Giving

Health Happening

Annual Healthology Symposium invites the community to share in research

Program participants at the Healthology Symposium
Attendees at the Healthology Symposium
A speaker during the Healthology Symposium at Oakland University
Moon J. Pak, M.D., receives an award from Oakland University Dean Kevin Ball, Ph.D.

Healthology

icon of a calendarNovember 15, 2017

icon of a pencilBy Emell Derra Adolphus

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The new annual Healthology Symposium provides faculty and students of the School of Health Sciences with the opportunity to bring Oakland communities together in the sharing of research and knowledge on meaningful contemporary health topics.

“The tagline of Healthology is ‘where science, practice and social interests meet,’” explains Dean Kevin Ball, Ph.D. “The symposium provides a culminating focus for our faculty and students, who together with health professionals are pursuing active community-engaged research and scholarship, creating meaningful impact through experiential learning that contributes to the common good.”

Dr. Ball has personally pledged $25,000 to support an endowment that ensures Healthology will now grow as a permanent community fixture of the School. “The annual personal and corporate partner fundraising in support of each symposium will be split 50 percent to fund faculty-driven, student-engaged, community-focused health research projects. The remaining 50 percent, after costs, will grow the endowment to enable continuous funding for even broader, bolder planning for the following year,” he explains.

“Our future goal is to fund high-recognition speakers to create greater community-engagement, while also providing an ever-greater visibility platform for our students to engage the world in their experiences and work.”

Each year, the symposium will center on one of the School of Health Sciences’ (SHS) core departments: interdisciplinary health sciences, public and environmental wellness, clinical and diagnostic sciences, and human movement science.

The next Healthology is planned for late spring. “It becomes the visual focal point of our activities in the same way that the School of Nursing has their Nightingale Awards,” says Dr. Ball. “Twenty-nine years later, Nightingale is a really impressive event. It will be really interesting to see 29 years from now what Healthology looks like.” He adds, “It is meaningful, indeed, to annually recognize the good being achieved within community through these efforts.”

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