Posted by David Anderson
It's the time of year when a lot of change in nature surrounds us. The evenings get cooler, the days are not as hot, the humidity drops, and the colors surrounding us change from a vibrant green to a multitude of shades or orange, yellow, and red. It’s a glorious time of year – it makes me want to package the weather and save it!
Dr. Anderson combines scholarly research with applications at the local, state and national level. As Director of the Center for the Advancement of Public Health [www.caph.gmu.edu], he directs numerous research and community service projects. His research emphasizes college students, school and community leaders, youth, program planners, and policy makers.
Dr. Anderson co-authors national surveys on drug/alcohol prevention efforts, at the college, community college and secondary school level. He is co-director of the Understanding Teen Drinking Cultures in America project, a research initiative involving quantitative and qualitative strategies [see http://teenalcoholcultures.gmu.edu]. He co-authors the College Alcohol Survey, the nation's longitudinal survey of four-year college efforts addressing alcohol, drug, tobacco and violence (1979 - 2014). He co-directed the Promising Practices: Campus Alcohol Strategies project which includes a family of resources (Sourcebook, Task Force Planner, and Action Planner) [see www.promprac.gmu.edu]. His award-winning project Healthy Expectations, with COMPASS: A Roadmap to Healthy Living, emphasizes life health planning and healthy transitions to college; this has resulted in a resource guide [COMPASS Roadmap: Destination Health] helpful for organizations seeking to replicate the initiative [see www.compass.gmu.edu]. He recently publlished Best of CHOICES: Alcohol Education 1998-2008 with the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Prior to arriving at Mason in 1987, he served as a student affairs administrator at Ohio University, Radford University, and The Ohio State University.
