Ken Daley Serves on Governor’s Task Force on Health

In his role as president of the state association of physical education teachers, faculty member Ken Daley has recently been appointed to serve on the Governor’s Healthy Children Task Force.

This task force is meeting several times to develop a set of recommendations that will be forwarded by the governor to the legislature for possible implementation.

“We have some major health problems, and the state government is aware of the situation,” Mr. Daley said. “The current direction is not sustainable — the cost of health care is bankrupting the country. Prevention can make a difference.”

Mr. Daley’s association is recommending that the state legislature require daily health and physical education for all students in kindergarten through 12th grade. “We think that this single point of contact has the most leverage in the state,” Mr. Daley said. “The current system is in place and it works. But it can be made better.”

The Governor appointed 54 members to the committee, representing a wide range of fields of health-related associations in the state, including nursing, dental health, pediatrics, osteopathy, and physical therapy, as well as the state departments of education and public health.

Mr. Daley has spent time speaking with Iowa lawmakers in the past several years and has a good impression of them. “In my experience they have pretty high ideals,” he says. “If you present a logical argument, they’re willing to listen.”

He sees this as an extraordinary opportunity. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to affect a large group of people in a very positive way,” he said. “Most people never have this opportunity in their careers.”

Dr. Raul Calderon Gives Conference Presentation

Last month, faculty member Raul Calderon, director of the University’s health and fitness program, gave an invited presentation at the annual national conference of the National Hispanic Science Network on Drug Abuse (NHSN) in Scottsdale, Arizona.

NHSN awarded Dr. Calderon a research scientist travel grant to cover the cost of the conference. He presented a talk at the special session for new investigators on his research on risky adolescent health behaviors.

“It was an honor and great opportunity to be selected to present some of the research I have been doing over the last few years,” he said.

Dr. Calderon did the joint research while on a post-doctoral fellowship at the Stanford Center for Research in Disease Prevention at Stanford University School of Medicine and at the Institute for HIV Prevention in the College of Medicine at the University of Kentucky. He studied the effects of individual differences and situational alcohol use on the behavior of adolescents.

The manuscript will be under review for publication. This was the first time this research was presented and the response was very positive, Dr. Calderon said. He also noted that the conference presented opportunities to talk about Maharishi University of Management.