Kotch to lead UNC’s collaboration with new Head Start National Center on Health
| September 27, 2011 | |
Dr. Jonathan Kotch
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Office of Head Start has awarded $3 million to the American Academy of Pediatrics to operate a new National Center that will provide professional development opportunities in health for Head Start programs across the country. One of the new Head Start National Center on Health’s six partners is UNC-Chapel Hill’s National Training Institute for Child Care Health Consultants, led by Jonathan Kotch, MD, MPH, Carol Remmer Angle Distinguished Professor of Children’s Environmental Health in the Department of Maternal and Child Health at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. The National Center will focus on health, oral health, mental health and nutrition for pregnant women, children ages birth to five, and their families. It will showcase evidence-based practices that ensure all Head Start and Early Head Start agencies have access to the same level of high-quality information, training and technical assistance in order to produce the best possible outcomes for children. More than one million children in the U.S. are served by the Head Start Program. With degrees from King’s College (Cambridge), Stanford, Columbia and UNC, Kotch has an international reputation for research and service in the area of children’s health and safety. He is a frequent senior adviser to agencies locally and around the world, including the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institutes of Health and international agencies, most recently in The Netherlands and Scotland. “For 45 years, Head Start has showcased efforts to provide comprehensive early childhood health and education programs for low-income children across the country,” Kotch said. “The Head Start National Center on Health is an opportunity for UNC to participate in a systematic effort to identify, evaluate and deliver the best early childhood health information to Head Start and Early Head Start programs nationwide.” In addition to UNC’s National Training Institute, the National Center’s partners include Education Development Center, Inc., a nonprofit agency based in Boston, Washington, D.C., and New York; Georgetown University Department of Pediatrics’ Center for Child and Human Development; Georgetown University Health Policy Institutes’ National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center, in collaboration with the Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors; the Health Care Institute for Head Start of the University of California, Los Angeles’ Anderson School of Management.
More information about the Office of Head Start is available online.
UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, (919) 966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu. |
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