What does a National School Health Consultant do?

A lot of people ask me what a school health consultant does. Instead of abstractly communicating my mission, I’m going to share my current contracts and I think it will paint a clear picture of what we do!

• I will be the content lead for a conference dedicated to health disparities and childhood obesity funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in partnership with Clinton Foundation’s Health Matters Initiative. Being the content lead means I work with all the content for the conference- videos to speakers to the bios that go into the program. I have the opportunity to have calls to brief all the speakers, moderators and strategic partners making commitments. It’s a fabulous role that connects me to great people! This event will be in Newark, NJ, May 9.
• We are working with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation on a project related to their Healthy Schools Program and sustainability. That work will take me to Portland, Indianapolis and a few other TBD locations from now through mid-summer.
• We are completing a paper for the Colorado Legacy Foundation on school health supporting education accountability measures… how does addressing the health and well-being of students and staff increase test scores/grades, graduation rates and attendance? This work will be completed very soon and available. I will share once the document is public. 
• Maine Department of Education has hired me to do a keynote presentation at their School-site Wellness Conference late June at Sugarloaf Mountain. Looking forward to addressing a large audience of school teams. More to come on my speaking objectives and content!
• I will be facilitating the Kentucky Youth Health Network through a strategic planing process late March. This group, formerly called the KY Teen Pregnancy Coalition works on sexual health promotion and risk behavior prevention among youth in Kentucky. We will be reviewing state level sexual health and risk data among youth, developing a vision, bold steps and a 5 year blueprint for action. The hope is that with clear direction, more funding opportunities will be available to do work within the blueprint/strategic plan.
• I will be facilitating a webinar on Comprehensive School Health Program/Coordinated School Health for SPARK on March 19th at 6pm EST. The objectives for the 75 minute webinar include:
  -Understand the relationship of health issues to education accountability measures
  -Understand the CSH model and how CSPAP fits into the model, and hear examples
  -Learn how to build sustainable school health programs
  -Be encouraged to set one next step goal around what they learned on the webinar
  More information on how to participate soon!
• I’m co-facilitating a full day pre-conference at the National AAHPERD/SHAPE in St Louis on April 1 for Let’s Move Active Schools; Physical Activity Leader Training with Judy LoBianco, 2013 AAHPERD National Physical Education Administrator of the Year 2013
• Next week I head to Connecticut to facilitate a CDC School Health Guidelines Training for CT Department of Ed (DOE) and CT Department of Health (DOH) and their 1305 grantee school districts. I will be doing a similar training for Tulsa County Public Schools in June. 
• Jamie Sparks and I will be traveling to Alaska in October to co-facilitate the Systems Thinking Systems Changing simulation for AK DOE and AK DOH for their 1305 grantee school districts. 

Yup- that’s what we do! We have some pending work on the horizon. All our work is very different and very exciting. But, all related making schools healthier places for students and staff!