American Academy of Health Behavior

 
 
 

 

    Inside The Academy:
    Profiling Dr. Mary S. Sutherland

      Robert J. McDermott, PhD
      Inside The Academy,  Editor  

In this issue, Inside the Academy profiles Dr. Mary S. Sutherland, Professor of Health Education at Florida State University, where she holds appointments in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and the Department of Human Services and Studies. Dr. Sutherland earned her EdD in 1973 from the University of Alabama with a specialization in health, physical education and recreation, focusing further in school health education. She went on to receive an MPH degree in community health and health planning from the University of Tennessee. Previously, she had been awarded an MS degree in physical education from the University of Tennessee, and a BS degree from Michigan State University. Her first postdoctoral appointment was in the Department of Health Science at the State University of New York, Brockport, where she served as coordinator of the school health education program (1974-77). Of some significance is that during her tenure at SUNY-Brockport Dr. Sutherland's path crossed those of three health educators who would later, also make important contributions to health education, Academy members David F Duncan, Robert S Gold, and William Zimmerli, as well as other notables. On a personal note, I heard her former students, as well as a number of my own colleagues and co-workers speak about Mary Sutherland with admiration, respect, and a real fondness many years before I had the pleasure of making her acquaintance.


From New York, Dr Sutherland took her professional preparation skills to the Maine Health Education Resource Center, simultaneously holding a faculty appointment as Associate Professor at the University of Maine at Farmington (1978-80). During this time she became one of the architects of a plan for a school health education program for the state of Maine. Her career path brought her south in 1980 to become a "Seminole" at Florida State University, where she has kept the health education torch burning for more than 20 years. During her FSU days she has been a key individual in meeting the health and health education needs of Florida's diverse burgeoning population, as her research and community projects illustrate.

Her curriculum vitae identifies a vast litany of awards, citations, and special recognitions, just a portion of which can be presented here. Dr Sutherland became a Fellow of the American Academy of Health Behavior in 1998. She was cited by the American School Health Association (1998) for outstanding achievement in prevention research. She was twice (1992, 1995) presented a Secretary's Excellence Award for Health Promotion (US Department of Health and Human Services). Several of her funded programs have been recognized officially by local and regional organizations for excellence in three different decades. Dr Sutherland is also the recipient (1982) of the Joseph Y. Porter Award, the most prestigious recognition given to an individual by the Florida Public Health Association.

Dr Sutherland has been the principal investigator or co-investigator of close to 40 grants and contracts including ones from federal, state, and private sources. The cumulative funding for these projects exceeds $3 million. She also has coauthored more than 50 papers in peer-reviewed journals. Her list of technical reports, archived documents, abstracts, and articles appearing in newsletters and other sources includes hundreds of titles. She has been an invited speaker for state, regional, and national meetings some 50 times, and has made approximately 100 research and other presentations at professional meetings.

Dr Sutherland's research has multiple foci and crosses the literature of several disciplines. Although her early career endeavors were focused in the area of school health and especially, in curriculum development, her work for approximately the past 15 years has examined the health needs of rural populations, particularly older adults and African Americans. It has built upon and contributed to a known body of literature related to coalition development, adding the dimension of using church hierarchies to empower African American groups. Beyond her research, Dr Sutherland has served the profession for close to 25 years as an office holder in all of the major health education professional organizations, and as a reviewer of grant applications for several funding agencies. Despite her many accolades as a researcher and scholar, though, her human qualities as teacher, mentor, colleague, and friend overshadow the rest.

Dr Sutherland demonstrates emphatically that professional success is a function of perseverance, discipline, and devotion to a belief in achievement. Hard work and a commitment to excellence, rather than flamboyance, guide her professional values. From Michigan to Tennessee to Alabama, and from New York to Maine to Florida, Dr Sutherland has personified this commitment. To follow her example is a guarantee of attainment well beyond the ordinary. We are proud to present this outstanding individual Inside the Academy.

Am J Health Behav 2001;25(5):502-503

 
 
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