In July 2007, Tammy Bray, Dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences assembled a Steering Committee to begin developing a vision statement for the new Hallie Ford Center for Healthy Children and Families. They met regularly from July through November and presented a preliminary vision to college faculty, who then met in two open forums to further develop the statement. The vision statement below emerged from these discussions and is based on the key strengths, interests, and investments of the college faculty. This statement provides a foundation from which the new director will build the Center.

VISION STATEMENT
January 2008

The Hallie Ford Center for Healthy Children and Families promotes the development and well-being of children and families by generating, translating, applying, and sharing knowledge. Enhancing the well-being of children and families has far-reaching consequences for Oregon and beyond, as healthy children and families form the foundation for successful individual and community development. The Center advocates a holistic, interdisciplinary approach to research and outreach that honors families’ culture and context. It invests in the future by using research to inform policies and programs to promote healthy child development.

The Center embraces these foundational beliefs:

• The early years are fundamentally important for optimizing healthy development.
• Each child’s unique and important potential must be supported by healthy environments and experiences.
• Healthy families provide the foundation for healthy child development.
• The culture and language of each family contribute to their own well-being and that of our nation.
• Healthy children and families form the basis for successful communities and vibrant economic development.

The mission of the Center, therefore, is to promote healthy children and families by:

• Facilitating high quality research
• Translating research into practice
• Building the capacity of families, service providers and communities

The Center is committed to:

• Advancing basic and applied human research
• Facilitating collaboration between members of multiple academic departments
• Using advanced and innovative research methods
• Training and mentoring graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and junior faculty
• Developing and evaluating programs and policies
• Disseminating research-based knowledge to audiences in Oregon and beyond
• Providing training and technical assistance to non-profit and government agencies/professionals that provide services to families

Research Cores

The Center is organized into four research Cores devoted to:

• Healthy Development in Early Childhood
• Risky and Protective Behaviors and Environments for Youth
• Obesity Prevention in Children and Families
• Vulnerable Children and Families

These Cores have been identified in part because they build on the existing strengths of the College, and are broad enough to maximize the contributions of faculty. They have been proposed with the hope of creating opportunities for members of each department to participate in the Center and be represented in the Cores, thereby creating new collaborative possibilities across the College. The proposed Cores are also not mutually exclusive, which will also prompt active collaboration across them. No single department should be identified with a particular Core.

Perhaps more importantly, the proposed Cores have been identified with the future in mind. They are viewed as being ripe for new growth, and as catalysts for collaborative research activity that can lead the College to new prominence in the future – with respect to both advancing science and serving the needs of the public. They also nicely augment and reinforce the strategic plans of the College and University. Indeed, the Center will directly address the fourth theme of the University’s strategic plan, which is to focus on realizing fundamental contributions in the life sciences and optimizing the health and well-being of the public.

Core Descriptions

Core 1. Healthy Development in Early Childhood
The goals of this Core are to develop and conduct innovative research on optimizing children's development and well-being in families, early care and educational settings, and communities and to disseminate findings to inform evidence-based practices and policies.

Core 2. Risky and Protective Behaviors and Environments for Youth
The goals of this Core are to develop and conduct innovative research on the causes and prevention/promotion of behaviors and environments that threaten or enhance the health and well-being of youth, and to disseminate findings to inform evidence-based practices and policies.

Core 3. Obesity Prevention in Children and Families
The goals of this Core are to develop and conduct innovative research on the causes and prevention of childhood obesity and to disseminate findings to inform evidence-based practices and policies.

Core 4. Vulnerable Children and Families
The goals of this Core are to develop and conduct innovative research on the health and well-being of vulnerable populations, and to disseminate findings to inform evidence-based practices that optimize the well-being of these populations. Vulnerable populations include, but are not limited to, children and youth with special needs, families in poverty, diverse families, and rural communities.

Shared Emphases of the Cores

• Several specific emphases are likely to be shared by all of the Cores. These include:
• Developing and refining methods and measures;
• Understanding how behavioral, social, and environmental factors influence the health of children, families, and communities;
• Designing and evaluating evidence-based interventions, programs, and policies; and
• Translating evidence-based promotion and prevention efforts into practice.

Core Leadership

Each Core should have a Director and a small group of faculty with compatible research interests, as identified above. The responsibilities of Core Directors will include:

• Meeting with the Center Director and other Core Directors as part of the Executive Committee
• Making decisions on Center memberships in conjunction with the Director and other Core Directors
• Reviewing and awarding seed grant applications, also in conjunction with the Director and other Core Directors
• Stewarding grant submissions that are nurtured out of collaborations within the Core
• Managing Core meetings and events
• Mentoring junior Core members and helping to guide their publication and grant submissions
• Circulating announcements about grant opportunities
• Contributing and coordinating Core materials for Center publications

There may be overlap in the scope of the Cores, but these intersections should be viewed as fruitful grounds for collaboration and direction, not competing interests. The scope of these Cores may change over time as a function of composition and interests of the faculty, as well as new or emergent directions in science.

Functions of the Center

The primary function of the Center is to facilitate collaborative research and outreach related to the health of children and families. The goal is to create a Center that offers tangible, valuable support services and resources for its members and the College. These services and resources, which might naturally expand with increasing external funding, include:

• External and internal reviews of grant applications
• Grant writing workshops
• Workshops on research techniques and statistical methods
• Statistical and evaluation consulting services
• Notification of funding opportunities
• General assistance with grant preparation and submission
• Research space for research staff, and students working on funded projects (but no duplicate faculty offices)
• Research-based mentoring to students, post-doctoral fellows, and junior faculty
• Protected space or “buffer zone” for groups and individuals to work on grant proposals or other collaborative research activities
• Office space for visiting scholars
• Sponsorship and management of a seminar series featuring nationally and internationally recognized speakers
• Newsletter and Research and Policy Briefs to translate research into practice
• Community outreach and engagement

The Center will sponsor or coordinate seminars, workshops, and special events that are open to the entire University community.

Some of these services may overlap in function with the needs and interests of other Centers and faculty in the College. In addition, several key functions not listed above (e.g., building infrastructure for grant applications and management of grants, seed funding) will need to be centralized through the College. But as the Center grows, its productivity and the unique scope of its activities may warrant dedicated and comprehensive services/funds to it alone.

Membership in the Center

Criteria for membership in the Center should be clearly defined. Above all, members of the Center should be OSU faculty with a track record of scholarship (publications, grants) related to the mission and goals of the Center. Rather than focusing more narrowly on funding, the most inclusive strategy will be to consider a candidate’s record of scholarship, more broadly defined, as it pertains to the mission and goals of the Center.

The application for membership should include a statement of the candidate’s research experience and goals, how these are aligned with the missions of the Center and a Core, and a current CV. Applications should be reviewed by the Executive Committee (see below).

Membership in the Center comes with responsibilities, which include:

• Actively participating in Center activities
• Pursuing extramural funding
• Reviewing proposals
• Contributing to seminars
• Mentoring students, post-doctoral fellows, and junior faculty
• Publishing and presenting research with acknowledgement of Center
• Contributing to local, state, or national groups or agencies that address the health of children and families.

Center Structure

The following structure is recommended for the Center:

• 1 Director
• 4 Core Directors
• 3 Oversight Committees: Executive, Regional, and Scientific
• Assistant to the Director to support the everyday functioning of the Center (e.g., interfacing with human resources to facilitate grant-related hires; assisting with the Director’s schedule; coordinating Center-related meetings and events [e.g., general meetings, core meetings, oversight committees, workshops, speakers; retreats]; assisting with annual reports and the preparation of presentations; distributing announcements about seed grants and other grant-related opportunities; coordinating IRB submissions). As the Center expands, some of its growing needs in these areas may necessitate additional hires.

The successful launching and advancement of the Center will require dedicated work with College and University marketing and communications staff to inform a variety of audiences (public, policy makers, relevant stakeholders, other researchers) of the activities and outcomes of the Center. These and other products will play an important role in ensuring the Center’s visibility, the cultivation of donors, and its long-term sustainability. In the long run, this may necessitate stronger personnel commitments in this area.

Oversight of the Center

Three committees are central to the oversight of the Center: an Executive Committee, a Local Advisory Committee, and a Scientific Advisory Board.

• The Executive Committee will consist of the Center Director and the four Core Directors. This committee constitutes the collective leadership of the Center. It will engage in strategic planning and collaborate to ensure the smooth functioning of Center.


• The Regional Advisory Committee will consist of senior OSU researchers, Extension faculty, practitioners and policy-makers in leadership positions at local or state levels, and Foundation representatives. This group should meet at least once a year. This committee constitutes a forum for representatives of these communities to give input on the health needs of children and families. This committee will help position the Center to be responsive to the current and future the needs of the region, and provide advice and feedback on outreach and engagement initiatives.


• The Scientific Advisory Board will consist of nationally-recognized scientists, preferably scientists who have held or hold leadership positions in similar Centers. The Scientific Advisory Board should meet every 3 to 5 years. This committee will ensure the scientific integrity and quality of the Center’s research by providing guidance on matters such as the Center’s mission and structure, research themes and initiatives, funding opportunities, and long-term strategic planning.

Characteristics of the Center Director

It is necessary that the Center Director have the following characteristics:

• Have an established history of and active engagement in funded scholarship;
• Demonstrate evidence of collaborative leadership;
• Have strong commitments to the application and translation of research; and
• Have strong appreciation for broad intellectual inquiry and methods

It is also desirable for the Director to:

• Have a history of successful interaction with public and private sectors; including legislative branch;
• Have served as a Director or Associate Director of a high-profile research Center related to the health of children and families; and
• Have potential for/willingness to work on Development, given that the Center’s future rests on strong fund-raising abilities

Based on Steering Committee meetings: 7/26, 8/03, 8/09, 9/05, 9/07, 10/1, 10/10,
10/25, 11/02, 11/04
College open forums: 11/27, 11/28
Final committee meeting: 01/07/08

Submitted 01/07/08 by Steering Committee members: Sally Bowman, Brian Flay, Rick Settersten, and Stewart Trost.