Vision
The Hygiene & Health Center at Simmons shall have three inter-related aims: education, research, and leadership. Within each of these areas lie opportunities for recognition, growth, and positive contributions to society. The Center, when fully functional, will be an interdisciplinary entity of international stature offering hygiene information resources, adult and continuing education, and satellite programs in hygiene and health education and research.
Education
The Center’s educational mission would strive to reach both the general population and, in particular, to target at-risk groups on health & hygiene. An initial aim would be to increase awareness of individual and community hygiene issues, reaching as many individuals as possible. We think that most people do not appreciate the importance of hygiene to their health and well-being. Under most states’ curriculum goals for elementary health education, students are expected to develop understanding of health promotion and disease prevention, including principles of personal hygiene, and to apply their understanding to their individual lifestyles. Unfortunately the transition from understanding to application is not occurring for most people. We believe that this issue should be a priority for reform of public health education, and we envision the Center as a leader in the reform movement.
As a resource for Continuing Education Units, the Center would serve the need for continual reinforcement of the hygiene message, and would strive to bridge the gap between understanding and applying the principles of hygiene to the daily lives of individuals. The Center would accomplish these goals by providing conferences, courses and certificate programs within Simmons College, and eventually outside of Simmons. To achieve the goal of reaching as many people as possible, the Center’s initial focus is likely to be to “train the trainer,” that is, to target individuals who themselves have responsibility for teaching others (health teachers, nurses, nutritionists, foodservice managers, child care providers, elder services providers, etc.). A long-tern educational goal would be to forge training partnerships within communities and industry. Building on the initial educational efforts of the Center by maintaining ongoing relationships with alumni, we hope to foster creation of a hygiene resource within communities that is actively supported and assisted by leaders in the hygiene products industry. The Center would remain an important source of initial education and training, both nationally and internationally, while expanding its role and presence to meet the evolving needs of the communities.
Research
The Center’s research mission would encompass applying research to increasing safety and decreasing risk in home and community settings. Ample opportunities for research on individual and community hygiene already exist for faculty, students, and visiting scientists from within the science disciplines. As well, collaborative research opportunities across disciplines (e.g., research on behavior change across cultures, genders, ages) exist and await development. We envision the Center as a leader in the field of hygiene science, from basic research to applications in communities (including developing hygiene-related benefits [e.g., ameliorating lost productivity, etc.] that would result in significant savings to communities and industries).
There are also opportunities to apply hygiene initiatives to the developing world as a key factor in reducing the burden of childhood diarrheal illness.
Leadership
As the education and research aims are complementarily developed, we envision the Center becoming an unbiased national information resource on hygiene. An early goal is to develop archival and web-based information data bases which can be accessed by all. These systems will support the educational and research aims of the Center by providing up-to-date information in formats accessible to the general public as well as to hygiene industry and academic professionals. Thus the Center will become the acknowledged leader in providing hygiene information resources.
The Center, through its educational and research efforts, will establish recommendations for hygiene practice, training, and research which will be recognized as the standards in the field. Partnerships with government and industry will be actively and aggressively sought and maintained to further the aims of the Center. As the Center gains in stature and recognition as The Authority on hygiene in the United States, professional endorsements will be solicited and used to validate our mission and to strengthen our leadership position as a unique provider of hygiene education and research.
We also envision the Center assuming a leadership role in promoting the streamlining of government food safety agencies. We believe that the present conglomeration of government agencies involved in regulating food safety, while also involved in promoting the regulated industries, is not the most efficient means to insure public health and safety. We envision the Center as not merely another signatory to the list of reformers; rather, we advocate a very visible leadership role for the Center, backed by sound scientific research, committed to working in partnership with communities, industry and government to bring about the single food safety agency that is needed.
Conference
Cleaning for a Healthy Indoor Environment for Children
Co-Directors
Elizabeth Scott, Ph.D.
Department of Biology
Nancie Herbold, Ed.D., R.D.
Nutrition Programs
Contact Us
By Email
617-521-2664
