Suzanne Teran, MPH

Suzanne Teran, MPH

Associate Director

Biography

Suzanne Teran is LOHP’s Associate Director and has focused much of her work on addressing immigrant workers’ health and safety and developing a variety of strategies to improve working conditions. She has extensive experience developing participatory training programs and low-literacy materials in Spanish and English, and conducting qualitative research through research partnerships with community and worker organizations. She enjoys the “mix” that LOHP provides, being able to work with advocacy organizations and workers in various industries – including domestic work, construction, day labor, agriculture, and janitorial – as well as the variety in the type of work she carries out: direct training, “training of trainers,” building the capacity of organizations that reach and support workers, delving into new areas such as social marketing and communications campaigns, and linking the work to policy. She has an MPH in Community Health Education from UC Berkeley and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Yale University.

Her recent work includes facilitating the SB321 State Advisory Committee that developed guidelines and policy recommendations to protect household service workers, conducting research to better understand occupational chemical exposures among domestic workers, hotel housekeepers and janitors, training on climate hazards such as heat and wildfire smoke, and research to evaluate the effectiveness of a worker resiliency center as a workplace violence prevention strategy. Ms. Teran teaches the class Social Justice and Worker Health at Berkeley Public Health.

Projects/Areas of Expertise 

COVID-19 Workplace Outreach Project; Workplace Violence Resiliency Center Evaluation; Domestic Workers; Heat Illness Prevention; Spanish-language Training

Publications

  1. Taking Action for Safety and Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic, a multimedia video project capturing strategies to improve working conditions, with Alejandra Domenzain, 2022.

  2. Teran S, Domenzain, A: “Needs Assessment Report: Improving outreach and education efforts for California Farmworkers.” Prepared for the California Department of Industrial Relations and the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, December 2020

  3. Teran S, Osorio L, Barton-Antonio D, Castañeda X: “Exploring Agriculture Workers’ Exposure to and Experience with Wildfires.” Prepared for the UC Davis Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety, July 2020

  4. Teran S: “Labor and Climate Change – A Curriculum for Union Leaders.” Produced for the UC Berkeley Labor Center, June 2017

  5. Teran S, vanDommelen-Gonzalez E: “Workload in California’s Janitorial Industry: An Emerging Health and Safety Concern.” Prepared for the California Commission for Health and Safety and Workers’ Compensation, December 2016.

  6. Teran S, Blecker H, Scruggs K, Garcia Hernandez J, Rahke B. 2015. Promoting Adoption of Fall Prevention Measures Among Latino Workers and Residential Contractors: Formative Research Findings. Am J Ind Med. Epub ahead of print May 26.
  7. Boatman L, Chapman D, Teran S. 2015. Creating the Climate for Making Ergonomic Changes. CPWR report. 81 pgs.

  8. Teran S, Strochlic R, Chang C. 2013. California Heat Illness Prevention Campaign 2012: Final Performance and Evaluation Report. Produced for the California Department of Industrial Relations.

  9. Pinedo M, Castañeda X, Teran S. 2011. Occupational Health and Safety among Latinos in the United States (Policy Brief). Health Initiative of the Americas, University of California Berkeley School of Public Health.

  10. Teran, S., Baker, R., Sum, J. 2002. Improving health and safety conditions for California’s immigrant workers: Report and recommendations of the California Working Immigrant Safety and Health Coalition. Berkeley, CA: Labor Occupational Health Program, University of California.