The School Health Education Study + 50 Years—What it looked Like Behind the Scenes

Abstract

The School Health Education Study (SHES) had a dynamic group of team members who forged one of the most monumental initiatives in the history of school health education. Gus T. Dalis was a member of that team and is the sole surviving co-author of the documents that emanated from the SHES. After an informal conversation together at the March 2011 AAHPERD Conference in San Diego, he and I agreed upon a plan to talk in a more disciplined fashion about the SHES and his recollection of its behind-the-scenes dynamics. We spoke by telephone for more than an hour on June 8, 2011. During the interview, Gus offered his candid, and sometime humorous insights, about the SHES' challenges, its participants, and its leadership. The transcript of that interview, graciously transcribed by University of South Florida College of Public Health student, Alyssa B. Mayer, appears below.