Institute for Behavioral and Community Health (IBACH)
Institution:
San Diego State University
Academic Level:
Graduate
Issue Area:
Academic Program
Year:
2009
Designation:
Examples of Excelencia
Designation:
Honoree
Key Personnel:
Elder, John
Address:
9245 Sky Park Court, Suite 221
City:
San Diego
State:
CA
Zip:
92123 The Institute for Behavioral and Community Health (IBACH) was established in 1982 for the purpose of promoting research and academic programs relevant to the applications of behavioral science principles to medicine and health care. This interdisciplinary institute includes a focus on community interventions and attempts to promote and foster active collaboration by researchers and community partners from many different specialties and institutions, including the University of California at San Diego, UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, San Ysidro Health Center and Clinicas de Salud del Pueblo. IBACH also provides important research experience to students who intend to pursue related careers and offers opportunities for project staff and graduate students to participate in community interventions.
IBACH is located in San Diego, California and is San Diego State University's (SDSU) largest health research center. The research at IBACH has focused on some of the top contributors of early mortality including diet, physical activity, tobacco use, and other health behaviors, with a special focus on the Latino community.
The Institute for Behavioral and Community Health (IBACH) is a non-profit research institute under the auspices of San Diego State University Research Foundation in San Diego, California.
Goal/Mission:
IBACH's mission is to improve health through research, application and evaluation of principles and programs related to health promotion, disease prevention, and behavior change in community settings. Under Dr. John Elder's leadership, IBACH's emphasis has been on research related to chronic-disease risk reduction, with a special focus on the Latino community.
Outcome:
IBACH leads SDSU in graduate training for Latino students. In turn, SDSU is ranked sixth in the nation for bachelor's degrees awarded to Latinos. In the past 14 years, nine Latino students working in IBACH have received their PhDs, and four of these are tenured/tenure track professors. Another ten post-MA Latino graduate students are currently working toward their PhDs in public health or psychology. To date, no Latino student has dropped out of the PhD program.
The final index of effectiveness of the training opportunities at SDSU's IBACH has been the scientific output of these students and their faculty. Latino MPH and PhD students with IBACH have appeared as first authors or co-authors of scientific manuscripts and book chapters 85 times in the past 22 years. In an iterative fashion, this manifests the ability of these faculty both to recruit excellent students and then to provide high quality mentoring when they arrive on campus for their degree programs.
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