Contact:

Karen Huxtable

Manager, Public and Media Relations

(607) 547-4581

karen.huxtable@bassett.org

Cooperstown, N.Y. – February 11, 2011 - David Strogatz, Ph.D., has joined the Bassett Research Institute as director of the Center for Rural Community Health. Dr. Strogatz is an epidemiologist with expertise in community-level health interventions.  He comes to Bassett from the Albany School of Public Health where he served as chair of the Department of Epidemiology and as director of a CDC-designated Prevention Center.

The Center for Rural Community Health will work with state and local public health agencies and Bassett health professionals to develop and test community-level interventions designed to address the most serious health challenges affecting people in Bassett’s catchment area.  Currently, Dr. Strogatz is advising Bassett researchers Ida Baker, Jennie Kreis and Mary Ringeisen on a project aimed at assessing rural worksites as useful locations for weight control intervention.  Other Bassett researchers are working in schools to enhance nutrition education and reduce tobacco use.  These and a series of new activities will be tried and formally evaluated by Center for Rural Community Health scientists.  Programs that prove effective will be offered to communities across the eight county region Bassett serves.