Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #115109

Juan Carlos Belliard, PhD, MPH, Department of Global Health, Loma Linda University School of Public Health, Nichol Hall Room 1302, Loma Linda, CA 92350, 909-558-4902, jbelliard@sph.llu.edu, David T. Dyjack, DrPH, CIH, Department of Environmental Health, Loma Linda University School of Public Health, Nichol Hall Room 1202, Loma Linda, CA 92350, and Susanne B. Montgomery, PhD, MPH, Dept. of Health Promotion & Education, School of Public Health, Loma Linda University, Nicol Hall Room 1511, Loma Linda, CA 92350.

Rank, tenure, and promotion decisions have been traditionally predicated on demonstrating excellence in research and teaching, with emphasis on the former. While service has been encouraged in academic settings, it fails to be weighted on par with the other scholarly pursuits. This presents a dilemma for the Schools of Public Health, which endeavor to conform to recent Institute of Medicine recommendations to support community-based scholarship. This presentation will describe the process Loma Linda University School of Public Health faculty employed to evaluate its current level of community engagement, community engaged-scholarship, and their impact on the faculty performance reward system. A self-assessment tool, provided by the Community-Engaged Scholarship for Health Collaborative, was used. This presentation will serve to discuss the process of change within our academic institution as it reflects on its institutional culture and process of planned change towards increased community engaged scholarship. The self-assessment instrument can be a useful tool for other health science institutions interested in reflecting their value of engaged scholarship (i.e. public health practice) in their faculty rewards system. Discussion will focus on the benefits and barriers to meaningful, ongoing, institutional commitment to community-engaged scholarship, identified by faculty during this self evaluation process.

Learning Objectives:

• -To differentiate between community engagement and community-engaged scholarship
• -To understand different levels of community engagement
• -To provide examples of planned institutional change towards community-engaged scholarship
• -To discuss an institutional self-evaluation tool as provided by the Community Engaged Scholarship for Health Collaborative
• -To reflect on the value of public health practice how it can be reflected in faculty reward systems

Keywords: Community Research, Public Health Education

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation