Director of Georgia Southern Health Services to head Southeastern College Health Association

February 6, 2008

Paul Ferguson, director of Health Services at Georgia Southern University has been named president of the Southern College Health Association (SCHA). Ferguson will also serve on the Board of Directors for the national-level ACHA (American College Health Association).

Ferguson will begin his term as president of the SCHA during the organization’s annual conference which will be hosted by Georgia Southern University in Savannah, Ga. March 26-28. The SCHA annual meeting is expected to draw more than 250 college health professionals from across the southeastern United States.

At the conference, seminars will be offered to educate college health professionals about new technologies in field, management strategies, and social issues specific to the college health environment. This year many of the seminars will be presented by Georgia Southern faculty and staff, such as Dr. Edward Bayens, director of Judicial Affairs and Ale Kennedy, manager of Training and Development for Human Resources.

Many of Georgia Southern University Health Services’ programs and initiatives, such as the Sexual Assault Response Team, will be highlighted in seminars throughout the conference. Georgia Southern University is one of just a few schools in the nation which engages both student and faculty volunteers in advocating for victim support systems and community prevention programs dealing with sexual assault.

Charles Hardy, dean of Georgia Southern University’s Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health is one of two keynote speakers for the conference. His address, ‘A Public Health Approach to Advancing the Health of Our Campus Communities,” will explore the link between college health and public health.

Dr. Darrin Ferris, director of the Medical College of Georgia’s Cancer Research Center, will also present a keynote address and will recognize Georgia Southern University’s integral role in providing the region’s largest testing site for the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. Through the University’s Health Services Center, volunteers from the student body were able to test a version of the HPV vaccine before it was released nationally as Gardasil.