This reflection is on a health education professional’s rotation from professor in a school of public health to a government position and back parallels that of Professor Howard Koh’s journey to Assistant Secretary of Health, one level higher in the same federal bureaucracy. We both acknowledge the steep learning curve and some bureaucratic hassles and mazes that can attend government service, but similarly conclude that “. . . it was worth it.” In this personalized case, I weigh some of the specific learning experiences and challenges I faced while in the government against the needs of the field of health promotion for more such revolving-door experiences among academic public health professionals. From my argument that to get more evidence-based practice we need more practice-based evidence, I conclude that more experience in practice among those returning to academia will render their teaching and research more relevant to the needs for evidence in policy and practice.
AllegranteJ. P.GreenL. W. (1981). When health policy becomes victim blaming. New England Journal of Medicine, 305, 1528-1529.
2.
AllegranteJ. P.SleetD. A. (Eds.). (2004). Derryberry’s educating for health: A foundation for contemporary health education practice. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
3.
Assistant Secretary of Health. (1979). Healthy People: Surgeon General’s report on health promotion and disease prevention. Washington, DC: Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health, U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
4.
Community Preventive Services Task Force (2015). Guiding community health outcomes through evidence: 2014-2015 Annual report to Congress, federal agencies and prevention stakeholders. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
5.
GielenA. C.GreenL. W. (2015). The impact of policy, environmental, and educational interventions: A synthesis of the evidence from two public health success stories. Health Education & Behavior, 42(Suppl. 1), 20S-34S.
6.
GlasgowR. E.GreenL. W.KlesgesL. M.AbramsD. B.FisherE. B.GoldsteinM. G.. . . OrleansC. T. (2006). External validity: We need to do more. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 31, 105-108.
7.
GoldenS.McLeroyK.GreenL. WEarpJ. A.LiebermanL. D. (2015). Upending the social ecological model to guide health promotion efforts toward policy and environmental change. Health Education & Behavior, 42(Suppl. 1), 8S-14S.
8.
GreenL. W. (1968). Validity in family planning surveys: Disavowed knowledge and use of contraceptives in a panel study in Dacca, East Pakistan. Public Opinion Quarterly, 32, 504.
9.
GreenL. W. (1969). East Pakistan: Knowledge and use of contraceptives. Studies in Family Planning, 1, 9-14.
10.
GreenL. W. (1970). Identifying and overcoming barriers to the diffusion of knowledge about family planning. Advances in Fertility Control, 5, 21-29. [Awarded first prize by Excerpta Medica Foundation and Syntex Laboratories for research on diffusion]. Reprinted in the Journal of the Institute of Health Education (London), 9, 2-10.
11.
GreenL.W. (1974). Toward cost-benefit evaluations of health education: Some concepts, methods and examples. Health Education Monographs, 2(Suppl. 2), 34-64. Reprinted in Supplement to the Report of the President’s Committee on Health Education. New York, NY: National Health Council, September1974; U.S. Congress: Disease control and health education and promotion (pp. 939-965), 1975; and the SOPHE Heritage Collection of Health Education Monographs (Vol. 3, pp. 129-154). Oakland, CA: Third Party, 1982.
12.
GreenL. W. (1977). Evaluation and measurement: Some dilemmas for health education. American Journal of Public Health, 67, 155-161.
13.
GreenL. W. (1978). Determining the impact and effectiveness of health education as it relates to federal policy. Health Education Monographs, 6, 28-66.
14.
GreenL. W. (1979). National policy in the promotion of health. Keynote address at the 10th International Conference on Health Education, London, September 3, 1979. International Journal of Health Education, 22, 161-168. Reprinted in HillerM. (Ed.), Medical ethics and the law: Implications for public policy (pp. 135-148). Cambridge, MA: Ballinger, 1981.
15.
GreenL. W. (1981). Emerging federal perspectives on health promotion. In AllegranteJ. P. (Ed.), Health Promotion Monographs, No. 1. New York, NY: Teachers College, Columbia University.
16.
GreenL. W. (1985). A participant-observer in a period of professional change. In ClearyH. P.KichenJ. M.EnsorP. G. (Eds.), Advancing health through education: A case study approach (pp. 374-381). Palo Alto, CA: Mayfield.
17.
GreenL. W. (2001). From research to “best practices” in other settings and populations. American Journal of Health Behavior, 25, 165-178.
18.
GreenL. W. (2006). Public health asks of systems science: To advance our evidence-based practice, can you help us get more practice-based evidence?American Journal of Public Health, 96, 406-409.
19.
GreenL. W. (2007). Translation 2 Research: The roadmap less traveled. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 33, 137-38.
20.
GreenL. W. (2008). Making research relevant: If it is an evidence-based practice, where’s the practice-based evidence?Family Practice, 25(Suppl. 1), i20-i24.
21.
GreenL. W.AllegranteJ. P. (2011). Healthy People 1980-2020: Raising the ante decennially or just the name from public health education to health promotion to social determinants. Health Education & Behavior, 38, 558-562.
22.
GreenL. W.GielenA. C. (2014). Evidence and ecological theory in two public health successes for health behavior change. In KahanS.GielenA. C.P. FagenP.GreenL. W. (Eds.), Behavioral approaches to population health (pp. 26-43). Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
23.
GreenL. W.GlasgowR. E. (2006). Evaluating the relevance, generalization, and applicability of research: Issues in external validation and translation methodology. Evaluation & the Health Professions, 29, 126-153.
24.
GreenL. W.IversonD. C. (1982). School health education. Annual Review of Public Health, 3, 321-338.
25.
GreenL. W.JanY. A. (1964). Family planning knowledge and attitude surveys in Pakistan. Pakistan Development Review, 4, 332-355.
26.
GreenL. W.LevineD. M.WolleJ.DeedsS. (1979). Development of randomized patient education experiments with urban poor hypertensives. Patient Counseling and Health Education [now Patient Education & Counseling], 1, 106-111.
27.
GreenL. W.MercerS. L. (2001). Community-based participatory research: Can public health researchers and agencies reconcile the push from funding bodies and the pull from communities?American Journal of Public Health, 91, 1926-1929.
28.
GreenL. W.OttosonJ. M. (2004). From efficacy to effectiveness to community and back: Evidence-based practice vs. practice-based evidence. In HissR.GlasgowR.GreenL. W. (Eds). From clinical trials to community: The science of translating diabetes and obesity research (pp. 15-18). Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health.
29.
GreenL. W.KreuterM. W.DeedsS. G.PartridgeK. (1980). Health education planning: A diagnostic approach. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield.
30.
GreenL. W.StandardR.HumeJ. C.Figa-TalamancaI. (1975). The Johns Hopkins Extended MPH Degree Program in Washington, DC. Health Education Monographs, 3, 281-291.
31.
GreenL. W.WilsonR.BauerK. (1983). Data requirements to measure progress on the objectives for the nation in health promotion and disease prevention. American Journal of Public Health, 73, 18-24.
32.
IsraelB. A.EngE.SchulzA. J.ParkerE. A. (2005). Methods in community-based participatory research for health. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
33.
IversonD. C. (1980). Homicide prevention from the perspective of the office of health promotion. Public Health Reports, 95, 559-560.
34.
IversonD. C.ScheerJ. K. (1982). School-based cancer education programs: An opportunity to affect the national cancer problem. Health Values: Achieving High Level Wellness, 6, 27-35.
35.
KohH. (2016). Navigating government service as a physician. Health Education & Behavior, 43, xx-xx.
36.
LewinK. (1951). Field theory in social science: Selected theoretical papers (CartwrightD., Ed.). New York, NY: Harper & Row.
37.
McGinnisJ. M.GreenL. W.PhillipsT. S.DevereauxM.MontesH. (1981). Strategies for promoting health for specific populations. Washington, DC: US Office of Health Information, Health Promotion, Physical Fitness & Sports Medicine (DHHS (PHS) Publication No. 81-50169). Reprinted in No authors listed. (1987). Journal of Public Health Policy, 8, 369-423.
38.
MercerS. L.MacDonaldG.GreenL. W. (2004). Participatory research and evaluation: From best practices for all states to achievable practices within each state in the context of the Master Settlement Agreement. Health Promotion Practice, 5(Suppl. 3), 167S-178S.
39.
MercerS. L.DeVinneyB. J.FineL. J.GreenL. W.DoughertyD. (2007). Study designs for effectiveness and translation research: Identifying trade-offs. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 33, 139-154.
40.
MinklerM.WallersteinN. (2008). Community-based participatory research for health: From process to outcomes (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
41.
MullenP. D.HersheyJ.IversonD. (1987). Health behavior models compared. Social Science & Medicine, 24, 973-981.
42.
Public Health Service. Promoting health/preventing disease: Objectives for the nation. Washington, DC: US Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, 1980.
43.
Sanson-FisherR. W.BonevskiB.GreenL. W.D’EsteC. (2007). Limitations of the randomized controlled trial in evaluating population-based health interventions. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 33, 155-161.
44.
SommerA. (2013). 10 Lessons in public health: Inspiration for tomorrow’s leaders. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
45.
U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. (1989). Guide to clinical preventive services: An assessment of the effectiveness of 169 interventions. Baltimore, MD: Williams & Wilkins.
46.
ViseltearA. J. (1976). A short history of P. L. 94-317. In Task Force of the Fogarty International Center for the Advanced Study of the Health Sciences. National Institutes of Health and American College of Preventive Medicine. Preventive Medicine USA. New York, NY: Prodist.
