Game On! Using Sports Culture for Narrative Change

Thursday, September 19 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. Eastern

At RWJF, we wondered: can sports be an entry point for conversations about structural racism and health. The answer is yes.

New research commissioned by RWJF and conducted by PerryUndem and the Center for Advancing Innovative Policy (CAIP) reveals why and how sports can influence social issues. Research questions included:

• Do fans think sports can have social impact?

• What outlets are sports fans paying most attention to? 

• What actions are sports fans most likely to take?

• How does the diversity of players, coaches, and others in sports impact fans’ openness to talk about race and health? 

This webinar is for anyone interested in audience and message research, as well as narrative change strategy and working with influencers.

Speakers

Allyn Brooks-LaSure, vice president of communications, RWJF

Allyn has served as vice president, Communications at RWJF since 2020, leveraging more than 20 years of international communications, management, and policy experience. He leads the implementation of a high-impact communications strategy to support mindset changes and drive policies that address health equity.

Alisha Greenberg, sports culture advisor, RWJF

Alisha is an internationally recognized expert on sports for social impact and founder of Rounding Third LLC. For the past 22 years, she has been a key subject matter expert for RWJF serving as the director of prestigious award programs and now as sports culture advisor. 

Michael Perry, partner at PerryUndem

Through public opinion research, Mike seeks to bring the voices of those most affected by today’s issues into the policymaking process. He works mainly with non-profit organizations and foundations and has briefed Member of Congress, White House officials, state elected officials, journalists, activists, and others on his findings. He works on a variety of social issues but specializes in health care research.

Verónica Bayetti Flores, co-founder of Center for Advancing Innovative Policy (CAIP)

Verónica helps partners to think big about their policy change goals. She has led national policy and movement building work on the intersections of immigrants’ rights, health care access, young parenthood, police accountability, and LGBTQ liberation. She has worked with national, state, and local organizations to increase access to reproductive health care, reduce the harms of policing and immigration detention, and demanded access to safe public space for queer youth of color.

Eesha Pandit, co-founder of Center for Advancing Innovative Policy (CAIP)

Eesha brings over a decade of thought leadership and strategic communications around progressive policy. She has led policy, program, and communications work in innovative and groundbreaking ways that have shaped national and international movements. Eesha brings expertise and experience in hard policy analysis and the organizing and coalition-building required to effect policy change.

Moderator

Britt Musolino, communications associate, RWJF 
Britt joined RWJF in 2020 as a communications associate and leads the Foundation’s sports culture narrative work in addition to supporting internal employee engagement. With expertise in public interest communications, she uses narrative framing, audience research, and strategic messaging as tools to help RWJF meet its goals.