J2: Analyzing Faculty & Staff Health and Wellness Behaviors on Campus

Associate Professor & MPH Program Director, California Baptist University, Department of Public Health Sciences. Dr. Parks is an experienced educator and health administrator with a background in post-acute care and inpatient rehabilitation hospital quality and risk management. Dr. Parks currently works as an Associate Professor and the MPH Program Director in Public Health Sciences at California Baptist University (CBU) and as a healthcare quality consultant. Dr. Parks serves as the SOPHE Trustee for Professional Preparation. Prior to her current role, Dr. Parks worked previously as a Director of Managed Care at the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and a Research Associate for the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

Dr. Lori Dewald has her doctorate from the University of Tennessee in health education, her masters in school and public health is also from the University of Tennessee, and she has two bachelors degrees (Mankato State University in teacher education, and Athletic Training from South Dakota State University). Lori was the first person in the country to achieve both the credentials of Certified Athletic Trainer (ATC) and Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) in combination with a doctorate, an accomplishment that was rarely matched by others. In 2011, when the new advanced health education credential became available, she became a master certified health education specialist (MCHES) and was the first person in the country with both the ATC and MCHES credentials. 

Lori has given over 170 invited national conference presentations and has had over 45 peer reviewed research publications. Lori is on the peer review boards for 10 different professional journals and is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Health Education Teaching (Journal of Health Education Teaching Established 2010 - Home) and the Journal for Interprofessional Postgraduate Research (My Business - JIPR HomeThe Aim and Scope)

Lori is involved in many national committees in the American College Health Association (ACHA), the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA), and the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE).

Lori was inducted as a fellow in the American Association for Health Education in 2009. In 2011 she received the Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer award from the NATA. And the American College Health Association honored her and 4 other women with the 2019 Best Practices in Administration award for the first of its kind national survey they developed to assess faculty and staff health and wellness behaviors.