february, 2011
Congratulations, Merry!
Minkler honored with McGovern Award for Health Promotion
For 35 years, Meredith Minkler has undertaken health disparities research,
community building and organizing, and community-based participatory
research (CBPR) with underserved communities including the low income,
elderly, grandmothers raising grandchildren, people with disabilities,
youth, and immigrant workers. In recognition of her achievements, Minkler,
professor of health and social behavior, has received the John P. McGovern
Award for Health Promotion from the University of Texas, School of Public
Health at Houston.
The John P. McGovern Award Lecture Series in Health Promotion was
established in 1996 by McGovern to acknowledge the important role that
health promotion programs play in public health to improve health and
prevent disease. McGovern has had a long-standing involvement in programs
that help individuals and communities to prevent lifestyle-related
illnesses and cope with chronic disease and disabilities. His generous
gift to The Centers for Health Promotion and Prevention Research provides
an opportunity to recognize distinguished researchers who have made
outstanding contributions to the development, implementation and
evaluation of health promotion programs.
"Receiving this award, whose prior recipients include such luminaries in
our field as Al Badura, Martin Fishbein, Noreen Clark, Barbara Rimer, and
Larry Green, was a very humbling experience," said Minkler.
On January 13, 2011, Minkler presented the Annual John P. McGovern Award
Lecture in Houston, and received the award metal and monetary prize,
sponsored by the Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research at
the University of Texas. Her lecture was titled, "Community-Engaged
Research: What's the Value Added for Health Promotion Research and
Practice?"
Minkler currently directs the School's Health and Social Behavior program
and was the founding director of the UC Berkeley Center on Aging. In
addition to her research for The California Endowment on CBPR as a
strategy for linking place-based work and policy, Minkler's current
research and service includes a national study of racial/ethnic class
disparities in disability; a CBPR project with Chinatown restaurant
workers in San Francisco; and a state-wide program fostering senior
leadership in healthy aging, community building, and healthy public policy
for seniors and their families. Her publications include more than 120
articles in peer reviewed journals and 7 books.