American Academy of Health Behavior

The American Academy of Health Behavior was founded on April 1, 1997 to “transform the health promotion and health education field from a teaching- and service-centered profession to one with a stronger research foundation in which discovery would be valued as a means of improving practice and enhancing public health. The origination of the Academy was based on the belief that the future growth and evolution of the health promotion and health education fields rested on a strong commitment to conducting and disseminating quality research.”

The inspiration for American Academy of Health Behavior came from Dr. Elbert D. Glover and evolved from a vision he had for more than 2 decades to create an academy of health behavior scholars. He was a trained health educator and as a university professor experienced that academic health educators often were less respected (and less rewarded) on university campuses than their peers in other academic disciplines. Further, he believed that this “lesser respect” emanated from a perception that in many research-intensive and doctoral degree-granting institutions, health education research often lacked “centrality” with respect to the mission of the university compared to the research carried out in other disciplines.

Founding Members On April 1, 1997 while serving as a professor at the West Virginia University School of Medicine, Glover identified 34 researchers from throughout the United States with whom he shared his vision and a draft of proposed organizational bylaws. Ultimately, 32 individuals accepted the invitation and formed the body of Founding Members of The Academy. The Founding Members are presented in the chronological order in which they agreed to be named founding members of The Academy.

Elbert D. Glover (Founder)

Founding Members

Glover believed that by forming a solid member base of like-minded prolific researchers, these well-known and widely respected scholars would attract other researchers to The Academy. Several of newly committed founding members were skeptical about the likely acceptance and success of a new professional association focused principally on the research enterprise. As enticements, he subsidized the Founding Members’ first 2 years of organizational dues, including a subscription to the American Journal of Health Behavior, which he designated in the bylaws as The Academy’s official professional journal. At that time, the American Journal of Health Behavior had been in existence for over 2 decades and owned by Glover. The Journal was well respected and a venue for publishing quality health-behavior research. He reasoned that by naming the Journal the official publication of The Academy the organization would gain immediate visibility and credibility. The 2 entities flourished in their coexistence, however, after several years of coexistence and by mutual agreement, eventually parted ways and no longer partake in a relationship.

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