Leadership

•    Charles C. Muscoplat, Vice President and Dean, and HFHL Fiscal Officer:  “The University of Minnesota is one of the few places with agricultural, medical, public health, food safety and public policy researchers all on one campus.  And the campus is surrounded by some of the nation’s most noted food companies and health care systems.  The University’s investment in the Healthy Foods, Healthy Lives initiative leverages this unique advantage by bringing together interdisciplinary teams to reduce disease and promote health and wellness through research, education, public information and science-based policy analysis.  This is the place to be for food and health research, education and engagement.”

•    Richard Isaacson, Chair of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences and Co-chair of the HFHL Operations Committee:  “Working on the Healthy Foods, Healthy Lives initiative puts us at the top of the map; we are leading the way in food safety.  The initiative recognizes our institutional strengths and fosters access for our researchers to resources and scientific expertise to address the complex issues around food safety.”

•    Allen Levine, Head of the Department of Food Science and Nutrition, and Co-chair of the HFHL Operations Committee:  “This initiative will help society to follow a path to healthier foods and healthier lives.  There is no work that could be more important – or urgent.  Diet-related chronic diseases – diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer, obesity and asthma – consume 75 percent of the $1.4 trillion U.S. health care budget.  Food-borne illnesses caused by E. coli and other microbial contaminants increase the overall health care cost to society by as much as $14 billion.”

•    Mary Story, Associate Dean of Student Affairs, School of Public Health and HFHL Operations Committee member.  “We have a generation of children that, unless the tide is turned, may have a shorter lifespan than their parents, due to obesity and its health consequences.”

•    Lana Olson, sophomore Animal Science major:  “The Healthy Foods, Healthy Lives initiative helps make the important connection between the food we produce and the impact on consumers.  This broad-based exposure also creates new career paths for students.”

The HFHL initiative organizational structure includes a:

•    Deans Council,

•    Interim initiative director,

•    Operations Committee,

•    Working Group, which divides into four topical clusters that follow the four initiative priorities, and a

•    Communicators group.

The initiative is lead by a Deans Council from six units:  The College of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, the College of Human Ecology, the School of Medicine, the School of Public Health, the College of Veterinary Medicine and the University of Minnesota Extension Service.  The School of Medicine and Extension formally joined as partners in 2005.  The Deans Council, under the direction of Vice President and Dean Charles C. Muscoplat as fiscal officer, emphasizes linkages to other colleges, campuses and centers across the breadth of the University of Minnesota. 

An interim director, an in-kind contribution through COAFES, helps the Deans Council to ensure that the vision and concepts that frame the initiative are translated into opportunities and actions that help to realize outcomes and the strategic positioning goal of the University.  In the near future, the intent is to establish a funded initiative director position.

The Deans Council relies on the intellectual contributions of the Operations Committee to develop new opportunities and bring needs and potential research, education and engagement ideas to the fore.  The Operations Committee further details the processes that best support quality research, the education of graduate and undergraduate students and all manner of outreach and Extension.  The committee includes a faculty member from each of the six units and the interim initiative director.

In addition, the Operations Committee members draw upon the knowledge and expertise of the HFHL Working Group, which is composed of 20 faculty members.  These individuals contribute through a structure of four cluster groups that focus on each of the four priorities (integrating agriculture, food, nutrition and health; preventing disease and obesity; enhancing food safety; and informing public policy).  During 2004, a fifth cluster served as the planning group for the November 2004 HFHL conference that was supported as part of the President’s interdisciplinary conference series.  Cluster groups convene to develop shorter- and longer-term priorities for the initiative and to assess opportunities to compete for federal grants and better link existing activities across the University.  Importantly, faculty members are developing strategies to more broadly engage other faculty colleagues in units across the University.

A HFHL communicators group includes six individuals who coordinate information about the initiative through multiple collegiate and university publications, websites, public meetings and engagement activities.