Today, I get to sit down with returning guest, JoAnn Stevelos, MS, MPH. She is a writer, public health advisor, and researcher whose work sits at the intersection of survival, spiritual terror, radical repair, and relational hope. With more than twenty years’ experience in nonprofits, government, public health research, bioethics, and education, she uses her training to help create a culture of health through innovative solutions that treat health as a fundamental human right. Her Robert Wood Johnson Foundation–funded work in Aotearoa New Zealand inspired her to adopt a Samoan proverb as a north star: “Solutions for the community come from the community.”
JoAnn is currently the Executive Director of the Andrew Levitt Center for Social Emergency Medicine. She has served in key leadership roles including Executive Director of the Coalition for Supportive Care of Kidney Patients at George Washington University; Director of the NYS Center for the Prevention of Childhood Obesity; Director of Evaluation for the Alliance for a Healthier Generation and Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign; and Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor for the RWJF-funded Comprehensive Child Sexual Abuse Prevention, Treatment, and Mitigation program in New Zealand. She advises national and international nonprofits that address health disparities and inequities. A founding board member of The Hope Institute, she has served on the boards of Eat REAL and the New York State Public Health Association. She is a graduate of Columbia University and the University at Albany School of Public Health and Albany Medical College.
As a writer, JoAnn’s work spans memoir, fiction, poetry, and performance. A Pushcart and Best American Essays nominee, her essays have appeared in The Guardian— “This story isn’t about the priest who abused me. It’s about my mother.” , Chicago Story Press “How Do You Forgive the Unforgivable?”, and The DewDrop“Passersby” . She is the author of the novel Howard Be Thy Name and the cross-genre collection Dream Alibis,, and writes the Substack The Second Silence. Her essay “Mugwort” received distinction in the 2025 Writer’s Digest Personal Essay Awards, and “The Archivist,” created in collaboration with photographer Sarah Blesener, is forthcoming in North American Review. JoAnn is represented by Barbara Jones at Stuart Krichevsky Literary Agency.
Today we focus our conversation on The Hope Model that JoAnn began exploring over 5 years ago. We talk about hopelessness and its many forms and how an awareness of the 4 elements of The Hope Model – Survival, Mastery, Attachment and Spirituality – can help to build hope.
The Hope Institute offers Hope Assessments as well as The Oxford Compendium of Hope. Stay tuned to their work as they continue to offer resources and support to a world that sometimes feels in dire need of more hope.
You can find more about JoAnn and her work below:
https://linktr.ee/JoAnnStevelos
Children at the Table~Psychology Today Blog
Dream Alibis
Today’s show was engineered by Ian Seda from Radiokingston.org.
Our show music is from Shana Falana!
Feel free to email me, say hello: she@iwantwhatshehas.org
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