In the spring of 2021, Jackie Dipzinski and Dr. Darson Rhodes attended the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE)/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Digital Institute for Higher Education (IHE) Academy on May 10-14, 2021. This training was funded through application by the CDC’s Division of Population Health, Healthy Schools Branch, and included higher education institutions from across the country. The training focused on the new SOPHE Teacher Preparation Standards, SOPHE/CDC Tool Kit for Schools, best practices in health education as well as assessing the Department of Public Health and Health Education School Health Education MSED curriculum and developing an action plan.
In November of 2021, SOPHE in partnership with the CDC Healthy Schools Branch solicited alumni of the Higher Education Academy to apply for one of eight mini-grants. This funding was designated to assist 2021 IHE Academy alumni teams in implementing their action plans and to improve and strengthen their health education teacher education programs of study. The SOPHE/CDC Mini-Grant was written and submitted on November 26, 2021, by Dipzinski and Rhodes to develop and align curriculum to the new SOPHE Teacher Preparation Standards and the new SOPHE/CDC Tool Kit for schools, teachers, and teacher candidates.
The Department of Public Health and Health Education was notified that they were awarded a mini-grant in the amount of $5,000.00. In July of 2022, a team of writers (Jackie Dipzinski, Dr. Darson Rhodes, Dr. Godfred Antwi, and Emma Nolan) will be working on redundancies and gaps of the School Health Education Curriculum Map, and program revisions to include integration of the SOPHE/CDC Tool Kit for Schools, best practice, and SOPHE TPS.