SRPH Professor Named to Health Improvement Board

For Immediate Release
March 11, 2004
Ory – CHI
Contact: Andrea Pool at (979) 458-0773
Office of Communications
School of Rural Public Health
The Texas A&M University System
Health Science Center
http://www.srph.tamhsc.edu
Ory Appointed to National Board
Marcia Ory, Ph.D., professor in the department of social and behavioral health at The Texas A&M University System Health Science Center’s School of Rural Public Health, was appointed to the board of directors of the Center for Health Improvement (CHI) (formerly the California Center for Health Improvement), a national policy center based in Sacramento, California. Dr. Ory was one of three new appointees.
“Dr. Ory’s appointment gives her an opportunity to provide counsel on aging and health promotion topics,” said Ciro V. Sumaya, M.D., M.P.H.T.M., dean of the School of Rural Public Health. “I believe the board will benefit from her expertise, and we are proud to have her represent the School.”
The five-member board meets in-person in Sacramento twice per year and has two quarterly meetings by teleconference each year. The group’s web site (www.healthpolicycoach.org ) offers summaries of alternative policy directions for addressing key prevention and health promotion goals, and it has established working relationships and funding streams throughout California and nationally.
Founding chairman of CHI, Lester Breslow, M.D., M.P.H., former director of California’s State Health Department and former dean of UCLA’s School of Public Health, said that the organization is dedicated to advancing policies and providing technical assistance services that improve population health and encourage healthy behavior. Since its inception in 1995, CHI has achieved a reputation for excellence in framing public health issues based on the social determinants of health: our genetic makeup; our social and educational circumstances and achievements; the environment in which we live; our behavioral patterns; and the health services we receive. For further information on CHI, readers can visit www.chipolicy.org .
In addition to serving as a professor at SRPH, Dr. Ory serves as the coordinator for their Program on Aging and Health Promotion. She is also director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Office on Active for Life: Increasing Physical Activity for Persons Fifty Plus. Previously she was chief, Social Science Research on Aging, Behavioral and Social Research Program at the National Institute on Aging. Dr. Ory has published extensively on issues related to aging and public health, with special attention to strategies for health promotion/disease prevention across the life-course.
The Texas A&M University System Health Science Center provides the state with health education, outreach and research. Its five components located in communities throughout Texas are Baylor College of Dentistry, the College of Medicine, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, the Institute of Biosciences and Technology and the School of Rural Public Health.
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