American Academy of Health Behavior
The American Academy of Health Behavior was founded on April 1, 1997 to “transform the health promotion and health education field from a teaching- and service-centered profession to one with a stronger research foundation in which discovery would be valued as a means of improving practice and enhancing public health. The origination of the Academy was based on the belief that the future growth and evolution of the health promotion and health education fields rested on a strong commitment to conducting and disseminating quality research.”[1]
The inspiration for American Academy of Health Behavior came from Dr. Elbert D. Glover and evolved from a vision he had for more than 2 decades to create an academy of health behavior scholars. He was a trained health educator and as a university professor experienced that academic health educators often were less respected (and less rewarded) on university campuses than their peers in other academic disciplines. Further, he believed that this “lesser respect” emanated from a perception that in many research-intensive and doctoral degree-granting institutions, health education research often lacked “centrality” with respect to the mission of the university compared to the research carried out in other disciplines.
Founding Members On April 1, 1997 while serving as a professor at the West Virginia University School of Medicine, Glover identified 34 researchers from throughout the United States with whom he shared his vision and a draft of proposed organizational bylaws. Ultimately, 32 individuals accepted the invitation and formed the body of Founding Members of The Academy. The Founding Members are presented in the chronological order in which they agreed to be named founding members of The Academy.
Elbert D. Glover (Founder) Founding Members 1. Chudley E. Werch 2. Mark B. Dignan 3. Terri Mulkins Manning 4. David R. Black 5. Robert F. Valois 6. Mark J. Kittleson 7. Cheryl J. Rainey 8. Kenneth R. McLeroy 9. Robert J. McDermott 10. David F. Duncan 11. Scott J. Leischow 12. James H. Price 13. James M. Eddy 14. Michael Young 15. Ray Tricker 16. Robert M. Weiler 17. John P. Foreyt 18. Ian M. Newman 19. Min Qi Wang 20. Thomas W. O’Rourke 21. Beverly S. Mahoney 22. Mohammad R. Torabi 23. Stuart W. Fors 24. Robert S. Gold 25. Molly T. Laflin 26. Paul D. Sarvela 27. Melody P. Noland 28. Mary S. Sutherland 29. Cheryl L. Perry 30. Lawrence W. Green 31. Rick A. Petosa 32. Nicholas K. Iammarino
Glover believed that by forming a solid member base of like-minded prolific researchers, these well-known and widely respected scholars would attract other researchers to The Academy. Several of newly committed founding members were skeptical about the likely acceptance and success of a new professional association focused principally on the research enterprise. As enticements, he subsidized the Founding Members’ first 2 years of organizational dues, including a subscription to the American Journal of Health Behavior, which he designated in the bylaws as The Academy’s official professional journal. At that time, the American Journal of Health Behavior had been in existence for over 2 decades and owned by Glover. The Journal was well respected and a venue for publishing quality health-behavior research. He reasoned that by naming the Journal the official publication of The Academy the organization would gain immediate visibility and credibility. The 2 entities flourished in their coexistence, however, after several years of coexistence and by mutual agreement, eventually parted ways and no longer partake in a relationship.
Charter Members After recruiting The Academy’s Founders, he opened up the organization for membership to other qualified applicants. Each of the 18 persons who joined during the subsequent year was given the designation of Charter Member. The Charter Members became the backbone of the organization, earning themselves a deserved special status in The Academy inasmuch as they were the first dues-paying members. These Charter Members are listed they joined The Academy.
1. Dennis L. Thombs 2. Ansa Ojanlatva 3. Gregory H. Frazer 4. Patricia D. Mail 5. Raymond L. Goldsteen 6. Eugene C. Fitzhugh 7. Lynda B. Ransdell 8. Randall L. Cottrell 9. Mark. G. Wilson 10. Michael W. Felts 11. Patricia C. Dunn 12. John P. Sciacca 13. Mary A. Nies 14. Susan K. Telljohann 15. Jennie J. Kronenfeld 16. Karen D. Liller 17. Stephen B. Thomas
Conceptual Foundations Establishment of The Academy set in motion a new direction for the field that was grounded in a distinctive set of conceptual underpinnings. The first of these principles was the establishment of a meritocracy that acknowledged the competitive nature of the research environment, challenged members to produce quality research, and recognized outstanding research contributions. The second belief was that advancement of evidence-based practice would be more likely to occur if nurtured by a professional organization that explicitly identified research as its primary focus. The third tenet recognized a need for a forum to review and evaluate research being conducted so as to improve its quality and dissemination. The fourth underpinning was the desire to overcome partisan, protective agendas of traditional disciplines by stimulating multidisciplinary research and learning. Finally, The Academy was established to inform and educate scholars about the latest in research innovations as well as to inspire a commitment to high-quality investigation among emerging researchers and students in doctoral education programs. By acknowledging and pledging commitment to these philosophies, The Academy began to secure its unique niche among professional organizations.
Official Seal To represent its underpinnings as a professional society, The Academy adopted the lamp of learning (the intellectual source of light) as the central focus of its official seal. The lamp is arched by a banner containing The Academy motto that Founding Member Dr Robert M. Weiler proposed. It reads: “Mores Scientia Sanitas” (Behavior-Knowledge-Health). The lamp is underscored by 2 laurel branches, symbolic of conquest (ie, of knowledge); a series of 5-pointed stars, which from heraldry represents knightly rank and is an ideogram for seeking out that which is mystic; and finally, the year of The Academy’s founding, 1997.
Initial Board of Directors The Board was described as a “worker bee” group inasmuch as there was no true executive director, no history, and no previous modus operandi. In addition to Dr Glover, members of the Founding Board included Dr David R. Black, Dr James M. Eddy, Dr Nicholas K. Iammarino, Dr Mark J. Kittleson, Dr Molly T. Laflin, Dr Terri Mulkins Manning, Dr Robert J. McDermott, Dr Mohammad R. Torabi, Dr Robert M. Weiler, and Dr Chudley E. “Chad” Werch. Of the initial 11 board members, 6 went on to become Presidents of the Academy (Glover, Werch, McDermott, Torabi, Black and Laflin) and one Executive Director (Manning).
Minimum Membership Qualifications The Academy was the first of its type to require that applicants meet certain minimum qualifications related to research prowess. To be a Qualified Member, applicants needed to: (1) provide evidence of scientific training beyond the undergraduate level; and (2) have authored or coauthored at least 10 data-based papers (quantitative or qualitative) published in national or international journals that regularly report the findings of original health behavior, health education, or health promotion research. Moreover, the membership criteria fulfilled another of The Academy’s basic tenets – that of being a meritocracy. The category of Affiliate Member was open to new professionals and doctoral students holding or working toward a doctoral degree who demonstrated evidence of scientific training beyond the undergraduate level and had at least 2 refereed data-based papers (quantitative or qualitative) published in national or international journals. Requiring data-based publications even of new researchers made an emphatically powerful and proactive statement about the importance that The Academy attached to research as well as serving as a segue later on for mentoring of Affiliate Members by Qualified Members.
Uniqueness of The Academy In addition to a commitment to both research and a meritocracy, The Academy was unique in other ways. Most national organizations attract large numbers of members consequently; necessitate meetings to be held in large that had attracted 10,000 or more attendees and necessitated that these meetings be held primarily in large cities such as New York; Chicago; Los Angeles; San Francisco; Boston; New Orleans; Washington, DC; and the like. Moreover, active participants in these conferences rarely had opportunity to enjoy the venue in which their conference took place and, as often as not, became overwhelmed by the size of the meeting and the chaos of the metropolitan location. Glover saw the advantages of having a small scientific meeting and pledged that The Academy would leverage this advantage to host its scientific meetings in “unique and unusual” settings – locations that did not require space for thousands, but rather, for 125-150 participants. From its inception, the Founding Members never envisioned The Academy as needing to become a large organization in order to thrive, nor did they become aggressive in soliciting members. The Academy’s mission was to promote and disseminate high-quality research and be a home for persons conducting rigorous health-behavior investigative studies. The absence of great concern about organizational size opened the door to the distinctive elements of exceptional hotels and venues of quaint hospitality and other unique features.
In addition to the unique and unusual features of the locations for the scientific meetings, it was determined that the scientific program itself would be entirely plenary rather than diluted into multiple concurrent sessions. Moreover, some of the most renowned researchers available were recruited as speakers yearly for each session. Whereas the emphasis of the plenary sessions of the first several scientific meetings was to expose attendees to examples of rigorously conducted, cutting-edge research and a diverse set of presenters and topics, meeting organizers gradually began to plan around specific themes and is the basis for current conferences.
The philosophy guiding the program plan was that a portion of each day would be free for persons to participate in optional workshops, meet informally around professional interests, or disdain professional affairs for a period of the day to return in the early evening for structured social activity concurrent with scientific poster presentations. Thus, the overscheduling that occurs in many conferences was avoided, and the opportunity to enjoy the comforts and attractions of the host site with professional colleges is encouraged.
Emergence of The Academy Everyone in the health education field did not uniformly embrace the emergence of The Academy. Some alleged that creating and promoting a new health education organization in what was already a crowded and fractionated field would only confound that situation further. Others viewed The Academy as an unnecessary upstart being promoted by “a small minority of malcontents.” Some saw The Academy as a competitor. Still others described The Academy with actual contempt, identifying The Academy as being “elitist” (presumably because of its membership eligibility criteria and choices of scientific meeting sites) and “sexist” (presumably because just 14 of the original 51 Founding Members and Charter Members were women). However, today over 50% of the members are female. What is certain is that The Academy did not go unnoticed by persons in the profession. As time has passed, The Academy established a niche for itself and is now a well-respected research organization.
Recognitions within The Academy: Fellow, Research Laureate and Lifetime Achievement Recognitions Fellow Typically with most organizations, one’s service contributions, name recognition, and organizational longevity alone satisfy inclusion criteria to be named a Fellow within an organization. In contrast, Glover wanted The Academy’s Fellow status to necessitate meeting explicit, rigorous, and verifiable criteria based exclusively on one’s demonstrable scholarship with respect to research – peer-reviewed publications, grants, and presentations to scholarly audiences. Thus, in keeping with the meritocratic theme of the organization, he established the Fellow status for researchers who had 50 or more data-based peer-reviewed publications in journals of at least national dissemination, and who met at least one of the following criteria: (1) had made at least 75 scientific presentations, (2) had been awarded at least 25 grants, (3) had been awarded cumulative grant funding of at least $1.5 million, or (4) had contributed significantly to the advancement of knowledge in health behavior through such magnitude as to equal any of the other categories above. The Board of Directors embraced and approved the establishment of these criteria.
Research Laureate Medallion Moreover, the Board discussed his recommendation and eventually agreed to the establishment of a unique award designated for Fellows whose career made them stand out, even in a field of accomplished individuals. This award became the Research Laureate Medallion of The Academy. Unlike the various plaques, trophies, or certificates that are commonly received by individuals who emerge as the best in their field, the Research Laureate Medallion was intended to be an exceptional and prized representation of excellence. The concept of the medallion and its eventual design was a consequence of the combined labor of Dr Glover; Dr Robert M. Weiler and Dr Molly T. Laflin. Glover inspired the belief that being a recipient of the Research Laureate Medallion could one day be the benchmark of fame for health behavior researchers. The first recipient of this prestigious award was Dr Lawrence W. Green, a highly respected researcher, theoretician, and philosopher across numerous disciplines related to health behavior and health care. The Academy quickly established the tradition of having the previous year’s recipient become the presenter of the Research Laureate Medallion to the subsequent year’s awardee. A complete list of recipients can be found at The Academy web site (www.aahb.org).
Lifetime Achievement Award The Lifetime Achievement Award was developed by the initial Academy board members to recognize significant influence and impact on the field of health behavior research. In 2000, the Board of Directors granted the first Lifetime Achievement Award recognition to Glover in the form of The American Academy of Health Behavior Lifetime Achievement Award in acknowledgment both of his research and his tireless work as the visionary in founding The Academy. The award has been subsequently awarded to only 2 other individuals, the noted psychologist, researcher, and theorist, Dr Albert Bandura, in 2006. In 2013 Dr Larry W. Green was also awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award as he clearly represented one of the most influential health behavior researchers in the field.
The Academy Today The Academy has attracted scholars from several disciplines, shaping it into the multidisciplinary group that was envisioned. The annual scientific meeting is now a coveted venue to be either an invited speaker, which is the only avenue to present, or to be a research poster presenter. The annual meetings continue to be held in unique and unusual venues. The meeting has become an avenue for the mentoring of young researchers – through roundtables, special mentoring workshops, and by means of the numerous informal opportunities provided to interact with highly accomplished researchers. To give formal recognition to an emerging researcher, The Academy established the Judy K. Black Early Career Research Award as further demonstration of its commitment to nurturing research. Judy K. Black was the wife of Dr David R. Black, one of The Academy’s Founding Members. She died in a tragic automobile accident in 2003. She was herself a dedicated professional, motivator, and mentor to students.
As The Academy completes its second decennial of scientific meetings, it can reflect favorably on what has been accomplished. It has abandoned neither its standards nor its passion. It has silenced most of its skeptics and detractors. Most importantly, it has fulfilled the promise of its visionary: to place science and discovery as the premiere values of a field of endeavor and to draw upon the richness of skilled investigators from a wide array of disciplines. Whereas the richness of thought and tradition among members of The Academy alone may never succeed entirely in conquering every health-behavior research challenge on the horizon, The Academy can take pride in having encouraged the spirit of many researchers to seek out further discoveries and new solutions. To that end, and as The Academy guard has changed, every new member-researcher has within his or her grasp the possibility of contributing to its further evolution.