CDC names award after IU professor

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention named a new award after IU professor Lloyd Kolbe of the Department of Applied Health Science. The award was named and granted April 24 in a ceremony in Atlanta.\n“They had a wonderful celebration. I was touched that the CDC would do something like that,” Kolbe said. \nThe Lloyd J. Kolbe Award for Leadership in Coordinated School Health was named after Kolbe in honor of his research over the last 25 years. His research helped adolescents and schools address natural and man-made disasters, reduce obesity and control asthma. Kolbe was the founding director of the Division of Adolescent and School Health in the CDC for 18 years. The goal of this group was to help schools improve not only the health of the young, but also their social development.\nThe award was given to the U.S. State Directors of Health Promotion and Education for a book about improving employee health and wellbeing. \n“It’s important for schools to help improve the well-being of school teachers, especially since so few people are going into the profession,” Kolbe said. “Sometimes we only think about the students.”\nKeeping teachers happier and healthier could lead to fewer teachers quitting, Kolbe said. Within three years of receiving their degree, 30 percent of teachers leave the education profession, Kolbe said. Within five years, 50 percent have left. \n“When that’s combined with the increasing number of people retiring, it won’t be too long until, like nurses, there will be a shortage,” Kolbe said. \nTwenty-five years ago Kolbe released an article that became the framework for building school health programs. The article led to the most widely used model in the world, which the CDC used to build their Adolescent and School Health division. \nThe award has special meaning for Kolbe, who feels it honors anyone who worked hard to build the organization. \n“I feel the award really is a recognition for the people I had the fortune to work with for 18 years,” Kolbe said.