Mindy Millard-Stafford, PhD
Past President
American College of Sports Medicine
Professor of Applied Physiology, Georgia Institute of Technology
Which of the 8 Sectors
are you involved in and why did you choose that particular
sector?
Although I work in higher education, I have been a physical educator and youth sports coach. I attended the Non-Profit Sector meeting due to my leadership role in a scientific/medical society- ACSM.
What's most
exciting to you about the U.S. having a National Physical
Activity Plan?
The National Physical Activity Plan is the next vital building block that was identified as an important benchmark during the American College of Sports Medicine Policy Roundtable convened it 2006 entitled: Charting and Changing the Policy Landscape: Promoting Physical Activity & Reversing Physical Inactivity through Policy Solutions.
The first step outlined in this 2006 roundtable was completed in 2008 with the federal government releasing the comprehensive Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. Now, set to be released in 2010, the National Physical Activity Plan represents the next important milestone to implement what we know about the importance of physical activity in the daily lives for all Americans. It is time that the United States charts a course to "get its people moving" just as several other countries have already done. What is most exciting is that the work of ACSM along with many other partnering organizations has made tremendous “strides” in a relatively short period of time. But, the Plan capitalizes upon the fact that no one group or sector can accomplish this goal. It will take many oars in the water pulling (and pushing) in a coordinated fashion.
What will success of the NPAP look like to you in 3 years, 5 years? 10 years?
Here is an optimists’ view:
In 3 years: That men and women walking “on the street” will
have heard about the National Physical Activity Plan.
In 5 years: When families playing in the parks and walking
to their local shopping center can point to the National
Physical Activity Plan as a landmark event that changed
their lives.
In 10 years: What “Plan”? That it will no longer be evident a real “Plan” was ever needed in the first place. Physical activity will have become THE “way of life.”