Continuing their efforts in the fight against childhood obesity, The Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living (the Center), part of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), has been awarded a 4-year, $3.7 million grant from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation.
“Childhood obesity is one of the most challenging public health issues facing the nation and rates of child obesity are especially high in Texas,” Deanna Hoelscher, PhD, director of the Center, which is located at The University of Texas School of Public Health Austin Regional Campus, part of UTHealth, stated in a press release. “With this funding, the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation expands its commitment to building the science base and community capacity for effective prevention programs in order to achieve a vision of ‘healthy children in a healthy world.’”
With the new funding, the Center plans to expand its child health research. This grant provides funding for the Center to establish new initiatives such as a communications core, a community advisory board and a core for data analysis. The Center will also be able to expand its community advisory board, which will help connect with valuable community organizations and receive community input for research to create a synergistic effort for improving child health in central Texas.
According to Steven Kelder, PhD, co-director of the Center, grant funds will also go toward using data from research projects from across the country in hopes of developing and influencing policy and public health practice in Texas. This will also provide training opportunities for graduate students and post-doctoral fellows at the School of Public Health.
The Center will continue its core activities which include the Michael & Susan Dell Lectureship in Child Health and Texas Obesity Awareness Week activities.
