Brett A. Niessen
Affiliate Instructor, Health Systems and Population Health
Health Education Consultant II, Seattle Children’s Hospital
Independent Consultant, Self-employed
Research Interests
Comprehensive sex education; bullying prevention; teen access to health care; education of incarcerated youth; HIV/STD/teen pregnancy prevention; healthy relationships; trauma-informed sexual health education; enthusiastic consent; LGBTQ and youth of color inclusion in sex ed; reducing youth health disparities; health education, health literacy, and plain language
Bio
Brett Niessen is an affiliate instructor in the Department of Health Systems and Population Health and a faculty member at the Northwest Public Health–Primary Care Leadership Institute. He works as a health education consultant at Seattle Children’s Hospital and as an independent consultant working with school districts to implement sexual health education curricula. He was a training manager at the nonprofit Cardea Services, where he developed continuing medical education and provided training and technical assistance to school districts and community-based programs on teen pregnancy and HIV/STD prevention and healthy relationships. He also worked at Public Health – Seattle & King County in the HIV/STD Program, serving as a project manager for marketing campaigns in cooperation with several community‑based agencies, and in the Family Planning Program as a teacher trainer, curriculum writer and youth development specialist. Previously, Niessen was a middle school science teacher and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Thailand, where he trained health teachers. He earned his MPH at the UW in the COPHP program.
Education
MPH Community Oriented Public Health Practice, University of Washington, 2007
BS Elementary Education, Special Education, University of Delaware, 1998