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$2.48 Million Grant Expands Child Overweight
Prevention Programs
New Michael & Susan Dell Center will be a resource for research and
education
on relationship of diet, physical activity and health
A new $2.48 million grant from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation will boost the effects of a previous $2 million gift in expanding the child overweight prevention programs of The University of Texas School of Public Health.
Deanna Hoelscher, Ph.D
The $2 million gift in May was part of a $50 million gift to The University of Texas System. As a result, the Human Nutrition Center, along with CATCH, one of its key programs, are expanding to Austin and will be known as the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Advancement of Healthy Living. The new center will be a resource for research and education about the relationship of dietary behavior and physical activity to disease, particularly as it affects childhood obesity and related chronic diseases.
The $2.48 million grant will expand CATCH (Coordinated Approach To Child Health) in Travis County to test new components of the program and fund an evaluation for future development and dissemination. “The Dell gift will enable us to have the funds and infrastructure to obtain further research funding, conduct pilot studies, and further disseminate our current health promotion projects,” said Deanna Hoelscher, Ph.D., director of the new Michael & Susan Dell Center for Advancement of Healthy Living and associate professor of health promotion/ behavioral sciences and nutrition in the UT School of Public Health.
CATCH, a school-based program promoting physical activity, healthy food choices and tobacco prevention in elementary age children, will relocate most of its administration and research components to Austin. Hoelscher and CATCH Principal Investigator Steven D. Kelder, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology and behavioral sciences at the UT School of Public Health, will move to Austin next summer.
“The Michael & Susan Dell Center for Advancement of Healthy Living is part of our plan for the school to expand programs in Austin in collaboration with The University of Texas at Austin,” said Guy Parcel, Ph.D., dean of the UT School of Public Health. “The school is currently offering a certificate program in public health that enables public health workers and interested UT Austin students to take the five core courses in public health.”
Parcel said future plans include the establishment of a regional campus in Austin to make the Master of Public Health degree available in central Texas and collaboration with UT Austin to offer dual degree programs with the M.P.H. and other professional degrees.
“The new Dell center will facilitate the UT School of Public Health in developing collaborative research projects in population health with UT Austin faculty who have related expertise and interests,” Parcel said.
Hoelscher also will move the administration of her study, IMPACT (Incorporating More Physical Activity and Calcium in Teens), which promotes bone health and weight-bearing physical activity in girls, to the Dell center in Austin.
“We’ll have expanded dissemination of our work through presentations, publications and a dedicated Web site,” Hoelscher said. “The Dell center will enable us to use new technologies and enhance research and training opportunities for post-doctoral students.”
Alexandra Evans, Ph.D., formerly a faculty member at the University of South Carolina’s Norman J. Arnold School of Public Health, recently joined the Dell Center for Healthy Living in Austin as associate professor of health promotion and behavioral science. Cheryl Perry, Ph.D., formerly a professor at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health, joined the Dell center in September. They will work in leased office space until a permanent space is completed in the expansion of the UT Austin School of Nursing building.
Hoelscher anticipates that the Dell Center for Healthy Living “will galvanize the CATCH program and take it to the next level of implementation.” As CATCH expands into Travis County, Hoelscher said they hope to evaluate lessons learned from establishing successful programs in areas such as El Paso and Brownsville and create a template for future statewide expansion.
Other programs of the Dell Center for Healthy Living – the Lower Rio Grande Valley Nutrition Intervention Research Initiative and Que Sabrosa Vida, along with the Dietetic Internship program accredited by the American Dietetic Association – will remain headquartered in Houston.
By Deborah Mann Lake, Institutional Advancement