PASOPHE.org, the official Pennsylvania SOPHE Chapter

Upcoming Meetings	2009 PA SOPHE Officers
SOPHE Midyear Scientific Conference New Orleans, Louisiana May 7-9, 2009 "All That Jazz: Harmonizing Health Education Practice and Research to Advance Health Equity" Many members of PA SOPHE are planning to attend the conference in New Orleans. Please join us! See SOPHE.org for conference details.	President Laurie Weinreb-Welch Treasurer Raffy Luquis Secretary Kathleen Allison Member at Large/Trustee Darigg Brown Continuing Education Committee Kay Deaner National Delegate Vacant Message from the President Laurie Weinreb-Welch, MPH, CHES It is a great honor to be elected President of PA SOPHE and will do my best to serve and represent all of our members well to others in our profession. I have been member of PA SOPHE since starting as an undergraduate student at East Stroudsburg University in 1989 and became an officer when I started my first job as a Public Health Educator for the Pennsylvania Department of Health in 1993. I have learned more about my role as an educator through this professional organization and from its membership, than any orientation or staff development that any employer could provide. I know that we all work hard in our professional and personal lives every day. It is always a challenge to perform our jobs well with tight budgets, declining funding and a tough economic climate, doing more with less and increasing demands to reach our goals and fulfill our job responsibilities. Not to mention the challenges we face as we assume the role as collaborator, educator and leaders in our own communities. I feel that PA SOPHE is a wonderful forum in which to share our challenges and many successes in our professional and personal lives. The members of this organization are instrumental in enhancing the quality of life and the health of those throughout Pennsylvania. I will do my best to lead the organization forward into the future and nurture it so it many continue to grow and flourish with the always changing times ahead. One of my favorite leadership quotes by Lance Secretary, Industry Week: “Leadership is not so much about technique and methods as it is about opening the heart. Leadership is about inspiration-of oneself and of others. Great leadership is about human experiences, not processes. Leadership is not a formula or a program, it is a human activity that comes from the heart and considers the hearts of others. It is an attitude, not a routine. More than anything else today, followers believe they are part of a system, a process that lacks heart. If there is one thing a leader can do to connect with followers at a human, or better still, a spiritual level, it is to become engaged with them fully, to share experience and emotions, and to aside the processes of leadership we have learned by rote.” I look forward to sharing those experiences and working with you this year.
SOPHE 60th Annual Meeting Philadelphia, PA November 5-7, 2009 A number of members of PA SOPHE and surrounding chapters have volunteered to prepare for the annual meeting in Philadelphia, but more help is needed. If you are interested in helping with the conference, please contact chapter President Laurie Weinreb-Welch. Coming Soon: SOPHE.org for the conference theme announcement and call for abstracts. Meeting Recap for PA SOPHE's Pittsburgh Conference, November 22, 2008 Participant evaluations were overwhelmingly positive for the Health Educator's Institute on November 22 in Pittsburgh, PA. PA SOPHE would like to thank the speakers and participants who joined us in Pittsburgh, with a special thanks to Pennsylvania State Association for Health Physical Education Recreation and Dance (PSAHPERD)!

	Council Should Be Able To Ban Cell Phones While Driving Stephen Gambescia, PhD, MEd, MBA, CHES Posted November 4, 2008 Three Philadelphia Council Members have introduceda bill inSeptember to ban the use of hand-held cell phones and dissuade drivers from text messaging and using PDAs to go to the Internet. This important public safety measure should be well-received and supported by other Council members and hopefully will receive little resistance from some of Pennsylvania’s administrative and legal bodies. This local motor vehicle restriction should be supported given its common sense and well-supported, safety risk-reduction rationale; and when a full understanding of local public health and safety authority is considered, it should overstep possible state agency roadblocks. Click here for the full story. Stressing Prevention Stephen Gambescia, PhD, MEd, MBA, CHES Posted June 26, 2008 In his article Stressing Prevention, Dr. Gambescia discusses the role of health educators in Pennsylvania. Published in ThePatriot News AS I SEE IT column June 26, 2008, Dr. Gambescia makes the case for professionally prepared health educators to be included in the "Prescription for Pennsylvania," certainly one of the most ambitious health care reform plans proposed by any state. "One health care provider that is missing from the health care team, if we are serious about this change of culture to disease prevention and wellness, is the professionally prepared health educator...Unfortunately, the state Health Department and county health departments, as well as other organizations, use far too few, if any, professionally prepared health educators." Click here to read more.