Dr. Jane Zapka

Abstract

I was in the Public Health program at the University of Massachusetts in 1967 and 1968. It was a pretty small operation in those days. I was working on my Master’s degree in Health Education with Dr. Bill Darity, Chair of the Public Health degree program, and was a teaching assistant. Master’s degree candidates were encouraged to do field projects and I ended up doing mine at University Health Services with Dr. Bob Gage who had an affiliation with the School of Public Health.¹ Later, I joined the staff at Health Services as the first Health Educator. Both doctors, Darity and Gage, were committed to social programs and quality services. I did my student field training in 1968 and I took the staff position in 1969. I was there 11 years. My whole life became college health—I was just so embroiled in college health. You choose your passions where you can make a change, and I was very active in the national setting, very invested in the American College Health Association and in moving their agenda [forward]. Given my conservative background, I was more comfortable doing that than being a more vocal fighter. But I was always very comfortable in the milieu of college health. That was what consumed me and my associates.²

Dr. Jane Zapka, D.S., grew up in the Pioneer Valley in the town of Hadley. She graduated from Skidmore College, received her Master of Science degree in Public Health and Community Health Education at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (UMass), and her Doctor of Science in Health Administration from the Harvard University School of Public Health. She served as University Health Services’ Public Health Educator for 11 years. After many years working at the UMass Medical School in Worcester she is now Professor of Biostatistics, Bioinformatics, and Epidemiology at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. Dr. Zapka’s expertise is in primary care and prevention services, with a focus on program evaluation, quality improvement, managed care and other health services research areas. She has participated in community-based projects, involving provider, patient, and public education for improving quality of, and participation in, breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening. She is currently involved in studies of quality of care at the end-oflife, policy analysis of state tobacco legislation and lifestyle interventions in the workplace to reduce obesity.

Dr. Jane Zapka was interviewed by David Cline on April 6, 2002.