National Commission Seeks to Reward Faculty for Linking Scholarshipto Co

PRESS RELEASE: National Commission Seeks to Reward Faculty for Linking
Scholarship to Community Concerns

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information, contact Jen Kauper-Brown at 206-543-7954 or
jenbr@u.washington.edu, or visit
http://futurehealth.ucsf.edu/ccph/kellogg3.html

Community-Campus Partnerships for Health has been funded by the WK
Kellogg Foundation to convene a Commission on Community-Engaged
Scholarship in the Health Professions to take a leadership role in
creating a more supportive culture and reward system for health
professional faculty involved in community-based participatory research,
service-learning and other forms of "community-engaged scholarship."

Many prominent national organizations, including the Institute of
Medicine in its 2002 reports on the future of public health, are calling
upon health professional schools and academic health centers to be more
responsive to their communities.   A frequently cited barrier, however,
to sustained faculty involvement in community-based teaching, research
and service is the risk associated with trying to achieve promotion and
tenure. Barbara Sabol, Program Director with the WK Kellogg Foundation,
explains that, "the WK Kellogg Foundation has long made a significant
investment in programs and policies that advance community-based public
health.  Unfortunately, the predominant paradigm of faculty incentives in
our nation's health professional schools runs counter to the Foundation's
focus on engaged institutions. This work is designed to provide the
leadership and practical tools that are needed to reward faculty for
linking their scholarship to community needs and concerns."  A more
supportive culture and reward system for health professional faculty
involved in community-engaged scholarship is key to having them generate
new knowledge about the social and ecologic determinants of health,
educate a new generation of public health professionals who are prepared
to effect change, and contribute to improved public health.

The Commission seeks to elevate the discussion around the issue of
community-engaged scholarship by disseminating reports on key issues such
as the rationale for community-engaged scholarship and recommendations
for peer review criteria and processes; and implementing strategies to
influence support for community-engaged scholarship through such means as
engaging key stakeholder groups, writing editorials and making
presentations.  The Commission is comprised of a diverse group of leaders
from academic institutions, professional associations, community-based
organizations, philanthropy and government who bring a wealth of relevant
experience, knowledge and connections combined with a desire for change.
A complete listing of Commission members appears below.

In addition to the Commission, the initiative also includes the
development and dissemination of tools that health professional faculty
and promotion and tenure committees can use to better understand,
document, and assess community-engaged scholarship. The toolkit will
include specific guidance for faculty on planning for and navigating the
promotion and tenure process; examples of faculty portfolios; suggested
methods for documenting and assessing community-engaged scholarship;
guidance to community partners for how they can play a meaningful role in
the process; and a directory of funding sources for community-engaged
scholarship.

Community-Campus Partnerships for Health (CCPH) welcomes suggestions of
key articles, reports, people and programs that should be considered for
this project. Questions, comments, citations or full-text materials may
be directed to program coordinator, Jen Kauper-Brown, by e-mail:
jenbr@u.washington.edu, by phone: 206/543-7954, or by mail: UW Box
354809, Seattle, WA 98195-4809.

Project updates and reports will be posted on the CCPH website as they
become available: http://futurehealth.ucsf.edu/ccph/kellogg3.html

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Community-Campus Partnerships for Health (CCPH) is a nonprofit
organization that promotes health through partnerships between
communities and higher educational institutions.  Founded in 1996, CCPH
is a growing network of over 1000 communities and campuses that are
collaborating to promote health through service-learning, community-based
participatory research, community service and other partnership
strategies. These partnerships are powerful tools for improving health
professional education, civic responsibility and the overall health of
communities. CCPH advances its mission through information dissemination,
training and technical assistance, research and evaluation, policy
development and advocacy, and coalition-building.  Learn more about CCPH
at www.ccph.info

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation was established in 1930 "to help people help
themselves through the practical application of knowledge and resources
to improve their quality of life and that of future generations."  To
achieve the greatest impact, the Foundation targets its grants toward
specific areas. These include: health; food systems and rural
development; youth and education; and philanthropy and volunteerism.
Within these areas, attention is given to exploring learning
opportunities in leadership; information and communication technology;
capitalizing on diversity; and social and economic community development.
Grants are concentrated in the United States, Latin America and the
Caribbean, and the southern African countries of Botswana, Lesotho,
Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe.  For further
information, please visit the Foundation's Web site at www.wkkf.org.

Commission on Community-Engaged Scholarship in the Health Professions

Alex Allen
Vice President, Community Planning & Research
Isles, Inc.
Trenton, NJ

Barbara Brandt
Assistant Vice President for Education
University of Minnesota Academic Health Center
Minneapolis, MN

Marshall Chin
Associate Professor of Medicine
University of Chicago School of Medicine
Chicago, IL

Jay Chunn
Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs
Morgan State University
Baltimore, MD

Amy Driscoll
Director of the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment
California State University-Monterey Bay
Seaside, CA

Eugenia Eng
Professor of Public Health
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC

Clyde Evans
Vice President
Association of Academic Health Centers
Washington, DC

Elmer Freeman
Executive Director
Center for Community Health Education Research and Service, Inc
Boston, MA

Charles Glassick
Senior Associate Emeritus
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Spartanburg, SC

Larry Green
Director of Extramural Programs and Academic Linkages
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Public Health Practice Program 
Office
Atlanta, GA

Jessie Gruman
Executive Director
Center for the Advancement of Health
Washington, DC

Susan Gust
Coordinator and Co-founder
Phillips Neighborhood Healthy Housing Collaborative
Minneapolis, MN

Laura Leviton
Senior Program Officer
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Princeton, NJ

Alonzo Plough
Director
Public Health- Seattle & King County
Seattle, WA

Shobha Srinivasan
Health Scientist Administrator
Division of Extramural Research and Training
Susceptibility & Population Health Branch
National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences
Research Triangle Park, NC

Susan Tortolero
Director of Texas Prevention Research Center
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Houston, TX

Pat Wahl
Dean
University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine
Seattle, WA

Terri Wright
Program Director, Health Policy
W.K. Kellogg Foundation
Battle Creek, MI