2010 Priester National Extension
Health Conference
April 20-22, 2010 - Mobile, AL
Call for Abstracts/Presentations
Deadline for submission of proposals has passed. Please consider registering for the conference as a participant by visiting the Registration section of this Web site.
Call for Presentations
Cooperative Extension professionals, their federal, state and local partners, and their students are invited to submit proposals related to the conference theme Healthy People, Healthy Communities: Reducing Health Disparities. Proposals should be related to one of the six tracks described below.
Conference Tracks
The 2010 conference theme, Healthy People, Healthy Communities: Reducing Health Disparities, celebrates Cooperative Extension’s long history of promoting health and preventing disease for individuals of every age and background, in families of all types, living in rural, suburban, and urban communities. While the following tracks will allow participants to focus on areas of particular interest, participants may attend any presentations of their choosing.
This year’s Conference Tracks: Chronic Disease Prevention and Management, Environmental Health/Sustainable Communities, Successful Aging, Rural Health, Integrated Programming and General Health/Special Topics focus on programs that address today’s challenges. Our communities, families, and youth are facing challenges such as baby boomer retirement, care giving for aging parents and other sandwich generation issues, new immigrant health, global consumer product safety, green living, and growing up healthy in a world of unprecedented affluence and communication technology, yet growing disparities among rich and poor. Participants are encouraged to take advantage of all conference tracks, since communities and professionals alike benefit from integrated programming.
- Chronic Disease Prevention and Management—chronic diseases (e.g., diabetes), healthy lifestyles, worksite health and wellness, health promotion, health literacy, food safety, diabetes, obesity prevention/reduction, physical activity and fitness, navigating the health care system, health disparities, health care financial issues
- Environmental Health/Sustainable Communities—children’s environmental health, healthy housing, green living, healthy communities/smart growth, community planning, occupational health, health care and health policy, global warming, community resources, universal design and housing, health disparities
- Successful Aging—healthy aging, baby boomer challenges/opportunities, caregiving issues, retirement planning, health care and health policy, universal design and housing, navigating the health care system, health care financial issues
- Rural Health—agricultural health and safety, agro-medicine, community and economic policy, farm safety
- Integrated Programming—programs that integrate traditional Extension areas of agriculture and natural resources, family and consumer sciences, 4-H and youth development and community and rural development concerning health education
- General Health/Special Health Topics—programs targeted for multi-cultural/diverse audiences, health literacy, internet/cyber health and safety, health care and health policy, navigating the health care system, social marketing, health disparities, health care financial issues, mental health
Conference Purpose
The Priester National Extension Health Conference offers professionals from Cooperative Extension, their federal, state, and local professional and community partners, and their students an opportunity to share health- related educational programs and resources, applied research, and collaborative strategies. The annual conference is named in honor of retired NIFA National Program Leader Jeanne Priester. This year’s conference is sponsored by the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, Family and Consumer Sciences Extension, the United States Department of Agriculture—National Institute for Food and Agriculture (USDA/NIFA), Alabama Department of Public Health, SERA-19 Rural Health and Southern Region Program Leaders Network.
Conference Objectives
Participants in the 2010 Priester National Extension Health Conference will:
- Increase knowledge of health trends and emerging issues.
- Increase knowledge of current health education theory and research.
- Increase knowledge of effective research-based health education programs and health promotion practices for diverse audiences.
- Encourage program speakers/presenters to generate articles for publication in professional journals.
- Increase knowledge of partnerships for health education, promotion, and policy.
- Develop a network of colleagues and partners for initiating or expanding health initiatives.
- Explore activities that support work/life balance.
- For students, gain experience in presentation skills and increase awareness of career paths.
Conference Format
Proposals are invited for workshops, presentations, contributed papers, roundtable discussions, share fair/poster displays and exhibits. Contributed papers are designed to encourage student participation. Students may also participate as co-presenters. The proposal submission form follows. Submitted proposals should focus on programs that educate community members about research in one of the focus areas, individual behavior change strategies, health care access and quality, health policy, community health infrastructure, and/or health literacy. Programs in the areas of healthy lifestyles, chronic disease prevention and management, health literacy, environmental or occupational health, and health policy that relate to conference tracks are strongly encouraged. Workshops and presentations are sought that demonstrate innovative ideas, promising practices, and outcomes and impacts based on evaluation; that are designed to reach diverse or targeted audiences, for example: limited resource, low literacy, Hispanic/Latino, African-American, new immigrants, rural, urban; that are focused in a particular specialty area or that utilize integrated programming, i.e. that combine the efforts of Extension’s traditional program areas of 4-H youth, family and consumer sciences, agriculture and natural resources, and community health and rural development; that address critical and emerging issues; or that are community, needs, or assets-based. Workshops that provide skills development and that apply to multiple tracks are also sought.
- Workshop: 45-minute sessions intended to share established and innovative curriculum, programs or evaluation resources, or community or policy development strategies through interactive activities and presentations.
- Presentation: 45-minute sessions intended to present information, research or evaluation results in a lecture format with some time for discussion.
- Contributed Paper: 10 to 30-minute presentations given during a session with other presenters of accepted papers. Presenters will be grouped by subject matter for session. (Intended for students—availability may depend on track).
- Share Fair/Poster: An opportunity for Extension professionals to showcase successful programs, projects, research, evaluation strategies or resources. Skirted tables will be provided if needed during this activity. Presenters are encouraged to share tabletop displays, sample materials, brochures, and contact information. Share Fair/Poster presenters will be expected to stand near their display during Share Fair.
- Exhibits: Cooperative Extension educators, health associations, not-for-profit organizations, publishers and companies are invited to exhibit. Exhibits will provide participants with an opportunity to explore possible new program options and find out about available resources.
Proposal Review Process and Criteria
Conference tracks are being planned by subcommittees. Subcommittee members include state and county Extension educators, university faculty, and their state and federal partners. Tracks may include presentations or workshops selected through the RFP process as well as sessions specifically planned by the subcommittee. In other words, subcommittees have the option of carving out a portion of the concurrent session time to plan and conduct a specific educational experience for conference attendees. Proposals that are submitted will undergo a blind review using the following criteria.
Proposed Session:
- relates to the conference theme
- relates to one of the identified tracks (or if skills-based, is relevant to health programming/research)
- has clearly defined learning objectives for conference participants
- describes a program/policy/activity that
- addresses identified need in community
- uses a collaborative approach
- provides participants with skills, knowledge, and abilities
- engages participants in active learning
- has clearly stated participant outcomes
- presents information in a new or creative way
- provides information that is replicable and applicable to other areas or populations
- provides evaluation data (where applicable)
- is appropriate for conference audience and objectives.
- is research based with implications for application.
The quality of writing will be reviewed as well. The writing criteria include:
- grammar and spelling
- clear and concise writing.
2010 Priester Award
Consider submitting your program/activity for the Priester Award. The Priester Award is made in honor of the accomplishments and contributions of Jeanne M. Priester to the Cooperative Extension System. Ms. Priester was a leader in advancing health education within CES during her tenure at the United States Department of Agriculture. The purpose of the award is to honor Extension programs that are positively impacting the health of people in communities across the United States and are expanding Extension’s capacity to effectively provide health programs. The Priester award will recognize sound and innovative health education programs on the county/multi-county and state/multi-state level. Look for award nomination forms and procedures in December 2009 at www.aces.edu/priester
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Last Updated: January 25, 2010
Co-sponsored by
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)/
National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA)
Alabama Cooperative Extension System
Alabama Department of Public Health
Southern Region Program Leaders Network
Southern Extension and Research Activity Information Exchange Group for Rural Health (SERA-IEG 19)