THE BOYS INITIATIVE ANNOUNCES APOINTMENT OF PRESTIGIOUS PANEL TO GUIDE GROUNDBREAKING PROJECT ON ADOLESCENT MALE HEALTH
Washington, DC – January 23, 2013 – Today The Boys Initiative announced the appointment of David L. Bell, MD, MPH, Arthur Elster, MD, MJ, and Arik Marcell, MD, MPH to serve as founding members of the steering committee to guide its groundbreaking project Health Guidelines for Adolescent and Young Adult Males.
Dr. Bell has joint appointments at Columbia University’s schools of medicine and public health. An adolescent medicine physician, he is the medical director of the Young Men’s Clinic and the School-Based Clinic Program. Dr. Bell is currently on the board of directors for the Guttmacher Institute. He has consulted for the federal Office of Family Planning, and assisted with trainings on male health with Federal OFP Regions I, II, IV and VI, as well as with Engender Health (formerly AVSC). He has appeared on MTV, BET, and CBS, promoting male health issues. Dr. Bell completed a three-year adolescent medicine specialty fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine.
Dr. Elster served as the Director of the Department of Adolescent Health at the American Medical Association and oversaw the Guidelines for Adolescent Health Services (GAPS) project, a comprehensive set of recommendations that provides a framework for the organization and content of preventive health services for adolescents between the ages of 11-21. Dr. Elster also serves as an advisor to the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Bright Futures program. The overall goal of the AAP project is to update/revise and promote implementation of Bright Futures: Guidelines for Health Supervision of Infants, Children, and Adolescents among health care professionals, public/private partners with key child health constituencies, and communities and families.
Dr. Marcell is a nationally recognized expert in the field of gender medicine, especially preventive health and medical services for adolescent men and young adults. Dr. Marcell’s research has focused on adolescent sexual and reproductive health and access to care from both the patient and provider perspectives. He recently completed a 5-year collaborative evaluation study on engaging young men in reproductive health care and was co-author and primary faculty member of the Leadership and Education in Adolescent Health training program. He has also been funded through the National Institutes of Health, is a faculty advisor for the Adolescent Health Working Group’s Sexual Health Module Committee and the Physicians for Responsible Choice and Health’s Adolescent Reproductive Health Education Project. He has extensive experience training health professionals on topics such as STIs, adolescent health, and male health and reproductive health for Region III Title X, the Male Advocacy Network, Planned Parenthood, Physicians for Responsible Choice & Health, Adolescent Reproductive Health Education Project, and the Society for Adolescent Medicine.
“We are honored to have individuals of such stature guide this important project,” said Dennis Barbour, Co-Founder and Executive Vice President of The Boys Initiative. “These individuals have led efforts to improve the health and wellbeing of our nation’s male youth. They are a tremendous asset in our own work to accomplish that.”
The Health Guidelines for Adolescent and Young Adult Males project is a collaborative endeavor to 1) identify promising clinical interventions, appropriate clinical settings and patient incentives for adolescent and young adult male health; 2) create clinical prevention guidelines for this population; 3) distribute and foster application of those guidelines in clinical practice; 4) foster relevant public and continuing medical education programs; and 5) promote public policies that will advance adoption of the guidelines in clinical practice.
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The mission of The Boys Initiative is to shed light on declining achievement and wellbeing among boys and young men, to foster dialogue and debate about the issue, and to collaborate on solutions with those who are committed to the futures of our nation’s youth. The organization’s principal role is to serve as a hub for information exchange and action among the broad range of organizations whose work touches on boys and young men.
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CONTACT:
Dennis J. Barbour
202-380-1788
202-841-7475
dbarbour@theboysinitiative.org
www.theboysinitiative.org
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