Message from the Director

September 27, 2019 is the day that the Tulane PRC funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta will come to an end. This does not mean that the PRC will come to an end. It simply means that the core funding and its related research wil no longer exist for the next five years. However, the remaining PRC personnel will continue to use the name and continue the work that we have been doing over the past 20 years. The PRC has worked with city and state government, with community stakeholders and partners, and with neighborhoods to bring healthy eating and opportunities for physical activity to city residents. Kudos to the Fit NOLA initiative of the New Orleans Health Department, which is going to take many of our Community Advisory Board members and community partners under its wing and also continue the work that they do which is so like that of the PRC, only it is citywide. We are all looking forward to working more closely with the NOHD.

This is a good time to thank so many people who have worked with the PRC: the former Directors, Dr. Luann White, Dr. Tom Farley, and Dr. Diego Rose. Involved faculty that have given so much of their time and effort with very little monetary reward are Dr. Janet Rice, Dr. Jeanette Gustat, and Dr. Leann Myers. We have been so luck to have had some incredibly dedicated Assistant Directors over the years, with the most recent being Dr. Kathryn Parker, Ms. Keelia O’Malley, and most recently Mrs. Megan Knapp. To all of our Research Program Managers and content area Program Managers we would like to say thank you. To our long-term Community Outreach Program Manager (20 years), Cather Haywood, we say thank you. To Revonda Darensbourg, our most recent Research Program Manager (five years), we say thank you.

So, au revoir—we’ll be seeing you again.

Carolyn C. Johnson, PhD, FAAHB
Director, Tulane Prevention Research Center