Our Staff

Tammi A. Tannura

Community Health

University of Illinois Extension
Enterprise Center
2205 Enterprise Drive, Suite 501
Westchester, IL 60154
Phone:
FAX: 708-492-1805
treynold@illinois.edu

Tammi A. Tannura is currently a community health educator in Cook County, and has experience as a substance abuse prevention specialist, health education teacher, and HIV/STD educator and counselor. Ms. Tannura also has taught health education and community health courses at Elmhurst College, Northern Illinois University and Benedictine University. Her community health interests include early childhood health education, breast cancer awareness, putting theory to practice, behavior change, human sexuality, and creative teaching methods.

Tammi earned her bachelor of science degree in school health education from Western Illinois University and her MSEd in community health from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. She holds professional memberships with the Illinois Society for Public Health Education, the Illinois School Health Association, and Eta Sigma Gamma, the National Health Sciences Honorary.

Ms. Tannura has had two teaching ideas published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Health Education, and two community health programs published in Extension In Action. She champions the words of Ernest Boyer who once said, "No knowledge is more crucial than knowledge about health. Without it, no other life goal can be successfully achieved."

Program Offerings

Girls ROCK! (Realizing Our Capabilities through Knowledge)

The Girls ROCK! is a female specific health education program that focuses on the physical and mental well-being of girls. Topics addressed include alcohol, smoking, addiction, body image, healthy relationships and relationship abuse.

Healthy Habits for Every Child

The goal of Healthy Habits for Every child is to help children make healthy lifestyle choices and develop good health habits. The Healthy Habits for Every Child program addresses hand-washing, passing germs, oral health, basic hygiene and healthy eating.

R.I.S.K. (Real Issues of a Sexual Kind)

RISK is a simulation activity and guided discussion that provides teens with a visual understanding of the costs associated with sexual behavior. The purpose of RISK is to impact the beliefs and attitudes teens have about sexual risk-taking.

Breast Cancer Awareness

The On the Road to Breast Cancer Prevention program was developed in an effort to provide women and teen girls with messages that are likely to persuade them to take healthy actions regarding their breast health. Participants learn how the breasts work, what increases their chance for breast cancer, how and why to examine their breasts, what to do if they find a lump in their breast and what happens during a mammogram.

The U and I Aware of Breast Cancer program is a two-hour workshop that focuses on early detection methods. The overall goal of the program is for participants to leave the program knowing how to properly conduct a breast self-exam using the MammaCare® method. This method teaches women to detect, not diagnose, changes in their own breast tissue during their breast self-exam. The MammaCare® method was developed with the support of the National Cancer Institute and is the recognized standard for performing and teaching breast examination.