Press Release

March 29, 2006
Contact: Jerry Carey
Phone: (856) 566-6171
careyge@umdnj.edu

Public Health Symposium Connects Healthy Communities, Healthy Kids

NEW BRUNSWICK/PISCATAWAY—The impact of urban sprawl and the importance of wise community development will be among the topics of discussion as the UMDNJ-School of Public Health celebrates National Public Health Week with "Partners in Designing Healthy Communities," a symposium for public health professionals, on Monday, April 3.

More than 200 are expected to attend this event that features an address by a nationally known public health expert and a panel discussion on successful community design programs already in place in Trenton, Perth Amboy and New Brunswick. Researchers from the school will also present the results of more than a dozen current projects at the UMDNJ-School of Public Health.

This year, National Public Health Week calls attention to the relationship between built environments - homes, schools, parks and community design - and the health and safety of the children by promoting solutions that families, communities and policy-makers can use to improve public health in their communities.

The highlight of the symposium will be a keynote speech by Richard Killingsworth, a former health scientist at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We Are Where We Live" will address the impact that community design has on public health. Killingsworth led the federal government’s first program to improve health through community planning and transportation initiatives. He is one of only a few public health practitioners routinely sought out by city planners, transportation authorities, architects and outdoor recreation professionals throughout the country to help them develop policies and programs that promote physical activity through construction of public facilities. He currently serves as the program director at the Ruth Mott Foundation in Flint, Michigan, a national program that promotes community vitality through support of programs focused on arts, beautification and health promotion.

More information on this symposium is available at www.PublicHealthSymposium.org.

The symposium will be held from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., in the Great Hall at the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, 675 Hoes Lane West, in Piscataway.