Professional Development

My alarm goes off at 5:20am. I don’t even press the snooze button because I’m super excited to lead the 6am, 4.5 mile run from the conference hotel in downtown Louisville over the Big Four Bridge (no, seriously… I am excited!). I lie there curious to know if anyone will even show up and wonder to myself, if they don’t, will I still run or come back home and crawl into bed? I get dressed, eat a hardboiled egg, drink some tea and walk the 3 blocks from where I live in downtown Louisville to the Read ▸ about Southern Obesity Summit- Day 2

“It’s just a question of changing political will.” — Larry Cohen, Executive Director, Prevention Institute A fabulous panel of experts from a variety of backgrounds in obesity work and from across the US opened the 8th Annual Southern Obesity Summit in Louisville, Kentucky last night. Dr. Stephanie Mayfield Gibson, Commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Public Health set the stage by sharing what’s happening in Kentucky, both from data and programmatic perspectives, Read ▸ about Southern Obesity Summit- Day 1

“SIF is a White House initiative and program of the Corporation for National and Community Service, the Social Innovation Fund has the simple, but vital goal of finding solutions that work, and making them work for more people.We unite public and private resources to evaluate and grow innovative community-based solutions that have evidence of results in low-income communities in any of three priority areas: economic opportunity, healthy futures, and youth development.”  I'm Read ▸ about It Was a DC Kind of Day…

Here is an update about what Cairn Guidance has been up to recently. We are so excited to be working in school health, community health and within the content areas of: tele-medicine, after-school programming for youth, school health policies, facilitation, keynoting, bicycle and pedestrian-friendly streets, sustainability, curriculum, systems thinking, suicide prevention, mental health promotion, and obesity prevention! Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky- Jess is a part time project officer Read ▸ about What Have We Been Up To?

I'm here! It's gorgeous. 4 months ago when Susan Berry at the Maine Department of Education contacted me about working with them again at the end of June at Sugarloaf Resort, how could I say no? I arrived at 2pm today, took a hike part way up a ski mountain I haven't been to since high school. No joke, this place is in the middle of Maine. It took about 4.5 hours to drive here from Boston this morning. The weather is perfect and it's nice to be here a little early. Since I'm here for the Read ▸ about Sugarloaf Maine; Schoolsite Health Promotion Conference

Who REALLY loves webinars? I don't. But, living in a virtual world and working nationally, I have to stay current. And, one inexpensive, easy way to gain more knowledge, connect with new people and stay current is to participate in webinars. SPARK asked me to do a webinar  and I was flattered. The topic was comprehensive school health programs. Sure! I knew that topic. I could do it in my sleep. The bigger challenge? Keeping people interested and engaged throughout the 45-55 minutes. So, I Read ▸ about Who REALLY Loves Webinars?

As a business owner and someone completely immersed in the school health field, I find myself straddling two incredibly different worlds. K-12 schools are a completely different beast as compared to the business community, but both are incredibly important to the work I do.  Read ▸ about Leadership Lou; Best of Leadership Summit Reflections

I am asked often, how, eleven years ago, at 27 years old, I came to oversee K-12 Health Education at the Oregon Department of Education. And now at age 38, I am a national school health consultant with current/pending Department of Education clients in Alaska, Missouri, Connecticut, Maine and organizations such as Clinton Foundation's Health Matters Initiative, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Colorado Legacy Foundation, Kentucky Youth Health Network and Let's Move Active Schools.I Read ▸ about Who’s on My Team?