fbpx Chestnut Hill College Named Phase One Winner in NCAA-DOD Educational Programs Challenge | Chestnut Hill College Skip to content Skip to navigation
Menu

Chestnut Hill College Named Phase One Winner in NCAA-DOD Educational Programs Challenge

Chestnut Hill College Named Phase One Winner in NCAA-DOD Educational Programs Challenge

Mind Matters Challenge

Endlessly searching for ways to better serve our student-athletes, Chestnut Hill College is pleased to announce that it has been selected as an Educational Programs Targeting Young and Emerging Adults challenge (Educational Programs Challenge) Phase One winner. The Education Programs Challenge is a component of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Mind Matters Challenge, which was developed in concert with the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), to advance understanding of how to change culture, attitudes, and behavior in young adults about concussions.

The goal of the Mind Matters/Educational Programs Challenge is to improve concussion awareness education programs delivered to collegiate student-athletes, service members and their influencers so that all clearly understand a concussion is a serious medical condition requiring appropriate treatment. To do this, the Mind Matters Challenge focuses on two initiatives, first, a research challenge designed to identify key factors and methodologies to change the culture and behavior of college student-athletes and second, an educational program challenge meant to improve the effectiveness of concussion awareness programs delivered to student-athletes.

Joining a team of dedicated faculty and staff from Chestnut Hill College, led by William Ernst, Psy.D., the Phase One winners of the Educational Program Challenge are Creative Street Media Group (Steve Nels Katzenberger), MomsTEAM Institute, Inc. (Brooke de Lench), the University of South Alabama (Ashley Denise Marass), Science of Sport/University of Southern California (Ricardo Valerdi), Johnson C. Smith University (Rennae Williams). Phase One winners are selected based on the assessment of a joint NCAA-DOD review panel that at least one element of the submission is worth further development and exploration and will be presented with $25,000 award as well as an invitation to participate in Phase Two, which results in $75,000 of additional funding to develop a program demonstration.

"The strength of our proposal was its collaborative nature, which included members of the faculty as well as staff from the Departments of Student Life and Athletics. From the start Lynn Ortale, Ph.D., Vice President for Student Life and Lynn Tubman, M.Ed. Director of Athletics embraced the Peer Concussion Education proposal and provided considerable support for its development," commented Dr. Ernst. "We are very excited to develop this innovative program, which may help change the culture, attitudes, and behaviors about concussion in young adults."

Read the full story at Griffin Athletics' website.

For more information about this press release or other Chestnut Hill College news, contact the News and Community Relations office.