Office of University Communications 

Resource Center to improve health literacy in Missourians

Additional faculty and staff accomplishments noted

SPRINGFIELD – Regina Bowling, director of the Southwest Missouri Area Health Education Center (SWMO AHEC), was recently awarded a grant in the amount of $638,905 by the Missouri Foundation for Health. The award will fund her project, the Missouri Health Literacy Enhancement Center.

The goal of Bowling’s project is to establish a Health Literacy Resource Center for southwest Missouri. The center will improve the health literacy of Missourians by reducing barriers between healthcare providers and patients and increasing patients’ knowledge and understanding of health terminology, healthy behaviors and resources, and the patient’s role in healthcare.

“I am excited about this project,” said Bowling. “It has taken three years to make this happen, and it is an amazing opportunity to impact health status, address health policy and improve access to healthcare at the individual level and across the state of Missouri.”

The center will assist communities and healthcare organizations with integrating systemic health literacy practices. The center at Missouri State University will be part of a statewide network with St. Louis University and the University of Missouri-Columbia.

SWMO AHEC was also recently awarded $12,000 from A.T. Still University to continue their partnership with the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine. The partnership provides opportunities for students at the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine to work in local communities.

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Dr. Paul Deal, assistant director of the Learning Diagnostic Clinic and assistant professor of psychology at Missouri State University, recently received an award in the amount of $9,937 from the United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations (USAF OSI). The award will fund his project, “AFOSI Research Project: Agent Retention and Performance.”

“As with other law enforcement agencies, the OSI struggles with issues related to retention and performance,” said Deal. “I received funding to evaluate agents-in-training and follow them on an annual basis to determine if it was possible to predict retention and performance.”

Now in its second year, Deal’s project has been expanded to include mid- and upper-level OSI personnel, in an effort to determine the differences or similarities between individuals at different points on the career ladder.

Preliminary results from the project were presented at the annual convention of the Society for Police and Criminal Psychology in Springfield, Mass., and Deal has received a Sponsored Projects Special Recognition Award from the office of the provost in 2007.

Dr. Suzanne Cutbirth, director of the Southwest Professional Development Center, was recently awarded a grant in the amount of $209,019 from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (MODESE) for her project, Missouri’s Reading First Program. Cutbirth also received $450,000 from MODESE for her project, Special Education Consultant and Trainer.