Network Interventions: Engaging Social Networks to Accelerate Diffusion, Improve Performance and Speed Organizational Change

Social networks are important sources of influence on many personal, organizational, community, and societal behaviors.

Thomas W. Valente, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, at the University of Southern California. He is the author of Social Networks and Health: Models, Methods, and Applications; Evaluating Health Promotion Programs; Network Models of the Diffusion of Innovations; and over 250 articles and chapters on social networks, behavior change, and program evaluation. Valente uses social network analysis, health communication, and mathematical models to implement and evaluate health promotion programs designed to prevent tobacco and substance abuse, unintended fertility, STD/HIV infections, physician behavior, and policy diffusion.

He is currently working on specifications for analyzing network models of diffusion and contagion with the R package NetdiffuseR. Valente is also well-known for his work networks for intervention and implementation. Valente is the director of the USC Center for Applied Network Analysis. He has received the numerous national and international awards as well as teaching and mentoring ones. Valente earned his BS in Mathematics from the University of Mary Washington, his MS in Mass Communication from San Diego State University, and his PhD from the Annenberg School for Communication at USC. From 1991 to 2000 he was a faculty member at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. He is a consultant in the private sector working with pharmaceutical companies and organization change managers.