The second fifty years: A history of the American College Health Association

Abstract

Objective: On the occasion of the American College Health Association’s (ACHA) 100th anniversary, this article seeks to explore the second fifty years of its organizational history, as well as many of the key historical moments in the field of American college health. Materials and methods: This article examines ACHA’s second fifty years, decade-by-decade, in key thematic areas that have driven focus, innovation and change at both ACHA and the field of college health and well-being, including: Changes in ACHA Governance, Leadership and Organizational Structure; Clinical Care, Immunizations, Emergency Preparedness and Outbreak Response; Health Promotion: Moving from Health to Wellness to WellBeing; Mental Health: Stigma, Suicide and Access to Care; Nursing Practice and Nurse Certification; Using Education, Research, Data and Publications to Drive Change and Innovation; Advocacy for the Health of College Students and Our College Communities; Growth and Development of the American College Health Foundation; and Recognizing Quality of Care, Excellence and Outstanding Contributions to ACHA. Results: ACHA’s second fifty years have provided an enormous volume of high-quality programs and services, used to further improve the health and well-being of college students. The narrative shows that the organization has indeed met its mission over the past fifty years. The article concludes with predictions of changes and advances at ACHA in the next decade. Conclusions: Since 1920, ACHA has served as the voice for college student health and well-being in the United States. ACHA’s second fifty years is a remarkable story of hard work, vision and achievement by a large number of talented and committed college health professionals, students and colleagues across college campuses and in sister professional organizations.

Keywords:

• AAAHC
• ACHA
• ACHF
• American College Health Association
• college students
• health promotion
• history of college health
• JACH
• JACHO
• mental health
• nursing
• second fifty years
• well-being
• wellness

Acknowledgments

In addition to the References listed, the authors wish to sincerely thank a number of college health colleagues who provided materials (some knowingly but others probably unknowingly) from published books and articles, national and regional presentations, emailed documents, archives and website materials. Spence Turner and Janet Hurley’s extremely helpful and authoritative The History and Practice of College Health (2002) was heavily relied upon for material from 1970 to 2000. Lecture handouts from a June 2004 ACHA national meeting (New Orleans) presentation on the history of college health by Bill Christmas and Patricia Fabiano (and Connie Crihfield, one of the authors) were also enormously helpful in developing themes and content for this article. Paula Swinford’s outline of the history of ACHA’s first 75 years was extremely helpful in taking the authors of this “Second Fifty Years” article halfway home in this article. Rachel Mack’s excellent 2011 article History of the ACHA filled-in considerable information from the 1980s to 2010. The Bowling Green State University Archives, the repository of ACHA’s historic documents, helped to build ACHA’s 100-year timeline with information and photos. Finally, a very special thanks goes to the ACHA National Office, and particularly Carolyn Lesesane, for their support, organization, assistance and faith as this article took shape. The Second Fifty Years: A History of the ACHA would truly not have been possible without each and every one of these valued colleagues.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.