A program directed by Consuelo Bonillas of West Windsor received a $875,000 grant from New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services for “Healthy Behaviors in Women and Families,” a new project at Kean University. Bonillas, the project director of “Juntas: Creating Healthy New Beginnings Together,” will develop educational, social, and lifestyle interventions that are culturally appropriate for helping 150 overweight Hispanic women maintain a healthy weight throughout their pregnancy. During the 12-month postpartum period the participants will be offered support for gradual weight loss, breastfeeding, and pregnancy spacing.
Bonillas, born and raised in Nogales, Arizona, has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Mt. St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles; a master’s degree in social psychology from Syracuse University; and a doctorate degree in human sexuality education from Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania.
“I used to work for a maternal/child health agency in Jersey City, and when I became a college professor, I knew that I wanted to continue to help women plan future pregnancies as well as help them experience a healthy pregnancy when they do become pregnant,” she says. Bonillas is an assistant professor of health education at Kean University in Union.
The five-year grant was awarded to Kean University to replicate the evidence-based program model “Reducing the Risk-Building Skills to Prevent Pregnancy, STD, and HIV” in Jersey City and Newark. High school youth (200 per city) between the ages of 14 and 18 will participate in 17 lessons during the school year. During the five-year funding period, at least 2,000 youth will participate in this program.
Four part-time community health educators will be hired to co-facilitate the lessons with the high school health teachers. Additional high school health teachers from each high school will be trained on the curriculum as well as Kean undergraduate students who plan to become high school health teachers in New Jersey.
Bonillas lived with her husband and two children in Jersey City from 1994 to 2002 before the family moved to West Windsor. “We loved the area and the wonderful school district,” she says. Their daughter is in eighth grade at Grover Middle School and their son in fifth grade at Village School.
