Season's Greetings from the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living!

We hope this newsletter finds you in good health. As we prepare to put a bow on 2015, I'd like to reflect on some of this year's notable milestones and accomplishments, and then tell you little about what we have in store for the coming year.  We began the year by putting the final touches on a new 5-year strategic plan for the Center, with help from our friends at Mission Capital (formerly Greenlights). After seeing substantial growth over the past nine years, it was important for us to reevaluate and refine our overall formula for creating healthy change in the community. The plan focuses on four strategies: Research, Translation, Dissemination, and Sustainability. All of these strategies were incorporated in the publication of a special issue on obesity in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity earlier this year. Among the eight articles was a new framework for childhood obesity research, the creation of which was led by Dr. Cheryl Perry. You might notice a similarity between the model and our Center logo, which will give you an idea of how long this framework has been in development!  Speaking of things years in the making, 2016 will be a banner year for our Center as we celebrate our 10th anniversary. We have many exciting activities planned to celebrate our first 10 years. Look for more on that soon...  We thank you for your continued support as we work toward our vision of "Healthy children in a healthy world."  Wishing you a happy and healthy new year,  Deanna Hoelscher, PhD, RD, LD, CNS