Society For Public Health Education Research Articles

Utilizing Local Professional Association Chapters as Pathways for Leadership Development.

In 2019, there was no entity specifically dedicated to health promotion and education practitioners in Connecticut or New England. This made it difficult for health promotion practitioners and students to network, collaborate, and engage in professional development. The purpose of this article is to share our experiences developing the new Connecticut Chapter of the Society for Public Health Education (CT SOPHE), including how we leveraged student interns during the first two years to promote organizational growth. To build our membership, it was important to determine who would be interested in joining CT SOPHE and so we focused on three groups: the current workforce/professionals, future workforce/students, and future leaders/interns. Over the course of these two years, three interns were recruited to help with creating a needs assessment (MPH student) and program development (two BS students); the organization was established by an MPH student as her internship project. Three former interns share how their experience working with the CT SOPHE board has helped them develop crucial leadership skills early in their careers. Embedding student interns into the framework and operations of CT SOPHE demonstrates an intentional and strategic commitment to the sustainability of both the organization and the workforce.

Approaches to Advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Journal Publishing

SPEAKERS: Leonard Jack, Jr, PhD, MSc Editor in Chief, Preventing Chronic Disease Atlanta, Georgia @CDCPCD Sumi Sexton, MD Editor in Chief, American Family Physician Arlington, Virginia @ssextonmd Jesus Ramirez-Valles, PhD, MPH Editor in Chief, Health Education & Behavior San Francisco, California @JRamirezValles Alfredo Morabia, MD, PhD, MPH Editor in Chief, American Journal of Public Health New York, New York @AlfredoMorabia REPORTER: Amy King Editorial Coordinator American Society of Clinical Oncology Alexandria, Virginia At the CSE 2022 Annual Meeting, Leonard Jack, Jr, PhD, secured and led a panel of four journal Editors-in-Chief (EICs) who spoke on establishing and sustaining the expansion of diversity, equitable decision making, and a culture of inclusion in scholarly communications and between journal publishing professionals. These four EICs shared diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts and approaches, particularly addressing the issues of racism and sexism, being implemented at their respective journals. Dr Jack, co-chair of the CSE DEI committee, introduced the panel in person, while the rest of the panelists joined remotely. Dr Jack, EIC of Preventing Chronic Disease: Public Health Research, Practice & Policy (PCD), a journal housed in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), introduced himself and the other three panelists, Sumi Makkar Sexton, MD, EIC of American Family Physician (AFP), Jesus Ramirez-Valles, PhD, EIC of Health Education & Behavior (HE&B) at the Society for Public Health Education, and Alfredo Morabia, MD, EIC of the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH). Dr Sexton started the session off with a presentation on anti-racist […]

Competency Focused Versus Philosophically Grounded Health Promotion Practice: Impacts on Innovation and Addressing Health Inequities

The professionalization of the fields of health education and health promotion has largely coincided with the completion of job task analysis conducted by major organizations in the field (e.g., the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing, Society for Public Health Education). The process through which these job task analyses and skill-based competencies are implemented in professional preparation programs poses a risk to stifle advancement and innovation in health education and promotion. In this perspective, we discuss Competency Focused Practice (the current state of the field) to a goal of Philosophically Grounded Practice. We provide comparisons of the implications of these two schools of thought with respect to ethics, social determinants of health, and practical methods in health education and promotion.

Toward a Culture of Health in the United States: Introducing the HPP Arts in Public Health Supplement.

The arts-and the arts and culture sector-offer fertile ground for achieving a culture of health in the United States. The arts and artists are agents of change and can help enable this vision and also address the most critical public health issues we are contending with, including COVID-19 and racism. The arts provide means for engaging dialogue, influencing behaviors, disrupting paradigms and fueling social movements. The arts uncover and illuminate issues. They engage us emotionally and intellectually. They challenge assumptions. They call out injustice. They drive collective action. They heal-making arts + public health collaboration very relevant in this historic moment. In this special Health Promotion Practice supplement on arts in public health, you'll find powerful examples and evidence of how cross-sector collaboration between public health and the arts can advance health promotion goals and impacts, and make health promotion programs not only more accessible to diverse populations but also more equitable and effective in addressing the upstream systems, policies, and structures that create health disparities. You will see how the arts can empower health communication, support health literacy, provide direct and measurable health benefits to individuals and communities, and support coping and resilience in response to COVID-19. This issue itself exemplifies cross-sector collaboration, as it was created through partnership between Health Promotion Practice, the Society for Public Health Education, ArtPlace America, and the University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine, and presents voices from across the public health, arts, and community development sectors.

Looking Back and Moving Forward: SOPHE's 70 Years of Contributions to Health Education.

Founded in 1950, the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) provides leadership to the health education profession and promotes the health of all people through six strategic commitments: developing and promoting standards for professional preparation and credentialing of community and school health educators; stimulating research on the theory, practice, and teaching of health education; supporting elimination of health disparities and the achievement of health equity; providing continuing education of the health education workforce; advocating for policy and legislation affecting public health and health promotion; and supporting a network of local chapters. This article describes how SOPHE has pursued these strategic commitments during the past 70 years and discusses challenges that will influence the future of SOPHE and the contours of the research and practice agendas of the field going forward.

Continuing the Journey Toward Health Equity: Becoming Antiracist in Health Promotion Research and Practice.

Health education and promotion researchers and practitioners are committed to eliminating health disparities, and the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) has continuously supported this effort through its journals, professional development, annual conferences, and advocacy. The COVID-19 pandemic elucidated inequities directly caused by racism and other social determinants of health. In order to achieve health equity, we need to become antiracist in our research, practice, and advocacy work by standing united against racist policies and practices. I invite us all to heed the call to action on these five points: place racism on the agenda, practice cultural humility, claim your privilege and eliminate microaggressions, utilize strategies that promote inclusion and equity, and embrace your inner leader and activist. Just as SOPHE as an organization pivoted its annual conference from on ground to virtual in March 2020, so can we be innovative and brave as professionals to face the hard work and dedication needed to become antiracist.

Addressing contemporary challenges in the Unified Code of Ethics for Health Educators

Background: The Unified Code of Ethics (COE) for Health Educators adopted in 1999 was developed in the USA from the 1983 Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) COE and the 1993 American Association for Higher Education (AAHE) COE. While the Unified COE was intended to function as a living document, designed to mature as the needs of the health education professionals changed, it has only been updated once (in 2011) since its adoption in 1999. In addition, despite its commitment to keep up with advances in the field, the current COE does not explicitly address the need for ethical building blocks in health education curricula, or the reinforcement of ethical standards during the certification and recertification of health educators. It also fails to address challenges such as identifying and monitoring unethical practices in online education, and how health outcomes are affected by health literacy, cultural competency and cultural humility among other factors. Consequently, the health education profession requires an updated COE that addresses these gaps. Discussion: An updated COE holds potential to alter the way in which health education ethics are taught and practised. This re-evaluation can contribute to an overall change in health education practice, research and academic training, which can allow health educators to better meet the needs of the diverse communities they serve in an equitable and just manner. This article outlines some of the contemporary challenges health educators face in practice, training and research, and suggests ways in which the updated unified COE can address these challenges, help improve health outcomes and promote health equity.

Health Advocacy for Busy Professionals: Effective Advocacy With Little Time.

Health advocacy is a central responsibility for health educators and public health practitioners, as documented clearly in our professional competencies. Professional organizations such as the Society for Public Health Education and the American Public Health Association undertake frequent advocacy initiatives and strive to engage their members in advocacy strategies on a regular basis. Despite this understanding and advocacy training requirements in academic preparation programs for public health professionals, students and emerging professionals often lack advocacy experience. In this article, we provide descriptions of multiple effective health advocacy strategies spread across the time intensity spectrum, in order of least time intensive to most. Advocates may select the best strategy based on the needs of their target audience, the amount of time and energy they have for the task, and the level of confidence they have in practicing the strategy itself.

Toward a Common Agenda for the Public and Private Sectors to Advance Digital Health Communication.

AffiliationsLorien C. Abroms is with the Department of Prevention and Community Health, Milken Institute School of Public Health, The George Washington University, Washington, DC. John P. Allegrante is with the Department of Health and Behavior Studies, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY. M. Elaine Auld is with the Society for Public Health Education, Washington, DC. Robert S. Gold is with the Department of Behavioral and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park. William T. Riley is with the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD. Joseph Smyser is with The Public Good Projects, New York, NY.

Quality Assurance in Professional Preparation of Community/Public Health Education Specialists: Contributions of SABPAC

The Society for Public Health Education and American Association for Health Education Baccalaureate Program Approval Committee (SABPAC) provided a valuable service to the health education profession in the United States for 27 years. From 1987 to its sunset in 2014, SABPAC offered a voluntary process whereby undergraduate community/public health education professional preparation programs could seek review and evaluation of their programs against published national health education criteria. Those programs meeting SABPAC criteria were granted “Approval.” SABPAC approval was instituted as one way by which the health education profession could strive to promote consistent professional preparation in the field and ensure that health education graduates were prepared for contemporary workforce demands. Over the years, SABPAC chairs, committee members, and volunteers devoted countless hours reviewing self-studies and conducting on-site visits of professional preparation programs and documenting how they met SABPAC criteria and/or could enhance compliance with guidelines. Seeking SABPAC approval provided many program benefits. Recognizing that accreditation is the “gold standard” in education, the health education profession applied a thoughtful and researched process beginning in 2001 to transition from SABPAC approval to undergraduate accreditation through the Council on Education for Public Health. Three national task forces developed recommendations, conducted events to foster communication about the change, and assisted professional preparation programs to prepare for and seek the Council on Education for Public Health accreditation. This brief article documents the genesis, organization, and processes of SABPAC in the United States, until its sunset as a major contributor to quality assurance in health education for more than a quarter of a century.

A Competency-Based Framework for Health Education Specialists—2015

A Competency-Based Framework for Health Education Specialists—2015 is a new publication by the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing Inc., and the Society for Public Health Education, Inc. This new publication is a vital resource to identify and describe the latest Responsibilities, Competencies, and Subcompetencies that are important to contemporary health education/promotion practice. The book describes the methods and results of the updated psychometric study of the Health Education Specialist Practice Analysis project. The study results have implications for professional preparation, credentialing, and professional development of health education specialists. The Seven Areas of Responsibility contain a comprehensive set of Competencies and Subcompetencies defining the role of the health education specialist and serve as the basis of the Certified Health Education Specialist and Master Certified Health Education Specialist exams.

Documenting 15 Years (2000-2015) of SOPHE Achievements.

For over six decades, the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) has been a leading professional organization for the field of health education (HE). This historical research extends the work of Cissell and Bloom by investigating the recent history of SOPHE. The aims of this historical study were to (1) identify key SOPHE and HE events from 2000 to 2015, (2) describe key contributions of SOPHE to the HE field during this time period, and (3) identify potential future directions for SOPHE. Johnson and Christensen's five steps for historical research were followed to conduct an eDelphi study and one-on-one interviews. During the three-round eDelphi study, SOPHE officers ( n = 16) and senior staff ( n = 5), who served between 2000 and 2015, identified significant SOPHE's leaders and rated the importance of SOPHE's recent events. Key leaders ( n = 25) participated in semistructured interviews to describe their involvement in SOPHE, specific SOPHE activities, and future directions for SOPHE. Brief, structured intercept interviews were also conducted with student ( n = 10) and professional SOPHE members ( n = 11). Data collected during the eDelphi study were analyzed to determine central tendency statistics and percent agreement on each event evaluated in the second- and third-round surveys. Qualitative interview data were analyzed with NVivo using thematic analysis. Data from the eDelphi study revealed 29 SOPHE and 17 HE events that occurred between 2000 and 2015 as being "important" or "very important." Results from the thematic analysis revealed several themes in three areas: SOPHE accomplishments, benefits of SOPHE membership, and possible future directions for SOPHE to explore.

Foundational Courses in Health Education

Community colleges educate a substantial proportion of future health professionals. In particular, they provide an important incubator for health education specialists who may pursue their foundational courses in a 2-year degree setting, with an opportunity to articulate to a 4-year degree program in health education. Community colleges also have strong connections to the communities they serve, a foundational element shared with health education, and enroll many students from underserved communities who could enhance the diversity of the future health education workforce. This article describes the development of three foundational courses in health education by the Society for Public Health Education, Inc. (SOPHE), working as part of The Framing the Future: The Second 100 Years of Public Health Task Force under the aegis of the Association of Schools and Programs in Public Health and the League for Innovation in Community College in the United States. Using the latest available competencies for the health education profession, three prototype curricular outlines were created in 2014, including an introduction to health education, accessing and analyzing health information, and advocacy and leadership in public health (a service-learning course). The course content outlines are presented herein, and their relationship to the 2010 health education competencies. We outline next steps in linking SOPHE health education faculty and practitioners with community college representatives to develop quality associate degree course offerings that articulate to baccalaureate degree programs in health education.

A history of undergraduate education for public health: from behind the scenes to center stage.

Education for Public Health traces its roots to the Welch–Rose report of 1915. The Welch–Rose report defined education for public health as applied graduate education primarily for professionals such as physicians, nurses, and engineers who needed academic education and the latest research to help them take on leadership roles in governmental public health (1). The graduate and research focus of academic public health dominated the landscape for the better part of the twentieth century. Yet behind the scenes, changes were occurring that have led in the twenty-first century to new approaches to undergraduate public health education. The Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) was founded in 1950. As was the practice of the era, membership required a graduate degree. A decade later, SOPHE began admitting members with an undergraduate degree and practice experience (2). Undergraduate programs supported by SOPHE have included community health and school health. The emergence of environmental health as a distinct field led to the development of environmental health programs at the bachelor’s degree level with a strong science emphasis. In 1967, the National Environmental Health Science & Protection Accreditation Council (EHAC) was established. East Tennessee State’s undergraduate environmental health program became the first accredited undergraduate program (3). When the Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA) was founded in the late 1940s, graduate degree programs formed the basis of eligibility for membership. Undergraduate programs were gradually added. By the late part of the century, AUPHA was offering a certification process for undergraduate health administration programs (4). During the last half of the twentieth century, undergraduate programs in public health and related fields were developed that either did not qualify for membership in SOPHE, EHAC, or AUPHA, or chose not to pursue such membership. According to the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH), by 1992, there were 45 institutions that were offering one or more undergraduate degrees in a public health related field. By 2000, this number had risen to 76 (5). These early efforts to develop specialty degrees for undergraduates not only survived but have grown over the years. At the turn of the twenty-first century, they represented the major source of undergraduate education for public health.

Getting the most out of professional associations.

In this commentary, three public health professionals working in diverse career settings share their perspectives on how to get the most out of professional associations. This article demonstrates how you can benefit from active involvement in your membership in professional associations and attending professional conferences. Methods to participate actively in your association include volunteering for one-time opportunities or standing committees, mentoring, and reviewing publications and manuscripts. Being active in professional organizations, such as the Society for Public Health Education, offers personal career development skill-building and opportunities for leadership and mentoring across all career stages. Experiences on how participation in professional organizations helped shape the authors' careers are shared.

Accreditation of Professional Preparation Programs for School Health Educators: The Changing Landscape.

The health education profession is committed to maintaining the highest standards of quality assurance, including accreditation of professional preparation programs in both school and community/public health education. Since 2001, the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) has increased attention to strengthening accreditation processes for preservice programs. This article focuses on the preparation of school health educators and the evolving philosophies and approaches concerning quality assurance, with particular attention to recent changes in teacher education and national professional accreditation entities. The unification of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC) to form the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) as the single voice for teacher accreditation presents an opportunity to create a model unified accreditation system. Such a system can improve and enhance the stature of the teaching profession, raise expectations and the performance standards for teacher education candidates, and strengthen the standards for the evidence used to support claims of quality. During this transition period from NCATE and TEAC to CAEP, a School Health Education Accreditation Working Group convened by SOPHE recommended to the SOPHE Board of Trustees that SOPHE urge health education professionals to monitor and provide input into the emerging standards and processes for school health educator program accreditation. The Working Group also recommended that both health education professionals and the stakeholder professional organizations advocate for strong quality assurance standards for school health educator professional preparation programs. The Working Group anticipates future changes in quality assurance processes and curricula to keep pace with new accreditation requirements and the results from the latest role delineation research for health education specialists.

Career Development Through Local Chapter Involvement

The importance of career development in professional organizations has been noted in the literature. Personal and professional benefits of membership regardless of discipline can be found across the career spectrum from student to executive. The benefits of professional membership with respect to career development in local chapter organizations have seldom been studied. Local chapter participation may offer significant career development opportunities for the practitioner, faculty member, and student. The purpose of this study was to explore the importance of local chapter involvement to the career development of health education practitioners. An 18-item questionnaire was disseminated to the membership of three local SOPHE (Society for Public Health Education) chapters that explored the level of local chapter involvement and the impact of how specific professional development activities impacted career development. The results of the survey highlighted the importance of continuing education programs, networking, and leadership experience in developing one's career that are offered by local SOPHE chapter involvement. Making a positive impact in the community and earning the respect of one's peers were most often reported as indicators of career success. These factors can directly impact local chapter participation. Career development can certainly be enhanced by active participation in the local chapter of a professional association.

Building a Larger Tent for Public Health

The unification of the American Association for Health Education (AAHE) and the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) generates a long-desired synergy, a ramping up of our leadership influence in promoting health. It also serves as an ongoing opportunity to reflect on how we synergize the distinct philosophic, scientific, and practical approaches that our AAHE colleagues bring in constructing a larger tent for public health education. Running parallel to our union with AAHE is the undertaking by several schools of health, physical education, and recreation (HPER) to become schools of public health. The unification between AAHE and SOPHE can be of enormous benefit to such a process. Just as the harmonious integration of two organizations with similar but distinct perspectives depends on compromise and transcendence, the schools that they embody-both public health and HPER-might consider ways to engage in continued dialogue to assure a more expansive paradigm for public health. SOPHE has an important role to play in this process, and with the additional insight and influence that our AAHE colleagues bring, we can become more instrumental as a boundary spanner. Mechanisms for such integration are discussed.

The days are long and the years are short: a year in the shoes of a SOPHE president.

Among the most memorable lessons I learned from my father was based on a comment he often made when I was young: "The days are long and the years are short." During a year as President of the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE), there were many days that seemed to go on forever; but in retrospect, the entire year seems to have flown by in the blink of an eye. During this year, SOPHE has accomplished much for its members through its annual meetings, publications, and social media presence. Perhaps as important, SOPHE has continued to make an indelible mark on the profession of health education. Whether by launching new initiatives through its cooperative agreements with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ensuring ongoing training for in-service health educators or by continuing to work on unification of the profession in negotiations with the American Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance, SOPHE continues to innovate. There remains much to be done; the challenges continue; and the opportunities are rich for the future of health education.

American Association for Health Education (AAHE) 2011 Membership Survey

The American Association for Health Education (AAHE), a national health education organization with the mission of advancing the profession of health education, launched the 2011 AAHE membership survey between October 13, 2011 and November 1, 2011, under the leadership of the AAHE Board of Directors and AAHE Staff. The primary objective of the survey was to provide insight into the perspectives of AAHE members on several important issues facing the organization including: AAHE exiting its parent organization, the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD) and the proposed “modified” merger with the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE), another national health education organization. A total of 240 AAHE members completed the survey. A majority of respondents were university faculty members in health education, and results provide keen insight into AAHE members' perspectives on the AAHE-SOPHE modified merger.