Professor
​Endowed Community Chair
College of Public Health
University of Nebraska Medical Center

​​"We started www.healthyplaces.org in 1999 as part of a National Institutes of Health study of how to build healthy youth places to improve the health (physical activity and nutrition) and development of youth. Now we are leading innovation on a new strategy, fostering locally lead efforts to eliminate inopportunely and build
​community opportunities or wellness landscapes (www.wellscapes.org) for youth. This work is funded by the NIH National Cancer Institute."

Wellscapes Coordinator
College of Public Health
University of Nebraska Medical Center​

"Wellscapes is a method for community-driven efforts to build a community landscape of healthy places. A community with a patchwork of different places providing healthy opportunities where children and families go, such as school, after school programs, clubs, faith groups, and youth sport, can provide a local environment to support healthy development and behavior. By using data to drive decision making, embedding community systems change, and providing professional development, communities can combine efforts to create a mosaic of healthy places to live, work, learn, and play.  Click on wellscapes.org to signup for the community population health improvement method for children"

Research Assistant
College of Public Health
University of Nebraska Medical Center

"Our laboratory is investigating community, organization and group processes that drive structural opportunities for improved youth health behavior.  We study community-driven practices through rigorous research methods using video observation and  objective measurement of health behavior, such as using accelerometers to measure physical activity.  By pairing measures of community, organization, and group structures and processes with measures of health behavior we can establish how community social ecological systems impact the lives of youth, how structural in opportunities impact youth,  and what communities can do to provide more opportunities for all children."

Dzewaltowski Interview on Community Wellness

    Wellness Landscape Communities

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RECENT NEWS

Outstanding MPH Capstone Award
Research Assistant Ann Essay receives the UNMC College of Public Health Outstanding Capstone Award from Dean Ali Khan  for  her research with Children's Hospital Center for the Child & Community on geographic variability in childhood obesity in Omaha.

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