Faculty Achievement in Community Engagement Awards
The College of Public Health Board of Advisors Award for Faculty Achievement in Community Engagement acknowledges outstanding accomplishments of a CPH faculty member engaged in community service efforts aimed beyond the University. The award is presented annually in appreciation for the College of Public Health faculty’s continued commitment to the application of theory, research and practice to address public health challenges at the community level in Iowa and beyond.
2011 Award Recipient
David Osterberg
David Osterberg, clinical associate professor of occupational and environmental health, has been devoted to environmental health outreach and education in both Iowa and the rural Midwest throughout his career. At the College of Public Health, Osterberg's research interests include environmental conservation and health, renewable energy, and sustainabilty. He is director of community outreach and education programs for the Environmental Health Sciences Research Center and the Superfund Basic Research Program. In these roles, he has delivered numerous community presentations on environmental health issues, such as renewable energy and the hazards of coal-fired power plants. This work has reached K-12 students, undergraduate and graduate students, city and state governmental bodies, and community organizations. Osterberg is also a dedicated mentor and serves as faculty advisor to several student groups that are working on sustainabilty and environmental issues, such as the ECO Hawks, a student organization focused on waste reduction and recycling at the University of Iowa. Prior to his time at the University, Osterberg served for 12 years in the Iowa General Assembly, chairing both the House Committee on Agriculture and the House Committee on Energy and Environmental Protections.
Previous Award Recipients
2010: Linda Snetselaar
Linda Snetselaar, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology and endowed chair of Preventive Nutrition Education, has focused her work on the relationships between diet and cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and renal disease. She is the director of the Nutrition Center and co-director of the Preventive Intervention Center, both based in the College of Public Health. Several of her current research projects focus on promoting health and reducing obesity among children, including working with schoolchildren in Muscatine and Fort Dodge, Iowa, to promote nutritious eating habits and enhance physical activity. This project is built upon concerns identified at the community level and supported by community partners, ranging from local school officials and health care providers to business leaders and parents. At the University of Iowa, Snetselaar has served on numerous committees, including the faculty senate, faculty council, research council, and elections committee. She also has served on numerous National Institutes of Health study section panels and has held multiple roles within the American Dietetic Association, including serving on its board of directors and its executive committee.
2009: Kathryn Chaloner
Kathryn Chaloner, Ph.D., professor and head of the Department of Biostatistics, has made great contributions in strengthening and enhancing diversity at The University of Iowa College of Public Health. She is chair of the College of Public Health Diversity Committee, which focuses on recruitment and retention of minority students, outreach to minority communities and minority-serving institutions, and strategies to improve the climate for diversity across the college. Chaloner also helped found the Biostatistics Summer Initiative, a seven-week program that provides biostatistical training and applied research opportunities for underrepresented minority students. She serves as a mentor for the National Alliance for Doctoral Studies in the Mathematical Sciences, which encourages and provides support for underrepresented minority undergraduates to pursue graduate degrees in the mathematical sciences.
2008: Charles F. Lynch
Charles F. Lynch, M.D., Ph.D., University of Iowa professor of epidemiology, has made significant research contributions in bladder cancer diagnosis, lymphoma etiology, and risk of cancer related to environmental exposures. As medical director of the State Health Registry of Iowa, he oversees a statewide staff that conducts cancer surveillance in Iowa and reports to the National Cancer Institute. Lynch directs the Iowa field station participating in the Agricultural Health Study, a long-term study of agricultural exposures and chronic diseases among farmers. Lynch embraced the concept of academic service to the community through leadership, clinical practice and educational outreach. For many years, he has been interacting with community, county and state medical societies, as well as nursing, histology, cytology, and tumor registrars’ organizations, and local hospital oncology programs, making over 150 presentations.
2007: Peter E. Nathan
Peter E. Nathan, University of Iowa Foundation Distinguished Professor of Psychology and professor of community and behavioral health, has conducted groundbreaking work in the recognition and treatment of alcohol abuse and other addictive behaviors, including a focus on binge drinking of undergraduate students. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, more than 20 books or monographs, and more than 90 chapters in scholarly books. At the local level, Nathan is an active member of the Iowa City Alcohol Awareness Work Group. He has provided testimony to the city council and presented information to community organizations in an effort to intervene in underage and excessive alcohol consumption in Iowa City.
2006: Christopher G. Atchison
Christopher G. Atchison, clinical professor of health management and policy, has made a career of providing service to communities across Iowa and beyond. As the College of Public Health's associate dean for public health practice, Atchison oversees numerous public health practice outreach and training activities and leads collegiate interactions with the public health practice community. He is also the director of two collegiate centers - the Upper Midwest Center for Public Health Preparedness and the Upper Midwest Public Health Training Center. Atchison has provided leadership to many organizations at the state and regional levels, including the State of Iowa’s Prevention of Disabilities Policy Council and Child and Family Policy Council. Nationally, he is the program director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's State Health Leadership Initiative, on the governing boards of the Community Campus Partnerships for Health and the National Academy for State Health Policy, and is the current chair of HRSA’s National Public Health Training Center Network.
2005: Laurence Fuortes
Laurence Fuortes, M.D., professor of occupational and environmental health, leads numerous projects with major community service components, including programs focused on pesticide toxicology, traumatic head and spinal cord injury, and his direction of the Burlington Atomic Energy Commission Plant-Former Worker Program (BAECP-FWP). Fuortes has also been an active member of many community-based organizations in the Iowa City area, including the Iowa City Free Medical Clinic, the Iowa City Crisis Center and Foodbank, the Johnson County Coalition Against Tobacco Addiction Among Youth, and the Salvation Army. In 2002, Fuortes was the recipient of a Fulbright Research/Lectureship Award, which he used to conduct tuberculosis surveillance and prevention research and teach medical students in community health at the University of Natal in South Africa