Dr. Godin began his career (1984-1991) at Rutgers Medical School, serving as the Coordinator of Program Evaluation and Research for the CMHC/Behavioral Health Services, while teaching family studies coursework at Rutgers University. From 1991-2016, Dr. Godin was a faculty member (Associate Professor 1991-1997; Professor 1997-2016) in Health Studies at East Stroudsburg University (ESU) of Pennsylvania. While there, he directed the CEPH accredited BSPH program (1995-2007) and MPH program (2007-2016). In 2014, he launched the Center for Public Health Research and Innovation, which secured external funding to support six faculty members and four graduate assistants. In Fall, 2016, he was awarded Professor Emeritus at ESU. He joined the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine (Public Health Division) faculty in July, 2016 as a Visiting Professor, and transitioned to a full-time adjunct professor in 2020 until mid-2023. Since then, he has retained his adjunct appointment, and is presently collaborating with faculty and medical students at the People's Health Clinic in Park City, UT. He also serves on the Curriculum Development Group with multiple other faculty to provide recommendations on the substance use disorder training for medical and nursing students and the physician assistant programs. Dr. Godin collaborates with Stand4Kind, a non-profit providing mental health education for students and teachers in thousands of schools nationwide. In November 2024, he launched Humanity Helping Humanity Network, which conducts fund-raising events (i.e., music and art festivals) to support the efforts of non-profits that address the social determinants of health. At these events, he uses creative approaches (dramatizations) or 'edutainment' to improve attendees' mental health literacy. Opportunities exist for public health students to get involved in development of creative approaches to improve literacy.
His professional interests include applied research/evaluation of: mental health literacy programs; creative health communication strategies; social marketing; broadcast/digital media; and consumer health informatics. Much of his work uses the 'accountable health communities model', with a collective impact theme, and inter-organizational networking/capacity-building to address health disparities in the Mountain West region.
Research Statement
Steven Godin's research interests include applied research/evaluation of community and school-based prevention programs. Previous work has included evaluation of interventions using: social marketing; broadcast/digital media; social media; and consumer health informatics (mHealth). His current work includes development and evaluation of community/school-based mental health literacy interventions; school safety (i.e., anti-bullying; risk assessments); and fostering positive school and workplace climate. I have received a number of federal and state grants which use an ‘accountable health communities model', to build collaborative organizational networks resulting in a 'collective impact'. Much of these capacity-building efforts address health, mental health, and substance abuse disparities for ethnically diverse and economically disadvantaged communities in the Mountain West region.