Ohio State's outreach and engagement efforts highlighted

COLUMBUS -- The Ohio State University’s commitment to outreach and engagement has resulted in a growing number of community partnerships and other programs that were highlighted in a presentation to the university’s Board of Trustees Friday (11/1).

Bobby Moser, vice president for university outreach and executive dean of the College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences briefed trustees on a national outreach scholarship conference – “Catalyst for Change: Outreach Scholarship 2002” – held last month in Columbus and attended by more than 460 people from 78 institutions.

Moser said the conference, co-sponsored by Ohio State, created a national forum for the discussion of outreach and engagement-related issues, including innovative and successful outreach initiatives; the scholarship implications of engagement, such as the need to develop best practices, document impact and undergo peer review; and how outreach affects promotion and tenure issues.

Moser noted that the university is focusing its outreach programs in three areas: P-12 education, economic development, and health and safety.

The health and safety component of Ohio State’s outreach and engagement initiative includes two major collaborations: the Ohio Health Literacy Initiative and participation in the Academic Centers for Public Health Preparedness. Ronald St. Pierre, special assistant to the senior vice president for health sciences and coordinator of health and safety outreach projects, updated trustees on the partnerships’ past year of activities.

The health literacy initiative, a project run by Ohio State’s School of Public Health, the Ohio Department of Health and the Ohio Statewide Area Health Education Centers Program, centers on low literacy as an important health care issue in Ohio. Initiative leaders aim to educate Ohio health professional students and practitioners about the need to make health information understandable for patients at a range of literacy levels, promote research in health literacy and establish consultative services in health care organizations. In the year since the initiative launched, approximately 150 students and 500 professionals have been trained in revising written and oral language use to accommodate a variety of literacy levels among patients.

As a member of the Academic Centers for Public Health Preparedness (A-CPHP), Ohio State is in a network of schools of public health partnering with state and local health agencies and the Centers for Disease Control to protect the nation from bioterrorism, infectious disease outbreaks and other public health threats. St. Pierre said the network’s initial work revolves around coordinating training to close gaps in knowledge and skills that health professionals need to manage a bioterrorist event. The network will continually monitor training needs in sectors affected by public health emergencies, focusing on such issues as biological weapon identification, patient-care implications, worker safety, the psychosocial effects of bioterrorism and public health law.

Jan Kronmiller, dean of the College of Dentistry, told trustees that the college is one of 10 dental schools nationwide to receive a $1.5 million grant over a five-year period from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The grant program has two broad themes: to ensure that students spend at least 60 days of their clinical education in community-based sites and to enhance diversity within the dental profession.

Kronmiller said that the grant will allow the college to proceed with its outreach proposal, Oral Health Improvement Through Outreach (OHIO).

Dentistry’s community-based education will initially involve four primary community-based sites: Ohio State’s Nisonger Center for Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, the Columbus Health Department, the Cincinnati Health Department, and Children’s Hospital. Over the remaining four years of the grant, additional sites will be added to reach the goal of 60 days community-based service for all pre-doctoral students.

The recruitment portion of the proposal will enable the college to strengthen its reach into the potential applicant pool so that more underrepresented minority and low-income students can achieve a dental education.

“The RWJ grant program represents a great opportunity for the College to advance dental education,” Kronmiller said. “We hope that with placement of our students in the community, we can give them a sense of the oral health needs of Ohioans, build stronger relationships with our practice colleagues, enhance the future dental workforce and provide a model for the rest of dental education.”