Columbia University Health Services

The health education division of Columbia University was established in 1991 as a major department of Health Services at Columbia. The original staff numbered one health education professional, with assistance from students volunteering as peer educators. Since then, the department's staff and working space has grown to six full-time professionals, 7 work-study students, and numerous consultants (see our staff page for additional information.) The office itself was originally housed in one small room and a closet-turned-office in Health Services and then moved to a six-room apartment within a faculty residence. In 1999, Alice! relocated to a suite of offices in the new campus student center, Alfred Lerner Hall, which is at the center of Columbia University life.

Programmatically, the department's offerings have grown over the years from focused workshops and limited publications to comprehensive education and skill-building via psycho-educational groups, events and campaigns, major on-line and print publications (including the release of the Go Ask Alice! Book of Answers,) and other special projects. The department also has cast a wider net where information- and research-sharing are concerned. Department staff have developed, analyzed, and presented research and evaluation methodology and data on college student health interests, peer education effectiveness, perceptions and definitions of "safer-sex," Internet-based health information, and alcohol and other drug use. Department staff have been published in professional journals, presented at professional conferences, and trained colleagues and students at other academic institutions.

Considerable media attention has grown along with the department's programs and accomplishments. The New York Times, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, NBC Nightly News, Voice of America, Publishers Weekly, and the Harvard Health Letter, among many others, have praised Alice!'s on-line and printed health information publications. In 1998, former Alice! director, Billie J. Lindsey, was the American Public Health Association’s 1998 HEDIR Award Winner for the development of the Go Ask Alice! health Q&A Internet service. Staff and department efforts have also brought professional awards. Check out the Media Moments and Readers Rave pages on the Go Ask Alice! website.