Introducing myself I'd like to introduce myself....I'm Michael Goodstadt.... one can take many perspectives in describing oneself.
Here, I'll consider myself from the perspective of my professional life and from the perspective of my more private life, though the two are inevitably intertwined--I believe there is usually a strong thread weaving its way between the two.
My professional life-path
What you will experience is the product of my exposure to learning and teaching in a variety of countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. Having established my early roots in Wales, I spent most of my early life in a variety of boarding schools scattered across Scotland, England and Ireland--perhaps that is why I am enthralled by Harry Potter's sojourn in HogwartsSchool! Release from boarding school left me free to attend ManchesterUniversity in England, from which I graduated in Psychology 47 years ago.
At this point, I received my first exposure to the potential contributions of the social sciences to the prevention of health-related problems. As a research fellow for the International Union Against Cancer, I spent two years researching the theoretical and empirical basis for the prevention of cancer. In one of life's "right hand turns," I realized that most of the research in which I was interested (related to social and individual behavior change) was being undertaken in the United States.
So I "went west" to California, where I studied social psychology at StanfordUniversity. After scanning the world for my next port-of-call, I took the usual academic route in the form of a position in the Psychology Department at the University of Western Ontario. However, it was not long before opportunity beckoned once more (another 90 degree turn) with a research position at the Addiction Research Foundation (now part of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health)--I couldn't interest my students in taking the position!
For the next 15 years, I focused on research related to the prevention of drug abuse and related problems. My work included social epidemiology, the development and experimental assessment of the effectiveness of theoretically driven prevention programs (mainly in school settings), evaluation of community-based interventions, and the evaluation of policy initiatives.
We are now at 1987...when the United States beckoned once more...now I am Director of the Center of Alcohol Studies at Rutgers University (NJ). The following three years greatly extended my exposure and experience related to all aspects of the prevention and treatment of drug related problems.
But Canada was calling me back...back to the ARF to be Director of a newly formed Department of Prevention and Health Promotion Research, Development, & Dissemination (quite a mouthful, and a challenge to my leadership skills!). These four important years prepared me well for taking on the responsibilities of Acting Director of the Centre for Health Promotion when, in 1984, I was seconded to the University of Toronto. I felt that everything in life had been in preparation for working at the Centre for Health Promotion.
Retirement came in 1997 (that didn't take long, did it?), which meant that I stopped being "employed", but continued teaching at the University of Toronto and working at the Centre for Health Promotion.
Among my greatest satisfactions throughout the past 13 years has been the opportunity to work with students in a variety of capacities, most especially as a partner in their learning experiences within the context of my teaching.
In 1997, I began working with Barbara Kahan (and a large wonderful group of practitioners) in developing and testing concepts and tools associated with taking a best practices approach to health promotion. Most recently, my interest in best practices has been developing into a broader interest in decision-making by health promotion professionals; to this end, I have been heavily involved in the development of PHAC's new Canadian Best Practices for Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention.
Finally, in 2007, I am pleased to have been called out of retirement to serve as Director of the MPH/MHSc Program in Health Promotion, in the Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Toronto. I am committed to optimizing the "fit" between our program and our students' needs/wants, as well as between our program and the needs/wants of the settings in which our students' careers take them.
The "real" Michael
I am the father of four children, and grandfather of seven.....
I love......my wife, my family, my friends, my faith community, my caring neighbourhood (social capital in action), non-professional sports (especially track & field and cycling), running/racing (especially cross-country and track), music (playing piano and flute very poorly, singing in choirs adequately), photography, ....
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