News Release: Research , School of Public Health
Feb. 27, 2009
Emory, Georgia State Public Health Leaders Receive Health Education Practice Award
The Georgia Federation of Professional Health Educators (GFPHE) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to furthering the goals and objectives of professional health education and health promotion in Georgia.The Georgia Federation of Professional Health Educators (GFPHE) has awarded Jeffrey Koplan, MD, MPH, Emory vice president for global health and director of the Emory Global Health Institute, the 2009 GFPHE/GA SOPHE Health Education Practice Award.
Koplan shares this year’s award with Michael Eriksen, ScD, director of the Georgia State University Institute of Public Health.
The award will be presented Friday, Feb. 27, at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Global Communications Center.
The GFPHE/GA SOPHE Health Education Practice Award recognizes an individual who has achieved measurable accomplishments and demonstrated excellence in putting the principles and theories of health education into practice, contributing to behavior change and improved health of the public.
Koplan and Eriksen received this year’s award for their work with the Policy Leadership for Active Youth (PLAY). PLAY is a three-year policy research initiative aimed at identifying evidence-based strategies to increase physical activity, decrease sedentary behavior, and prevent childhood overweight. The initiative is a unique collaboration among three Georgia research universities: Georgia State University, The University of Georgia, and the Medical College of Georgia. The initiative brings together researchers from public health, pediatric medicine, exercise physiology, nutrition, psychology and public administration to translate existing evidence into policy recommendations that have the potential to effectuate changes in practice related to physical activity.
Koplan joined Emory in 2002 after serving as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). During his 26 years at CDC, he worked on virtually every major public health issue, including infectious diseases, environmental issues, and the health toll of tobacco and chronic diseases around the globe. A graduate of Yale College, the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, and the Harvard School of Public Health, Koplan is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and was elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.
Past winners of the GFPHE/GA SOPHE Health Education Practice award include Mark Wilson, HSD, and David DeJoy, PhD, University of Georgia (2008), and Kathleen Miner, PhD, associate dean of applied public health, Emory University (2007).
The GFPHE/GA SOPHE is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to furthering the goals and objectives of professional health education and health promotion in Georgia. The organization is a chapter of the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE).
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