  As young people grow and mature, the focus of school health education programs shifts from knowledge and information to skills. Young people who learn how to apply the knowledge they gain in elementary school are more successful in developing healthy and physically active lifestyles. Being able to identify and make healthy choices and respond appropriately to unhealthy situations applies knowledge in ways that improve health and prevent disease. |
In conjunction with the paid 81st Annual Meeting, we are holding two free workshops open to the public. Save the Date! March
10 HIV/AIDS Training Workshop
Intercontinental Harbor Court Hotel Hotel Reservations: You must request to be placed under the SSDHPER room block in order to receive the special group rate of $170/night plus tax. The deadline for reservations with this special rate is February 7, 2007. 2007 Honor Award Nomination Form Attendee and exhibitor/sponsors registration for the 81st Annual Meeting are now available. Online registration for members is coming soon. Keynote Speaker Dr. Joycelyn Elders, Former U.S. Surgeon General
Dr. Elders attended the University of Arkansas Medical School (UAMS) on the G.I. Bill. After graduation in 1960, she was an intern at the University of Minnesota Hospital in Minneapolis and did a pediatric residency and an endocrinology fellowship at the University of Arkansas Medical Center in Little Rock. She ascended the academic ladder to full professorship after her fellowship and board certification in 1976. She also holds a master of science degree in biochemistry. Dr. Elders joined the faculty at UAMS as a professor of pediatrics and received board certification as a pediatric endocrinologist in 1978. Based on her studies of growth in children and the treatment of hormone related illnesses, she has written many articles for medical research publications. She was appointed Director of the Arkansas Department of Health in October, 1987. While serving as director, she was elected president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officers. Nominated as Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service by President Clinton in July of 1993, she was sworn in on September 8. During the Senate hearings on her confirmation, Dr. Elders stated “I want to change the way we think about health by putting prevention first. I want to be the voice and vision of the poor and powerless. I want to change concern about social problems that affect health into commitment. And I would like to make every child born in America a wanted child”. Dr. Elders has been active in civic affairs as a member of the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce, Northside YMCA and Youth Homes. She was listed in “100 Outstanding Women in Arkansas”, “Personalities of the South” and “Distinguished Women in America”. She has won awards such as the Arkansas Democrat’s Woman of the Year, the National Governor’s Association Distinguished Service Award, the American Medical Association’s Dr. Nathan Davis Award, and the National Coalition of 100 Black Women’s Candace Award for Health Science. TOPICS INCLUDE:
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Former
U.S. Surgeon General, and the first African American woman to hold that
post, Dr. M. Joycelyn Elders is the eldest of eight children. Now a Distinguished
Professor of Public Health at the University of Arkansas, she never saw
a physician prior to her first year in college. At the age of fifteen,
she received a scholarship from the United Methodist Church to attend
Philander-Smith College in Little Rock, AR. Upon graduation at age 18,
she entered the U.S. Army as a first lieutenant where she received training
as a physical therapist.