Last modified: Monday, July 7, 2008
IU School of HPER creates new global health post, appoints Lloyd Kolbe
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 7, 2008
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- In a move to enhance its expanding global health initiatives, the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation at Indiana University Bloomington has created the position of associate dean for global and community health, appointing internationally known public health expert Lloyd Kolbe to the new post.
Kolbe, professor in the Department of Applied Health Science in the School of HPER, assumed the new role on July 1.
"HPER's relationships around the world have deepened considerably and are leading to promising and productive research collaborations," Robert M. Goodman, dean of the Schhool of HPER, said. "It is truly a privilege to have someone of Dr. Kolbe's stature leading the school's efforts in global and community health. This is a very exciting time for HPER and Indiana University."
The School of HPER has formal agreements with nearly two dozen institutions of higher learning throughout the globe, in nations that include Turkey, China, India, Thailand, Hungary, England, Singapore, Taiwan, Scotland, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Wales and Australia.
Kolbe, Goodman and other top administrators of the School of HPER traveled to China last month to visit partner universities and to sign or renew agreements with six universities, including Peking University School of Public Health, the Chinese University of Hong Kong School of Public Health, Beijing Sport University and Shanghai Sports University. The School of HPER also renewed an agreement with Taiwan National Sports University.
The School of HPER's international initiatives take various forms, such as student and faculty exchanges and research collaborations. Kolbe, for example, was asked by the Chinese government to help implement its "Sunny Sports China" initiative, which requires 1.6 million schools across China to offer daily physical activity for the country's 320 million students. Recreational sports experts in the School of HPER are involved in youth programs in war-torn and impoverished countries. Faculty work to improve mental health and sexual health conditions in Europe and Africa.
Earlier this year the School of HPER and IU signed an agreement with the Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo, the oldest university in the Western Hemisphere, with the intention of exploring ways to expand upon the ongoing archaeology research projects involving the School of HPER's Underwater Science Program, which has created underwater parks for the Dominican Republic and is investigating the wreckage of what is believed to be Captain Kidd's Quedagh Merchant.
Kolbe said Indiana University's International Strategic Plan is "extraordinary."
"It has positioned IU to become a global university, to help solve serious global problems, and to do so in ways that will contribute to the vitality and prominence of the state of Indiana," Kolbe said. "Among the most serious of those problems are global health threats that neither recognize geopolitical boundaries nor can be resolved by single disciplines, agencies or nations independently."
Kolbe served as the founding director of the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Adolescent and School Health before coming to IU Bloomington in 2003. Illustrative of his international leadership, Kolbe has been appointed visiting professor at Beijing Medical University; U.S. lead for Health Promotion within the U.S.-Russian Joint Commission on Economic and Technological Cooperation; chairman of the World Health Organization Expert Committee on School Health Programs; member of the White House Delegation to Assess HIV Prevention in Uganda; executive committee member of the Global Think Tank to Control the Obesity Pandemic; and has helped improve adolescent and school health programs in 22 nations.
For more information, contact Debra Kent 812-855-3686 and dskent@indiana.edu.
