Contact:
Angela Go, 404-413-1083
Byrdine F. Lewis School of Nursing and Health Professions
ATLANTA — Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, will address the serious problem of childhood obesity Nov. 3 at the Georgia State University Byrdine F. Lewis School of Nursing and Health Professions’ 9th annual J. Rhodes Haverty Lecture.
The lecture will be held at 7 p.m. in the ballroom of the GSU Student Center. The event is free and open to the university public. A pre-program at 6:30 p.m. will introduce the new dean of the school, Peggy Wilmoth, who will head the school beginning January 2012.
Obesity and particularly, childhood obesity are shaping up to be the next public health crisis in America. While many health care experts agree that it is one of the most pressing health issue of the 21st century, most don’t agree on the best way to solve this growing problem.
Brownell has spent much of his career examining the issues of food abundance and obesity in the United States. Brownell’s lecture topic is “The Courageous Action Needed to Reverse Childhood Obesity.”
Brownell has advised the White House, members of Congress, governors, world health and nutrition organizations, and media leaders on issues of nutrition, obesity, and public policy. He was cited as a “moral entrepreneur” with special influence on public discourse in the obesity field and was cited by Time Magazine as a leading “warrior” in the area of nutrition and public policy.
Brownell, a professor in the Department of Psychology at Yale University, is also professor of epidemiology and public health. He has published 14 books and more than 300 scientific articles and chapters. One book received the Choice Award for Outstanding Academic Book from the American Library Association, and his paper on "Understanding and Preventing Relapse," published in the American Psychologist, was listed as one of the most frequently cited papers in psychology.
Brownell was elected into the Institute of Medicine in 2006 and served as president of several national organizations, including the Society of Behavioral Medicine, Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy, and the Division of Health Psychology of the American Psychological Association. He has received numerous awards and honors for his work, including the James McKeen Cattell Award from the New York Academy of Sciences, the award for Outstanding Contribution to Health Psychology from the American Psychological Association, the Distinguished Alumni Award from Purdue University, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from Rutgers University.
The Haverty Lecture was established in 2003 to honor the career of J. Rhodes Haverty, M.D., the founding dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences, the predecessor to the Byrdine F. Lewis School of Nursing and Health Professions. For more information on the event or to RSVP, please contact Angela Go at ago@gsu.edu.
Nov. 1, 2011