A Place to Succeed
Meet a few of the students, alumni, faculty and staff who have found success at RIT/NTID.
Sara Beth Weiner
A family trip led Sara Beth Weiner SVP ’93, ’97, to an open house at RIT/NTID and the beginning of her career.
“At the open house, I met a woman from Admissions who talked about the Explore Your Future summer program, and I enrolled without hesitation,” she says.
After graduating from RIT with a bachelor’s degree in Social Work, Weiner went on to earn two master’s degrees from Columbia University.
“Learning how to be a leader was one of the best things I learned from RIT,” she says.
Weiner was recently selected as a Fellow for the highly competitive Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Public Health Prevention Program, a three-year training and service program for master’s level public health professionals. Only 25 prevention specialists are selected each year to enter the program at CDC headquarters in Atlanta.
Weiner is on field assignment with the Oregon Department of Human Service’s Asthma Program and Tobacco Prevention and Education Program.
“My primary research effort is to determine asthma knowledge, skills and beliefs among people with asthma and caregivers of people with asthma in both rural and urban areas, and to gather information on their experiences with the health care system,” she says. “Another research effort is to develop and implement a Web-based ‘quit line’ service offering advice to deaf and hard-of-hearing consumers who are trying to stop smoking.”
Weiner also has been involved with two Oregon Health and Science University grants for enhancing health care access for people with disabilities, and is writing a grant proposal for implementing a video interpretation service for patients who have hearing loss or have limited English proficiency.
Weiner, who lives in Portland, enjoys the outdoors in all seasons, running 5K and 10K races, wine tasting in Oregon’s wine region and salsa dancing.
“RIT taught me that you can accomplish the things you want out of life: academics, socializing or professional growth,” Weiner says. “RIT was, for me, a place to gain access to my dreams.”
From the Spring/Summer 2007 issue of FOCUS magazine