Awards Description & Criteria

Directors of Health Promotion and Education (DHPE) has ten (10) awards that recognize the work and contributions to those in the field of public health. Awards may be granted to individuals, groups or organizations who help to advance heath promotion and education as they align with DHPE’s mission and vision.

Please review the description of awards listed below. If you would like to nominate someone for one of the awards, please use the online nomination form. Submit your nomination(s) no later May 1, 2015 before the annual meeting for consideration. Only one winner will be selected per award category. Awards will be presented at the DHPE Annual Meeting.

2014 Winners

• Leadership Award for State or National Population Health Impact
• Hod Ogden Award for Innovation in Health Communications
• Evans Muneoka Award for Mentoring
• Health Promotion Medal for Use of the Evidence Base in Health Promotion/Education
• Award for Collaboration at the National or State Level
• Award for Collaboration at the State or Community Level
• Health Promotion and Education Advocacy Award
• David Satcher Award for Reducing Health Disparities
• Emerging Leader Award
• Mary Bobbitt-Cooke School Health Leadership Award 

Leadership Award for State or National Population Health Impact
(DHPE members only)
This award recognizes outstanding leadership by a member of the DHPE association in demonstrating the planned use of health promotion knowledge and skills to achieve measurable impact on statewide risk behavior prevalence or population health status, and/or having a measurable impact through personal influence at the national level.

Eligibility Criteria

For consideration as a nominee, the individual must be one of the following:A DHPE Voting Member from a state, Tribal, territorial or local governmental public health agency.

• A  DHPE Associate Member at the time of their work in a governmental state, Tribal, territorial or local public health agency; at a recognized public health system partner agency; or from a state, Tribal or local health-related partnership, coalition or initiative.

Selection Criteria

• Contributions led to an increase in the number or level of activity of constituencies brought together to expand planned health promotion/health education programs, processes or interventions across the state; or had a documented role in influencing the collective impact of constituencies on a national program, process or policy.
• Role has illustrated either a breadth or a depth of leadership instrumental to achieved outcomes or both.

Hod Ogden Medal for Innovation in Health Communications
This award honors a person whose vision, imagination, and creativity has positively influenced the advancement of the health education and health promotion field in his/her state or in the nation. The award honors the late Hod Ogden, whose distinguished career in health education and leadership provided the groundwork for many of the chronic disease prevention and health promotion programs currently funding state and local health departments today. Hod Ogden launched national programs on tobacco reduction and cardiovascular disease prevention and left a legacy through drafting Surgeon General Reports and founding the conference now known as the National Conference on Health Education and Health Promotion.

Eligibility Criteria

For consideration as a nominee, the individual must be one of the following:

• A professional or student in the field of health promotion/health education who holds a health promotion-related certification
• Working at the national, state, Tribal, territorial or local level.

Selection Criteria

• Demonstrates a degree of innovation creativity and humor to positively influence through communications, the advancement of public health capacity, health improvement, health equity and/or school health in his or her respective community.

Evans/Muneoka Award for Mentoring
(DHPE members only)
This award honors a DPHE member (Voting or Associate) who exemplifies consistent and extraordinary mentoring and professional support to health promotion and health education staff, state, local and national colleagues and/or other members. The award honors the memory of members, Karen Evans and Laurel Muneoka, who lived their lives as professionals who went out of their way to provide special attention and mentoring to others they worked with, regardless of status or setting.

Eligibility Criteria

For consideration as a nominee, the individual must be one of the following:

• A DHPE Voting Member from a state, Tribal or local governmental public health agency
• A DHPE Associate Member at the time of their work in a governmental state, Tribal, territorial or local public health agency; at a recognized public health system partner agency; or from a state, Tribal or local health-related partnership, coalition or initiative.

Selection Criteria

• Degree of professional and/or personal access for mentoring provided to health promotion and health education staff, state/local/national colleagues and/or other DPHE members
• Range of mentees roles and status
• Number of years of mentoring service
• Brief testimony from a minimum of three mentees (testimony by email is acceptable)

Health Promotion Medal for the Use of Evidence Base in Health Promotion/Education
(DHPE members only)
This award honors a DHPE member whose work at the state level has increased their state or Tribal nation’s capacity in using science to guide state level health promotion/health education programs, policies or interventions.

Eligibility Criteria

For consideration as a nominee, the individual must one of the following:

• A DHPE Voting Member from a state, Tribal, territorial or local health agency
• A DHPE Associate Member at the time of their work in a governmental state, Tribal, territorial or local public health agency; at a recognized public health system partner agency; or from a state, Tribal or local health-related partnership, coalition or initiative.

Selection Criteria

• Built or demonstrated capacity to use science
• Demonstrated role in capacity-building must be described

Award for Collaboration at the National and Regional Level
This award honors a national or regional entity that has resulted in strengthened state-local relationships to impact national level recognition and use of health education and health promotion role and practices.

Eligibility Criteria

For consideration, the nominee must be:

• A national or regional entity

Selection Criteria

• Efforts united state or community-level constituents
• Demonstrated innovative health education/health promotion practices at the national level
• Advocacy resulted in a federal or national organizational change at the policy, program, funding or intervention level.

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Award for Collaboration at the State/Community Level
This award honors state or community group efforts that have resulted in evidence of coalescence between state or community level constituents in demonstrating innovative health education and health promotion practices at the state or community level.

Eligibility Criteria

For consideration, the nominee must be:

• A statewide or community group

Selection Criteria

• Efforts united state-level or community-level constituents
• Demonstrated innovative health education/health promotion practices at the state or community level

Health Promotion and Education Advocacy Award
This award honors a person for his/her advocacy to further health education as a profession and/or who has served as a champion in promoting the science of health promotion and disease prevention at the state or national level. Nominations are also being accepted under this category for policy makers who promote prevention efforts in public health.

Eligibility Criteria

For consideration as a nominee, the individual must be:

• A public health champion

Selection Criteria

• Promoted the science of health promotion and disease prevention at the state or national level
• Promoted prevention efforts in public health
• Demonstrated his/her advocacy to further health education as a profession

David Satcher Award for Reducing Health Disparities
This award honors Dr. David Satcher, former Surgeon General and CDC Director, whose persistent efforts focused national attention on evidence that race and ethnicity correlate with on-going, and often increasing, health disparities among U.S. populations. Dr. Satcher was the first African American Director of the CDC and was Surgeon General during the release of the Healthy People 2010 national health objectives, which included for the first time a national focus on reducing health disparities.

The recipient of this award is a person whose leadership in reducing health disparities has resulted in the improvement of health promotion and health education programs at the state or local level. Through state or local efforts, the recipient has demonstrated successful program implementation, which has reduced health disparities by sharing new knowledge about the causes of health disparities, translating research to practice, or using innovative methods of promoting health and delivering culturally competent and linguistically specific preventive and/or clinical services.

Eligibility Criteria

For consideration, the nominee must be:

• An individual working in the field of public health

Selection Criteria

• Demonstrated successful program implementation
• Demonstrated leadership in reducing health disparities among racial and ethnic minority populations
• Work resulted in improved health education and health promotion programs at the state or local level

Emerging Leader Award
This award honors a current or past DHPE intern/fellow whose creativity and performance has positively influenced his/her placement site activities in health education and promotion. The nominee demonstrated academic excellence during her/his internship/fellowship and work has resulted in facilitating the placement site’s mission to serve its client.

Eligibility Criteria

For consideration, the nominee must be:

• A current or past DHPE/CDC intern or fellow

Selection Criteria

• Demonstrated innovative health education/health promotion practices during the internship/fellowship
• Has chosen to working in the public health education/promotion field or pursuing an advanced degree in a related discipline

Mary Bobbitt-Cooke School Health Leadership Award
This award recognizes a person from the field of public health who has championed an initiative that improves the health and well-being of members of school communities. This award honors long-time DHPE member, Mary Bobbitt-Cooke, MPH, who worked tirelessly to improve the public’s health both in her home state of North Carolina and nationally. Mary believed that community is where health improvement happens. It was her vision that created the School Employee Wellness (SEW) program that has provided resources and incentives to communities across the country to protect their schools’ greatest assets, their faculty and staff, though wellness programs.

In 2007, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) awarded the first Lloyd J. Kolbe Award for Leadership in Coordinated School Health to DHPE for its work on SEW. Mary was the champion who made sure that this important idea was brought to fruition. The Mary Bobbitt-Cooke award will recognize other public health leaders who share Mary’s passion for schools as a venue for health promotion.

Eligibility Criteria

For consideration, the nominee must be:

• An Individual working in the field of public health

Selection Criteria

• Work improved the health and well-being of members of school communities
• Demonstrated a passion for school health and community