Caldwell Honored with “Good for Kids” award

Dorothy Caldwell, School Health Unit supervisor with the Division of Public Health, has received a 2006 Good for Kids award from the N.C. Pediatric Society.

The award recognizes individuals and organizations that initiate or promote a community or statewide effort to improve the health and well-being of children of all ages. Caldwell was recognized for her “vision, organizational skills and leadership efforts to find the will and the way to reduce childhood obesity and move the children and youth of North Carolina toward a healthy weight.”

Beginning in 2001, Caldwell coordinated a 100-member Healthy Weight Task Force and was the lead author of the task force report, Moving Our Children Toward a Healthy Weight: Finding the Will and the Way. She led the writing team for Eat Smart: North Carolina’s Recommended Standards for all Foods Available in School and was a member of the writing teams for Move More: North Carolina’s Recommended Standards for Physical Activity in School and Eat Smart, Move More NC: North Carolina’s Plan to Prevent Overweight, Obesity and Related Chronic Diseases. (See Eat Smart, Move More...North Carolina on the web at www.eatsmartmovemorenc.com.)

In 2003, Caldwell became coordinator of the Division of Public Health’s School Health Initiatives, designed to raise the priority for school health among other agencies and state and local partners. Her work was honored with a national ASTHO Vision Award in 2005.

A tireless worker for children’s well-being, she also coordinated the implementation of the state’s School Nurse Funding Initiative, providing 145 new school nurse positions and moving the state toward the recommended school nurse to student ratio of 1:750.

Caldwell, who retired from Public Health on Sept. 1, directed school nutrition programs at the local and state levels in Arkansas and on the federal level at U.S. Department of Agriculture before moving to North Carolina in 2001. She holds a BS degree in home economics from the University of Arkansas and an MS in food systems administration from the University of Tennessee. She is a registered and licensed dietitian. She says her understanding of good nutrition from the field to the plate and her commitment to pleasurable eating began during childhood on an Eastern Arkansas farm where the growing, preparation and enjoyment of delicious, nutritious food was central to the culture of her family and community. She continues to share that culture with her five children and her fifteen grandchildren—and with the people of North Carolina.

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Last Modified: September 1, 2006