Department of Health Behavior history

(The department was previously known as the Department of Health Education and the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education.)

• Video recording of the 1st HBHE Retrospective (2006) - The Morgan Years - features Edward Fisher, Jo Anne Earp, La Verne Reid, Ida and William Friday (100 min.) Friday, September 15, 2006 from 4:00 to 7:00 pm at the Carolina Club/Alumni Club on the UNC Campus.
   
• Video recording of the 2nd HBHE Retrospective (2008) - John Hatch, Jack Geiger - Edward Fisher, Geni Eng, the video "Out in the Rural" (at timepoint 10:30), Jack Geiger, John Hatch (80 min.). Friday, September 12, 2008, 4 PM ET, Old Well Room of the Carolina Inn.
   
• William A. Darity received his Health Education PhD in June 1964, becoming the first African American to earn a PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He went on to become the first dean of the school of public health at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and the first African American to serve on the UNC Chapel Hill Board of Trustees, among many other notable accomplishments. (More about William Darity, Sr.)
   
• Edward Ellis received his Health Education PhD in August 1964, becoming the second African American to earn a PhD from the UNC School of Public Health. More information and a video recording of a 2014 interview is at https://go.unc.edu/EdwardEllis
   
• Bernice Green Otudeko received her Health Education masters degree in 1966. Previously she had become the first African American - and the first woman - to sing with the UNC Men's Glee Club, accompanying them to the 1964 New York World's Fair. More information and a video recording of a 2015 interview is at https://go.unc.edu/Bernice Otudeko.
   
• From Health Behavior News, 2013-2014, page 17:

  Julian L. Lewis (MPH 1962) wrote to us in response to Allan Steckler’s request for historical information about the department:

  “When I graduated from UNC in 1962, I was one of the first two African American students to receive an MPH in the department. The other African American is Van Allen. Being minority students, Van and I developed a close relationship and studied together.

  "Dr. Lucy Morgan, Director of the Department, was one the most memorable persons I met while at UNC. She interviewed me for enrollment in the program and for a Public Health Service Traineeship (scholarship), which I received. During the interview she informed me that if I experienced any discrimination on the campus of UNC, she wanted to be the first to know about it. During the year I had nothing to report to her. Other faculty members who were most helpful were Ralph Boatman, Rosemary Kent, Hiawatha Walker and Elizabeth McMahon. Dr. Morgan advised and counseled me during the school year. I also had a mentoring relationship with Dr. Hiawatha Walker who provided insight regarding class work in health education.

  "The most memorable class I took was Statistics or Stat, as we referred to it. There was a persistent rumor that it was so difficult that only about half the students passed the course. This caused all of the members in my class to become hyped up about the course. Van and I studied for the class together and with help from our instructor we passed the course. Only one of our classmates failed.

  "The class that had the greatest impact on my career was Community Organization. It helped to prepare me to complete task and projects I was assigned during my field training. It also helped to prepare me for the professional positions which I achieved during my career. As a minority graduate student in the early 1960s, there were not many activities available to me or for which I had time.

  "My degree in Health Education and subsequent experiences qualified me to become the first African American in the United Stated to serve as Executive Director of a local chapter/affiliate of the Leukemia Society of America and the American Lung Association, both in Cleveland, Ohio. I retired from the Ohio Department of Health as a consultant on tobacco use in 2000.”

• From Van Allen's CV:

  "In January 1950, I completed work for the A.B. degree at Tougaloo College, Tougaloo, Mississippi.
  
  "In the Spring of 1950, I was granted a John Hay Whitney Opportunity Fellowship, with which I entered the University of Michigan, where I completed work for the M.S. degree in February 1952.
  
  "Upon completing work for the M.S. degree at the University of Michigan, I accepted employment at Bennett College (September 1952), where I continued my affiliation until 1968.
  
  "During the above interim my professional development was continued with the earning of a certificate in Alcohol Studies from Yale University's School of Alcohol Studies in 1955. (This latter experience was supported with a scholarship for the North Carolina Alcohol Rehabilitation Program.)
  
  "In 1961-62, with the aid of a U.S. Public Health Traineeship, I earned the M.P.H. from the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
  
  "During the years of 1962-1965, with the aid of a Methodist Episcopal Church scholarship and a second Public Health Traineeship, I completed the academic requirements for the Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and in June 1969, the Ph.D. in Public Health Education was received from the University."
  
  More about Van Sizar Allen is at https://go.unc.edu/VanAllen

Information about other Health Behavior graduates, including links to recorded interviews, are in the Health Behavior | People folder on this website (Department of Health Behavior | People).
 

Articles from past issues of Health Behavior News (as far back as 2010) are at https://sph.unc.edu/category/health_behavior_news/

More Department of Health Behavior history on the Department's website.