Over the past several years have given several podium presentations at the annual Keystone Health Promotion Conference—a statewide conference for school health educators, school nurses, community health educators, worksite health promotion practitioners, and other advocates of health promotion.
The theme for the conference changes from year to year, and each my proposal submissions were designed to match the conference theme. Each of my proposals were peer-reviewed proposals and deemed acceptable to meet the changing objectives of this popular conference.
In 2009, I presented a talk titled: Pathways to Wellness at Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PAASHE Universities. This conference was held on the campus of Lebanon Valley College. In an effort to promote wellness and control medical insurance costs for employees of its 14 state-owned universities, the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) implemented an online program in 2008 entitled “Healthy U.” Several incentives were offered to the employees if they participated including reduced medical-insurance premium costs and individualized feedback about one’s personal health status. The purpose of my presentation was to discuss the early successes as well as its limitations of Healthy U. The state-owned universities that make up the PAASHE group are Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock, and West Chester. Click to open my Powerpoint for this talk: Keystone conference 2009.PDF
In 2011, I gave a presentation titled “Creating a Motivational Climate Based on Scientific Theory” to match the conference theme “Aspire to Inspire” which was held on the Penn State-Harrisburg campus. The purpose of the presentation was to explore various types of motivation and to provide specific strategies for facilitating motivation that enhances success. Many theorists suggest that individuals behave in ways to fill psychological needs; thereby affecting one’s motivation level toward a particular task.
The year 2012 marked the 25th year for this annual conference, which was again held on the Penn State-Harrisburg campus. At that conference, I gave a talk titled: Always Connected: How Digital Technology Contributes to the Fabricated Reality of People in Addiction. The basis of the discussion centered on clients who present with shorter attention spans, an expectation of instant gratification, and a desire to have every urge met the minute the urge occurs. My hypothesis suggested that technology creates an additional source of anxiety previously unaddressed in the field of addictions care, and I offered some strategies for addressing these anxieties as part of an individual counseling or classroom experience.
In 2014, I presented a workshop titled Alcohol and other Drugs Harm- reduction Strategies for Students. The purpose of the talk was to discuss current strategies in the prevention of substance abuse.
Shown below are my presentation descriptions and documentation from the 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2014 conference advertising materials.
