PSU Magazine Fall 1992

Schendel, a determined man with a penchant for running marathons , came to PSU with another energy-consuming mis– sion: to propel the School of Health and Human Performance toward providing vital programs for the community. Alums of three varied community service programs largely hatched by the School and its facuity attest that Schendel' s efforts have succeeded mightily. Merrie Ziady From her 14th-floor office in the Portland Building, Merrie Ziady over– sees the health needs of Multnomah County's 3,400 employees at 90 work sites. Ziady is the county's employee health and benefits manager, and it is her job to promote employee fitness while trying to reduce costly employee medical claims. The county has been successful on both accounts. Ziady credits her involvement with the School ofHHP as both a student and alumna. Ziady came to the School in 1979 as an undergraduate already possessing a bachelor's degree in Italian. But, seek– ing new career direction, she picked up a bachelor's degree in community and health education at PSU. In 1981, she earned her M.S.T. degree in health education from the School. "PSU is responsive to people com– ing back to School in their post-college years," says Ziady. "We call them 'retreads.' Many of these people graduated from the School, and I see a lot of them in health professions. Many PSU students are already committed to the community and plan to stay in the area." Such was the case with Ziady. While moving toward her master's degree, she taught smoking cessation classes at St. Vincent Hospital and Medical Center. She expanded her community teaching, modeling the topics after a lifestyles course she took from former PSU teacher Glenn Gilbert. In 1984 Ziady took over as Multno– mah County's employee health promo– tion coordinator. With a limited budget and much work, she was able to use PSU student interns in developing activity schedules and monitoring employee programs. Ziady had attended a PSU seminar developed by Schendel and longtime faculty member Michael Tichy to promote greater fitness among all levels of Oregon law enforcement. Ziady be– came a speaker at the annual seminars, then set off to help reduce smoking among county law enforcement personnel. "There's always been a high level of smoking in the law enforcement and corrections departments, and there was an especially high level of smoking here in 1984," Ziady recalls. After eight years, the hard data is starting to show results. Smoking among the county's deputy sheriffs and corrections officers is at 25 percent- 15 percent less than in 1984. Multnomah County instituted a smoke– free policy in 1987. The success of the smoking cessa– tion programs has spurred Ziady and her associates to develop other wellness programs for county employees. "Our aim isn't to compete with fit– ness centers but to help get the fence– sitters started in ome type of exercise program, then get them motivated to move into a more sophisticated pro– gram," Ziady says. Don Zehrung Don Zehrung might be described as another one of PSU's retreads– another who has funneled service back to the Portland metropolitan com– munity. Zehrung, an elementary school teacher with the Beaverton School Dis– trict, first enrolled at the School of HHP in 1969, receiving his bachelor's degree four years later. Over the next 17 year , while teaching at Oak Hills and Raleigh Hills elementary schools in Beaverton, he pursued his master's degree. In 1990 he earned an M.S.T. degree in physical education. Zehrung remembers a late-1970s PSU course that focused on ways in which elementary school teachers could use innovative methods to im– prove children's physical education. Student and faculty enthusiasm for the course evolved into the formation of the volunteer Council for Children's Expanded Physical Education. The School of HHP simultaneously developed an annual conference on the subject. Council members helped set up workshops for Portland-area physi– cal education teachers and helped drum up more interest for the topic locally. The first conference, which Zehrung attended in 1981, drew 300 people. The 1990 conference attracted more than 700 participants from more than 20 states and four countries, making it the largest conference devoted to elementary school physical education in North America. Despite the School of HHP's closure, the conferences will continue, through the efforts of volunteer council members. PSU9