Last modified: Tuesday, April 24, 2007
CDC honors school health leaders with award named for IU public health expert
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 24, 2007
Lloyd Kolbe, professor in the Department of Applied Health Science at Indiana University Bloomington
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The national Centers for Disease Contol and Prevention (CDC) awarded the first Lloyd J. Kolbe Award for Leadership in Coordinated School Health to one of its partner organizations, the U.S. State Directors of Health Promotion and Education.
The award honors Kolbe, now a professor at Indiana University, where he chairs the Department of Applied Health Science's School and Community Health Promotion Program. The CDC award, to be given annually, was inauguated today to honor Kolbe as the founding director of the CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH), which he led for 18 years before coming to IU Bloomington. The timing also commemorates the 20th anniversary of the publication of a landmark article by Kolbe and public health expert Diane Allensworth. The article described a framework that since has been adopted globally to help schools implement effective means to improve the lives of school students and employees.
Coordinated school and college health programs purposefully integrate school health education, services, environments, physical activity, nutrition and school employee programs. Parents, students and concerned community organizations work together within this framework to improve health, educational and social outcomes. Kolbe recently contemporized this 20-year-old framework in the August 2005 issue of the Journal of School Health.
Kolbe said he could not have been more honored and "touched" than to have a CDC award named after him, considering the tremendous work the CDC continues to do every year to improve the lives of populations within and outside of the U.S.
"The award is more of a testament to DASH and other CDC staff who worked untiringly and closely with many influential partner organizations that were committed to improving the health, productivity and quality of life of our young people and the school employees who serve them," he said.
The Kolbe Award-winning Directors of Health Promotion and Education represents 66 directors of U.S. state and territorial health department and Indian Health Service health education units. It conducts programs and promotes policy development in numerous public health areas. DHPE received the award on April 24 at the Annual CDC School Partners Conference in Atlanta, which Kolbe attended to present the Award.
Professor Kolbe is an internationally known expert on research and policies to improve child and adolescent health, education and social outcomes.
For more information, contact Tracy James, IU Media Relations, 812-855-0084 and traljame@indiana.edu.
