Joint Steering Committee & Community Committee for Health Promotion Honor Dean Robert Meenan

This past Tuesday (September 23^rd, 2014), the Joint Steering Committee and Community Committee for Health Promotion honored Dean Robert Meenan who is retiring from his position as dean of Boston University School of Public Health. As the first Director of our Partners in Health and Housing Prevention Research Center (PRC), Dean Meenan was the driving force behind our partnership in establishing the PRC, funded through a grant from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). PRC began in 2001 and brought together the BU School of Public Health, the Boston Housing Authority, the Boston Public Health Commission, and the Community Committee for Health Promotion. Our mission has been to improve the health and well-being of BHA residents with a particular focus on resident living in our family portfolio.

Over the years, Dean Meenan has provided additional funding from his discretionary fund to help our center continue its work. Even now as more move forward post-CDC funding – as a PRC renewal grant didn't get funded – he has made funds available this year so that we can continue to develop a new partnership, keeping in mind the needs of BHA public housing residents. Dean Meenan has also worked as a doctor serving the public housing residents and under his leadership, PRC has launched many programs, several of which are listed below:

• the Resident Health Advocate Training Program, which has trained over 110 BHA residents to serve as liaisons between the residents in their communities and the health care service providers
• several Smoking Cessation Program testing effectiveness of using community health workers to assist residents to quit smoking
• Tooth Smart – a program to reduce tooth disease in children up to 5 years old
• Project HHeart – a program that screened BHA residents for signs of heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic health conditions with the goal of connecting residents with both medical care and ongoing community wellness programs
   
   
  Click on the link to see Dean Meenan's full bio from the BU School of Public Health's website: http://www.bu.edu/sph/profile/robert-meenan/