May 24, 2011

American College Health Association honors Grace

by Christi Mathis

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Dr. Ted Grace, director of the Southern Illinois University Carbondale Student Health Center, is the recipient of a national award from the American College Health Association.

He is receiving the 2011 Clifford B. Reifler Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Journal of American College Health. Grace served as executive editor for the journal, an American College Health Association publication, from 2005 until earlier this year. He continues as the photography editor.

During his 5 ½ years as executive editor, Grace made a number of innovations and changes including switching to electronic submissions and evaluations of manuscripts and making journal archives available online. In addition, he began using photographs of school health centers on the journal’s cover to document and celebrate the facilities and traditions. Submissions to the journal dramatically increased during Grace’s tenure as editor, too.

The American College Health Association, founded in 1920, is an advocacy and leadership organization for those involved in college and university health care. Grace’s award bears the name of the late Dr. Reifler, a past president of ACHA, executive editor emeritus of the Journal of American College Health and former director of the University of Rochester Health Service. The award recognizes and honors both Reifler and his work and also the award recipient’s outstanding contributions to the journal.

Grace said receiving the prestigious Leifler award is quite an honor and he expressed appreciation to colleagues and fellow editors he worked with at the journal for their efforts.

“The Journal of American College Health contributes a great deal to the professionalism, knowledge-base and esteem of the college health field and I am so grateful for this special honor. It has truly been a labor of love for me. I’m also pleased I get to continue contributing to the Journal in the future through the photo covers,” Grace said.

Grace won’t be able to attend the award presentation during the ACHA annual meeting in early June in Phoenix as he’ll be participating in the SIUC Experience Kenya: International Service-Learning study abroad program this summer led by Peter Gitau, associate vice chancellor and dean of students.

Grace joined the SIUC community in 2008 and previously spent 15 years as director of Student Health Services at The Ohio State University. He also served as senior director of disaster preparedness and health safety in the Division of Student Affairs there and was previously director of clinical services at San Diego State University. A licensed physician, Grace also spent several years in private practice as an internal medicine physician in California.

Grace earned his bachelor’s and medical degrees at Ohio State and his master’s degree in public health at San Diego State University.