The College of Public Health is pleased to announce a seminar given by Victor Strecher, PhD, MPH, professor and director for innovation and social entrepreneurship at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

He will present “On Purpose: A New Direction in Public Health… and in Life” on Monday, March 30, from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. in S030 CPHB.

Currently, as Director for Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship, Dr. Strecher is working in the UM School of Public Health and the University of Michigan to create an environment that promotes more direct dissemination of research efforts to improve the public’s health nationally and globally.  Dr. Strecher’s research and book focuses on the importance of developing and maintaining a strong purpose in life.

Dr. Strecher has been a Professor in the UM School of Public Health and until 2009, Director of Cancer Prevention and Control at the UM Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Strecher founded the UM Center for Health Communications Research, a collaborative research-focused organization of health and behavioral scientists, educators, software engineers, and artists. Through this Center, Dr. Strecher has been a leading investigator on over $45 million in grant-funded studies of computer-based interactive communications for health-related behavior change and decision-making.

In 1998, Dr. Strecher founded HealthMedia, an Ann Arbor-based company that has grown to over 185 employees, creating digital health coaching programs for millions of users. In 2008 HealthMedia was purchased by Johnson & Johnson.

His book, On Purpose: Lessons in Life and Health From the Frog, the Dung Beetle, and Julia, is written for the lay public with a professional comic illustrator as a graphic novel and is accompanied by a free iOS app, a website, and smartphone and web apps. Dr. Strecher also has a blog on the Huffington Post related to purpose and meaning in life.

Relevant links to his work related to purpose in life may be found at:

http://blog.tedmed.com/?p=3002

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/11/live-on-purpose/382252/#disqus_thread

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/victor-j-strecher-phd/from-chaos-to-transcendin_b_4427101.html