotional response. I wonder, if chefs receive the same questioning: “How many years of ‘training’ – wink wink – did you have to get?” and “Do you teach Kindergarteners how to put on condoms?” Food, like sex, is a natural, human need. Studying sexuality, in my mind, is similar to studying food or sleep. Yet unlike our sociocultural relationship to food, sex has become taboo, almost a fetish.Explaining my role to people working on sexual and reproductive health involves some jargon: “I direct a DPH-funded, evidence-based, school-based, teen pregnancy prevention program combining class discussions with service learning.” What does this mean? To parse that sentence: I’m the only one working on this...