Ilana Reisz, Ph.D.

HEALTH CONTEXT LLC
Public Health Consulting
5233 Bellaire Blvd. Ste 120
Bellaire, TX 77401

Phone: 713.724.0644
Email: Ilana.Reisz@gmail.com
Web: www.healthcontext.net

Ilana is a native of Israel with a B.S from New York University, leading to a long and rewarding career as a physical therapist. Over the years she worked mostly with adults in varied health care environments, including a chronic pain clinic. While there she completed her studies and leading to an MA in psychology from the University of Houston at Clear Lake, on relationship of self-reported activity and pain before and after clinical treatment. 

Ilana was first introduced to post-modern theories while working on her doctorate at the University of Texas School of Public Health. Her research involved conversations with nine older African American women, in three different age cohorts, as they explored together their construction of aging and health. It was a rich experience that illustrated the power of openhearted dialogue to transcend racial, ethnic and other barriers, in shared discovery.

As a qualitative researcher, Ilana worked with community–based organizations and their funding and academic partners, on issues of social and health disparity. Along with local members of two communities, she helped to publish useful community-health reports that served as guides for funding and development.  She later served as a director for a collaborative project in which multiple agencies and organizations came together to develop a new model for community-based children’s mental health assessment and treatment.

As a consultant and as a community volunteer, Ilana continues to encourage collaborative practices by facilitating dialogues and hosting critical conversations.  In 2015, along with fellow Taos Institute Associates, Sue Levin, PhD of HGI, and Randall Butler, of The Institute for Sustainable Peace, she developed and hosted a successful public workshop titled: “How do we host multiple voices in powerful conversations about hard topics in Houston?” 


Ilana completed the International Certificate in Collaborative Practices (ICCP) program through the Houston Galveston Institute (HGI) in 2014, and attended 3 Intensive Summer Institutes (ISI) for exciting immersions into post-modern collaborative practices. She is a faculty member at HGI, and she remains in the conversation as a member of the HGI learning community, and gatherings of the Anderson Salon.

Ilana derives great joy from her role as a grandmother, and as an artist. A recent collection of her prints appears in the second issue of the literary online magazine Origins (Spring 2015).