American Academy of Health Behavior

 
 
 

 

Closing Comments of the Second Scientific Meeting of the American Academy of Health Behavior

Chudley E. Werch, PhD, FAAHB
Good morning. I was asked to provide some closing comments and to share with you my vision for The Academy during the next year. At this time, I wish to take several minutes to thank some very important people who have made the dream of the American Academy of Health Behavior and this Scientific Meeting of The Academy possible, and secondly, to make a few comments about my vision for the future of The Academy as its second President.
 
First and foremost, I’d like to thank Dr. Elbert D. Glover, for it was his foresight and courage to take the first step that resulted in the birth of what is the American Academy of Health Behavior. Under Dr. Glover’s leadership, a solid foundation has been laid for the continued growth of The Academy, and our shared vision has been shaped which will serve as a compass for future Academy accomplishments. Since 1997, Dr. Glover has served as the founding father and President of The Academy, during which time we have successfully held two unparalleled Scientific Meetings, developed and upgraded bylaws and procedures from which to operate The Academy, created an Academy listserve for the membership to communicate essential information, developed a solid membership base, presented two Research Laureate Awards to honor the scientific accomplishments of nationally renowned scientists, and identified the American Journal of Health Behavior as the premier journal of The Academy. We owe Dr. Glover an enormous debt of gratitude. Gratitude not solely for his ingenuity in creating The Academy, but also for his perseverance, tireless effort and personal sacrifice to ensure that the American Academy of Health Behavior was built on a sound foundation. Without question, Dr. Glover has committed more time, thought and financial resources to The Academy than all of the rest of us combined. For example, without Dr. Glover’s significant financial contributions it is doubtful whether we would have been able to get this organization off the ground, let alone hold the inaugural Scientific Meeting of The Academy in Santa Fe, NM in September of 2000. In a sense, the Academy has been Dr. Glover’s baby, and now its time for the rest of us to see it safely raised through adolescence and into adulthood by our continued perseverance, careful attention and hard work.
 
As I mentioned earlier, Dr. Glover has served as The Academy’s first President since its inception in 1997, and as The Academy’s President-Elect/Vice-President during this entire time, I’d like to thank Dr.Glover for finally giving me the opportunity to serve as the President of The Academy. There were times when I wasn’t entirely sure Dr. Glover would ever hand over the reigns of the Presidency over to me. The good news is that I may be the most experienced Vice President ever to hold a Presidential office in the history of health education and health promotion. The truth is, of course, that I don’t know how one adequately follows the founder of an organization as prestigious as the American Academy of Health Behavior, except to say that as its second President, I’ll continue to build on the foundation laid by Dr. Glover and the original Founding Members.
 
At this time, I’d like to express my heartfelt gratitude to a number of other very important individuals and groups who made this second Scientific Meeting a stimulating and joyful experience, and one which I think we are all very proud, including: (a) the Program Chair, Dennis Thombs; (b) the Conference Chair and Executive Director, Terri Manning; (c) the Academy’s Executive Committee; (d) the Board of Directors; (e) the invited speakers; (f) the poster research participants; (g) those who volunteered their valuable time and talents to ensure a successful meeting, including Penny Glover and Connie Cerullo from West Virginia University, and Melissa Wezniak, Joan Carlson and Edessa Jobli from the University of North Florida; and (h) all of the attendees who took a chance by flying and driving sometimes great distances during a time in which many Americans still have considerable anxiety about traveling. Once again, thanks very much for the wonderful service provided by those rotating off from the Board of Directors, including Molly Laflin, Mark Kittleson, Terri Manning, Patricia Mail, Robert McDermott and Dennis Thombs, and to those new Board members coming on-line this year, including Robert McDermott, Mary Dinger, James Price, Dennis Thombs, Bruce Simons-Morton, Robert Valois, Bradley Boekeloo and Karen Liller.
 
A few years ago the Board of Directors of The Academy requested that I write a paper outlining the purpose and potential of The Academy. In that paper, which was published in the American Journal of Health Behavior, I raised the question “What Use, the American Academy of Health Behavior?”1 With a rather large body of professional associations serving the health education and health promotion professional, is there a use for yet another? Back then I answered that it was too early to answer this question with certainty. Today, I believe there is accumulating evidence that the answer to this question is yes. Yes, there is a critical need for a professional association dedicated exclusively to the advancement of science in health education and health promotion. Yes, because The Academy remains the only professional organization designated as “a society of distinguished researchers and scholars in the areas of health behavior, health education or health promotion.”2 Yes, because reviews of health promotion literature have shown that much of the research produced is lacking in terms of sophistication, breadth and quality, and that research is known to be critical to the advancement of the practice of health education and promotion.3-8 Yes, because of the early successes of The Academy, including exceptional Scientific Meetings and a solid, growing membership base. And yes, because there have been calls to establish a research agenda for the health education profession, synthesize health education research, and establish profession-wide standards of practice or protocols for research.9
 
As the second President of the American Academy of Health Behavior, it is my intention to be a good steward of the spirit of The Academy. That spirit which emanates from the seminal dream to create and nourish the first and only professional association dedicated exclusively to the health education and health promotion researcher. This was the dream of Dr. Glover, but also of each of the 33 Founding Members of The Academy, and today, it is the dream of over 100 Qualified, Associate and Affiliate Members of The Academy, and I suspect, many of you attending this second Scientific Meeting. As the new President of the American Academy of Health Behavior, I pledge my energies and talents to continue OUR shared dream. The dream being to protect and expand the home for those actively engaged in health education, promotion and behavior research, as well as those who are consumers of such critical research. Our mission remains constant, that being: “To advance the practice of health education and health promotion through health behavior research,”2 and I promise to continue the work of so many of you here today to stay the course toward the successful achievement of this essential mission.
 
We have much work to do during the next year. For one thing, we have another Scientific Meeting to plan. The third Scientific Meeting will be held in St. Augustine, Florida, the country’s oldest city and one of the most picturesque, quaint and beautiful locations along the southeastern seaboard. In addition, we must continue the work begun here at this meeting, to map out a national research agenda related to health education, health promotion and health behavior. To do this, we will need to engage an even larger segment of the many talented, experienced researchers within and outside of The Academy, including our Academy Fellows and all Academy members, in a dialogue about the future of the American Academy of Health Behavior, and the role of The Academy as the nation’s leading research organization dedicated to the advancement of health education and health promotion, through health behavior research.
 
I cannot continue our shared dream of a strong Academy without your continued and growing support. As the new President I will not only seek your assistance, but must rely on it. We have too much important work to conduct that has critical implications for the advancement of our profession. Therefore, one of my primary objectives in the coming year will be to delegate key tasks to those ready to help us make progress toward meeting The Academy’s stated objectives. The Academy is blessed, through her membership, with a wealth of great minds, extraordinary experience and skills, and tremendous energy. I literally can’t do the work of The Academy alone, and therefore call on your giving spirit to volunteer your time, talents and financial resources to The Academy this year.
 
In addition, we must look outside of The Academy to make critical linkages with scientific, governmental and health agencies to strengthen the financial and intellectual foundation of The Academy, and achieve the objectives we’ve set out to accomplish. In closing, I’d like to again thank Dr. Glover who will in history be forever recognized as the father of the American Academy of Health Behavior, our Executive Committee and Board of Directors, the Program and Conference Chairs for this year’s meeting, and all those who participated in this year’s meeting and in the operation of The Academy throughout the year. I look forward to working with those of you who wish to ensure an even greater Scientific Meeting next year, and those who would like to participate in planning a strong future for The Academy.
 
Lastly, I would like to once again call upon our shared work ethic, and request that those who have an interest in keeping the dream of The Academy alive over the next year to please contact me. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Have a safe trip home, and see you all again next year at our third Scientific Meeting on March 16-19, 2003 in St. Augustine, Florida!
 
REFERENCES
 
1.Werch CE. Editorial: what use, the American Academy of Health Behavior? Am J Health Behav 2000;24(1):3-5.
2.American Academy of Health Behavior. Bylaws. American Academy of Health Behavior Website. 2001. Available at: http://www.aahb.org/bylaws.htm. Accessed November 2, 2001.
3.Aldana S. Financial impact of worksite health promotion programs. The Art of Health Promotion 1998;2:1-8.
4.Oldenburg BF, Sallis JE, French ML, et al. Health promotion research and the diffusion and institutionalization of interventions. Health Education Research 1999;14(1):121-130.
5.Rychetnik L, Nutbeam D, Hawe P. Lessons from a review of publications in three health promotion journals from 1989 to 1994. Health Education Research 1997;12(4):491-504.
6. Green J, Tones K. Towards a secure evidence base for health promotion. J Public Health Med 1999;21(2):133-139.
7.Nutbeam D. Achieving ‘best practice’ in health promotion: improving the fit between research and practice. Health Education Research 1996;11(3):317-326.
8.MacDonald D, Veen C, Tones K. Evidence for success in health promotion: suggestions for improvement. Health Education Research 1996;11(3):367-376.
9.Neiger BL, Barnes MD, Lindsay GB, et al. Unifying research and practice in health education: analysis and comparison of two consensus conferences. Health Promotion Practice 2000;1(2):168-177.

Am J Health Behav 2002;26(6):504-509
 
 
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