Linda Riddell
Epidemiologist & Creator of Gettin’ By — helping organizations understand poverty from the inside out
Profile
Linda Riddell, MS
Linda Riddell is an epidemiologist specializing in poverty. Writing about and presenting brain science concepts has been a focal point for her work. From her years working as an epidemiologist and specializing in poverty, she created “Gettin’ By”, a training program to help professionals work more effectively with low-income people. The centerpiece of the program is a game that puts the players’ brains through the same changes that happen to a person living in poverty.
In 2019, after five years of testing and development, she brought the program to national and regional conferences. She is an experienced and enthusiastic public speaker. She speaks at several events each year and gets positive reviews.
Her undergraduate degree is in English from the University of Cincinnati. She earned her master’s degree in health policy and management at the University of Southern Maine, Muskie School for Public Service. She has also completed courses at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in social epidemiology and biostatistics.
Inquire About BookingSpeaking Topics
Why helpful programs fail
Many well-intentioned, carefully planned programs fail because the designers receive help in a different way than the target group. The answer is not that the target group needs to change its ways and become more like “us”. Given the same poverty situation, the designers would cope in the very same way.
This talk covers how all human brains change the way they work when overwhelmed. Effective help programs need to reach people who are thinking very differently than the program managers.
Poverty changes the brain and that changes everything
This session includes a 30-minute demonstration in which the audience experiences for themselves how their thinking changes under the pressure of scarcity. The Gettin’ By game took five years of testing to develop and fine tune. It has been played by hundreds of people and has been shown to significantly shift attitudes toward poverty.
After playing, we cover the three ways that poverty changes the brain and practical ways to make help more helpful to a person coping with poverty.
Who Linda Speaks To
“Both playing the game and listening to the information you shared was very eye-opening. This was one of the best trainings I have participated in.”
Formats & Logistics
“Ready to bring a perspective that changes how your team sees poverty and the people they serve?”
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