Jim Bender is the Executive Director of the NEA Health Information Network (HIN), a nonprofit that works to improve the health and safety of NEA’s 3 million members and the students they serve. He leads a talented and diverse team of public health and education professionals that create and implement programs that advance physical and mental health and wellness, as well as environmental health and safety. The HIN team focusses on developing cross-functional and collaborative solutions to health problems in public schools that impede learning and limit the potential of educators and students.
Previously Jim worked for 18 years as a public health consultant to government and nonprofit agencies. His expertise included marketing communications, strategic planning, facilitation and training, research and evaluation and policy implementation. Some of his most notable projects include the start-up and implementation of We Can! (Ways to Enhance Children’s Activity & Nutrition), funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), a national effort designed to give parents, caregivers, and entire communities ways to help children eight to 13 years old maintain a healthy weight. He also worked with the NHLBI to start up its National Asthma Control Initiative, an effort to promote the adoption of the NHLBI Guidelines for Asthma Management. He also worked with the CDC National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases for 10 years on its national media campaigns for influenza, childhood and adolescent immunizations.
Jim holds a Master of Health Sciences from Johns Hopkins’ School of Public Health, a Master of Fine Arts from Yale University’s School of Drama, and a Bachelor of Science from Northeastern University. He was a secondary school classroom teacher for two years in the East African nation of Malawi and has been a long time Sunday school teacher for elementary and middle school children. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and three children. He serves as a deacon at the Alfred Street Baptist Church.
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