It Takes a Village: First Reflections From HPP ’s New Editor-in-Chief

Abstract

Keywords

career development/professional preparation community organization health education health promotion

With deep respect, I offer my first commentary as the new editor-in-chief of Health Promotion Practice (HPP). I hope to regularly use this editorial space to provide context and catalyze conversation about the process, outcomes, and impact of both health promotion practice and our unique journal.

I am grateful for the opportunity to lead HPP into the future. I am inspired by the choices and achievements of our previous editors-in-chief: HPP’s founding editor Randy Schwartz (2000-2009), Leonard Jack (2009-2014), and, most recently, Jesus Ramirez-Valles (2014-2017). Each chief editor brought vision, integrity, and discipline to the role and challenges of his time. Individually and as an editorial lineage, they have set high standards of excellence and inclusivity. I pledge to do all I can to walk in their path, inspired by their light (and assured that each is just an e-mail away!).

I am also grateful that a new editor need not walk alone. I have used the transition months to prepare to lead the many moving parts of a successful journal:

I became acquainted with HPP’s dedicated deputy and associate editors, and look forward to working with them closely for a smooth and seamless transition.

I began dialogue with the editorial advisory board members about the best way to mobilize our increasingly global networks to encourage leading-edge submissions and journal usage.

I reached out to the hundreds of practitioners and scholars who review submitted manuscripts, sharing a message of gratitude and encouraging feedback on our review process.

I spent an informative day with Tara Newby and our partners at Sage, learning more about the changing ecology of the publishing environment and strategizing ways to heighten HPP’s visibility, maintain its relevance, and ultimately, document its impact on practice.

I communicated with faculty and students, eager to understand the role of our journal in preparation of the next generation of health promotion professionals, scholars, and advocates.

I spoke with dozens of authors, including those working on manuscripts and those already published, learning more about the importance of HPP’s niche in a competitive publishing market.

I became reacquainted with longtime Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) colleagues and friends, particularly our CEO Elaine Auld, exploring (and negotiating) new roles and responsibilities.

I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Jeanine Robitaille, HPP’s Editorial Manager, and beginning the relationship that will be at the center of the HPP hub.

I spent time with many of SOPHE’s past and present chief editors, to learn from the best and hear what they wished they had known when they assumed their positions: Stephen Gambescia (Pedagogy in Health Promotion), John Allegrante and Marc Zimmerman (Health Education & Behavior), Randy Schwartz and Leonard Jack (HPP), and, of course, Jesus Ramirez-Valles as he transitions from editorial leadership of HPP to Health Education & Behavior.

In short, I used the fall to explore the village that creates each issue of HPP. I now assume the position of chief editor of that village with humility and eager anticipation.

Health Promotion Practice in Context

I see HPP as the quintessential journal of and for the diverse practitioners, scholars, students, funders, advocates, organizers, and policy makers involved with our field. Like SOPHE’s other journals, HPP is rooted in the health education profession but is open and relevant to a broader world of research, policy, and practice. A search through any of its 18 volumes to date shows the breadth, depth, and scholarship that have characterized the journal since its first issue. Our village has reason to be proud.

In my own career, HPP has been my “go to” journal. I served with Brick Lancaster as Founding Associate Editor for the Circle of Research and Practice Department from 2000 to 2010 (Lancaster & Roe, 2000). I was honored to work with Stephen Thomas as co–guest editor for HPP’s 2002 double issue titled “Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities: Mapping a Course for Community Action and Research” (Roe & Thomas, 2002). I have published some of my favorite work in HPP, including reports on our long-standing university partnership with the pueblo of Arrazola, Oaxaca, Mexico (Plumb et al., 2013); use of an innovative tool for participatory process evaluation (Roe & Roe, 2004); and what we knew then about health disparities in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer communities (Staley, Hussey, Roe, Harcourt, & Roe, 2001). As a college professor for over 30 years, I have curated hundreds of reading lists, always drawing from the diverse and stimulating offerings of HPP. As a community-based scholar, I have been inspired by what I found in every issue of HPP, and as a manuscript reviewer, I have been moved by the passion and determination of the people who do this work.

Over the years and through these varied portals, I have appreciated the way that HPP contexualizes, integrates, and benefits from the rigorous science and commentary published in SOPHE’s flagship journal, Health Education & Behavior. I have seen the way that the practice of health promotion stimulates and contributes to the reflective scholarship and transdisciplinary innovation emerging from Pedagogy in Health Promotion, SOPHE’s newest journal. But to be most relevant and useful, both science and pedagogy must pass through and be informed by practice. I have always believed that HPP is that space.

Health Promotion Practice in Transition

HPP has grown steadily in diversity, scope, and scholarship through the 18 years since its first issue. This maturity brings new opportunities and the potential transition to another level of professional recognition. As one important example, Clarivate Analytics now includes HPP in the Emerging Sources Citation Index, which improves the discoverability and credibility of the journal, which, in turn, attracts and benefits authors. Most important, inclusion in the Emerging Sources Citation Index is a first step toward acceptance into analytic data systems that track journal use and impact. This is a good thing. But I know that many in the HPP universe worry that pursuing the highest scientific recognition might sacrifice practitioner pages and priority. I believe that HPP can honor both by returning the binary of research and practice to the circle it was intended to be in (Roe & Lancaster, 2005).

Readers will recognize HPP’s applied lens in the first issues of 2018, as these contents were selected and shaped by the 2017 editorial advisory board under the leadership of Dr. Ramirez-Valles. I will work closely with the HPP village to honor this tradition.

Health Promotion Practice Going Forward

The publishing environment is significantly more complex than it was when SOPHE started HPP, but I remain committed to the north star guiding our journal since 2000: “Application of health promotion and public health education interventions, programs, and best practice strategies in various settings” (Schwartz & Goodman, 2000, p. 5). Past editors have stayed true to that star, and I will, as well. I believe that HPP can center the voice and insights of practitioners while publishing work that is innovative and scientifically sound. We can continually seek to understand what makes a journal discoverable, accessible, and useful to contemporary practitioners, and then build those features into our content and collateral. We can make a deeper dive into the diversity of populations and settings for health promotion practice in North America while intentionally internationalizing our editorial board and what we publish. We can infuse health promotion practice with global sensibilities and a reflexive orientation. We can demystify the review process for new authors and facilitate important work to publication. In the words of Zen master and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh, “What we pay attention to will grow.”

In closing, health promotion is a profession of shared hope and collective possibility. Virtually every entry in HPP tells the story of a community, its change agents, its courage, and its sense of the way forward. Ethical action, cultural humility, and complementary ways of knowing are cross-cutting and recurring themes. As chief editor, I look forward to seeking these stories and the people who know them. Let us counter the roiling currents of our time with the promise of health promotion practice.

Footnotes

This commentary is dedicated to the vibrant memory of Brick Lancaster, MPH, founding associate coeditor of HPP’s Circle of Research and Practice, 2000-2010.

References

Lancaster

Roe

(2000). Observations of the past decade’s efforts to bridge the gap between health education and health promotion practice and research. Health Promotion Practice, 1, 33-37.

Plumb

Roe

K. M.

Plumb

Sepe

Soin

Aragón Ramírez

. . . Khubchandani

(2013). The use of international service learning initiatives for global health education: Case studies from Rwanda and Mexico. Health Promotion Practice, 14, 334-342.

Roe

K. M.

Lancaster

(2005). Mind the gap! Insight from the first 5 years of the Circle of Research and Practice. Health Promotion Practice, 6, 129-133.

Roe

K. M.

Roe

K. T.

(2004). “Is there anything you’d like to say to . . .?” Using dialogue boxes in process evaluation. Health Promotion Practice, 5, 138-144.

Roe

K. M.

Thomas

(2002). Introduction [to the double issue on Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities: Mapping a Course for Community Action and Research]. Health Promotion Practice, 3, 108-111.

Schwartz

Goodman

R. M.

(2000). Health promotion practice: Advancing the state of health promotion and education practice. Health Promotion Practice, 1, 5-9.

Staley

Hussey

Roe

K. T.

Harcourt

Roe

K. M.

(2001). In the shadow of the rainbow: Identifying and addressing health disparities in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. Health Promotion Practice, 2, 207-211.