Michael O’Donnell, founder and editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Health Promotion, will give the Health Sciences Nolte Lecture at Illinois State University at 5 p.m. Wednesday, September 28, in the Prairie Room of the Bone Student Center. His talk is titled “AMSO POSSE2: A Framework to Develop Effective Organization and Individual Health Behavior Change Programs.”
Michael O’Donnell
The event, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Department of Health Sciences and the Illinois Prairie Community Foundation Nolte Fund.
O’Donnell’s lecture, an interactive discussion examining successful workplace, health-promotion programs, will focus on how to implement ideas on individual and organizational levels. “Health promotion programs that focus on educating people on the links between health behaviors and health outcomes often fail because they do not recognize the complex factors that impact health behavior and successful behavior change,” said O’Donnell, who has more than 30 years of experience working directly with employers, health care organizations, government agencies, foundations, insurance companies, and health-promotion providers.
The founder and chairman emeritus of Health Promotion Advocates, O’Donnell created the non-profit policy group to integrate health promotion strategies into national policy. Health Promotion Advocates was successful in developing six provisions that became law as part of the Affordable Care Act.
Co-author of Health Promotion in the Workplace, O’Donnell has six books and more than 200 articles, book chapters, and columns to his credit. He is the recipient of 13 national awards for his work with nonprofit and for-profit organizations. O’Donnell’s most recent awards are the Elizabeth Fries Health Education Award, presented by the James F. and Sarah T. Fries Foundation; and the Bill Whitmer Leadership Award, presented by the Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO). He was also presented with the Halbert L. Dunn Wellness Award at the 2016 National Wellness Institute’s Annual Conference.
O’Donnell earned a Ph.D. in health behavior from University of Michigan, and an MBA in general management and a master’s degree of public health in hospital management, both from University of California, Berkeley. He was a Senior Fulbright Scholar and visiting professor in Seoul, South Korea.
The Illinois State University Speaker Series seeks to bring innovative and enlightening speakers to the campus with the aim of providing the community with a platform to foster dialogue, cultivate enriching ideas, and continue an appreciation of learning as an active and lifelong process. All talks are free and open to the public.
