Academics

Monismith is 2012 recipient of Faculty Outreach Award

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Samuel Monismith, associate professor of health education at Penn State Harrisburg, has received the 2012 Faculty Outreach Award.

The award honors faculty who have positively and substantially affected individuals, organizations or communities through problem solving or development as a result of extending their scholarship.

Monismith’s outreach activities have concentrated on alcohol and substance use and abuse, including driving under the influence and substance abuse among teens; cancer control, prevention and treatment; and the promotion of healthy work environments.

“Each area, by itself, is critical to the health and well-being of the citizens of Pennsylvania and the nation,” one nominator said. “Taken together, Dr. Monismith’s efforts constitute a significant, positive and sizable contribution to the quality of life of those citizens and to the work of many organizations that support them.”

For more than two decades, he has provided certification training workshops for the Pennsylvania Driving Under the Influence Association concerning blood alcohol concentration, drug addiction, drugged driving, teen drug use and teaching methods for court-mandated alcohol highway safe driving school.

In the area of cancer prevention and treatment, Monismith has testified numerous times before the Pennsylvania Legislature, including appearing as an expert witness on colon cancer screening in 2008 before the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee and on smoking bans in 2005 before the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee.

In 2008-2009, he chaired the board of the Pennsylvania Division of the American Cancer Society. He was a founding member of the Pennsylvania Cancer Control Consortium, a group of more than 100 leaders devoted to developing a comprehensive plan for cancer treatment and prevention in Pennsylvania. He has received the American Cancer Society’s St. George National Award, Order of the Sword of Hope Award and Pennsylvania Volunteer of the Year.

Monismith has worked on health promotion with employers around the state, including Hershey Foods, Dickinson College, the U.S. Navy and the Pennsylvania Department of Aging.

Last Updated January 9, 2015

Contact