Grants and Research Office

Center for Health Promotion

Welcome to The Center for Health Promotion, formerly the Child/Adolescent Health Behavior Research Center. The Center will continue to focus on child/adolescent related issues as well as health promotion across the lifespan and disease spectrum.

The mission of the Center for Health Promotion is to provide leadership in advancing the science of health promotion and risk reduction and its application in nursing practice, health programs and health policy in order to eliminate health disparities among racial and ethnic minorities, and to improve health and the quality of life for all people.

Nurses are the largest group of professionals delivering care to individuals, families and communities. Center scientists conduct research to understand how to build resilience, promote health across the spectrum of health and illness, and decrease risky behavior across the life span in diverse populations, settings, and communities. Research focused on a wide range of health behaviors, related developmental, gender and cultural differences and the type of environments that support health informs nursing science as well as health sciences of effective interventions to achieve positive health outcomes.

Knowledge development in health promotion and prevention across the life span is the primary commitment of the Center. Access to colleagues from across the university for stimulating dialogue concerning "cutting edge" theoretical and methodological issues is fostered. The Center operates within an ecological perspective that recognizes the biological, behavioral, environmental and socioeconomic influences on health and health behavior including gender-specific and culture-specific factors. Recognizing the need for early development and health decision-making, self-management skills and health-promoting behaviors and their continuation throughout life, the life span focus of the Center begins in infancy and continues through adulthood.

There is increasing attention globally to health promotion and prevention as a "front line" approach to improving the health, well-being, and productivity of the world's population. Scientists participate in the establishment of Research Networks with scientists in other countries.

For more information about the work of the Center for Health Promotion, as well as opportunities for donors, please contact:

Dr. Antonia M. Villarruel, Director
Center for Health Promotion
University of Michigan School of Nursing
400 North Ingalls Building, Room 4320
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-5482
(734) 615-9696
email: avillarr@umich.edu