The experts on this page shared their knowledge with our community at A Summit for the Health of Our Children on Saturday, October 18, 2008 at the J. E. Broyhill Civic Center in Lenoir.
If you are interested in having them present to your organization, please contact us at vlink@caldwell-mem.org or call the Vital Link Hotline at 757-6162 for information on how to schedule them for a speaking engagement.
“On Track to a Healthier Community”
Paula Hudson Collins, MHDL, R.H.Ed
Senior Policy Advisor, Healthy Responsible Students
NC State Board of Education
Paula is an Instructor at East Carolina University in the Department of Health Education and Promotion. She is currently President of N2 Health, Inc., her health promotion company located in Wake Forest, NC. Paula served as the Sr. Advisor for Healthy Schools in the NC Department of Public Instruction and worked closely with the NC Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She has been a health teacher, a health administrator and curriculum advisor and the Charter Executive of the Poe Center for Health Education in Raleigh. In August 2006, Governor Mike Easley conferred Paula into the Order of the Long Leaf Pine. She encourages everyone she meets to “be a liver of life and not just a gallbladder?”
“The Childhood Obesity Epidemic: How We Got Here, What It Means for Your Child’s Health, and How Your Family Can Stop It”
Sarah C. Armstrong, MD, FAAP
Director, Healthy Lifestyles Program
Duke University Medical Center
Dr. Armstrong is a pediatrician in the Division of Primary Care Pediatrics at Duke University and an Instructor in the medical college. She is currently the Project Leader for the National Association of Children’s Hospitals and Related Institutions Task Force on Obesity, Duke University Chapter, and Co-chair of the National Institute for Children’s Healthcare Quality, Childhood Obesity Action Network. She is a graduate of Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, and earned her Medical Doctorate at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville. Her residency was served at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Pediatric Residency Training Program. She is a member of the Duke Global Health Institute and the Eat Smart, Move More University Collaboration as well as the NAASO, The Obesity Society. She has served as the Medical Director of Fit for Summer, Fit for Life summer programs through Johns Hopkins to incorporate wellness guidelines into summer learning.
“The Importance of Being Active”
Susan Lawrence Tumbleston, RN, BSN, MBA
Program Manager, Be Active North Carolina-Appalachian Partnership
Appalachian State University
Susan is personally and professionally committed to wellness. This native and longtime resident of Boone has worked in health care for more than 30 years as a nurse and administrator. She runs and lifts weights regularly and believes that physical, mental, emotional and spiritual activities are connected to one’s well-being. Appalachian State University’s Mary S. Shook Student Health Service has become an outstanding example of innovation, systems excellence and industry compliance under her leadership as coordinator of quality improvement from 1994 – 2005. Susan served as an adjunct faculty member in the university’s Walker College of Business teaching courses in the Department of Management and the Department of Computer Information Systems. Additionally, she is a member of ASU’s Nursing Planning Committee, which has developed a nursing program and she serves on the university’s Emergency Response Planning Committee and Exposure Control Committee.
Since she became Director of the Be Active-Appalachian Partnership in July 2005 when it was launched, Susan has established collaborative relationships with over 60 local agencies in 25 western counties to promote physical activity and healthy lifestyles for the citizens in the region. She assists with program planning and design, assessment/evaluation activities and data management, provision of materials and supplies, development and distribution of promotional materials, as well as serving as a trainer for Be Active Kids, Healthy Active Children/Energizers, and worksite wellness programming. She is a frequent presenter in the region regarding the benefits of physical activity and the obesity epidemic.
Susan has also integrated the Partnership into the university system at Appalachian State, where the Partnership is housed. She serves as a preceptor for Health Promotions students each semester and serves as a guest lecturer in elementary methods, Health Promotions, and Coordinated School Health classes at ASU. She has also served as the coordinator for several faculty research projects relating to physical activity.
“Best Practices for a Healthier School”
Christopher Lineberry, MSA
Principal, Jack Harmon Elementary School
J.O. Combs Unified School District
Queen Creek, Arizona
An educator for 11 years, Chris Lineberry received his undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where currently he is pursuing his doctorate in educational leadership. Chris has been an assistant principal in a middle school in an urban setting with 80% of students at or below the poverty level, an administrator in a magnet school of the arts in a large metropolitan district for grade levels 6 – 12, and a principal in a Pre-K through 8 th grade school in Stanly County, North Carolina. He currently serves as Principal at Jack Harmon Elementary School in Queen Creek, Arizona. Chris is co-author of the 2005 Promoting a Successful Transition to Middle School by Akos, Queen, & Lineberry.
During two school years at Richfield Elementary School in Stanly County, he incorporated 60 minutes of physical activity into the school day, integrated healthful living into the curriculum on a daily basis, reduced Body Mass Index and obesity rates while raising achievement scores and decreasing staff absences. Chris will discuss the implications of this program, the successes the school has achieved, as well as the importance of reversing national trends in obesity.