About Dr. Kittleson

Since joining the faculty of Southern Illinois University in 1989, Dr. Mark J Kittleson has worked with hundreds of graduate students, chaired/served on 60+ committees and 70+ dissertations. He has had the pleasure of mentoring some of the current and upcoming, leaders in the health education profession such as: Carl Hanson, Dixie Dennis, Karl Larson, Maureen Johnson, Priya Banerjee, Michele Pettit, Misty Rhodes and many others too numerous to list. In January 2011 he took over as academic head of the public health program at New Mexico State University. His goal is to continue the strong legacy that has existed at NMSU and to expand it’s offerings to better meet the needs of the state, the border, region and the country.

Mark has published nearly 85 peer-reviewed articles, given more than 125 presentations, published/edited 17 books, and secured more than $1 Million in outside funding. He’s a fellow in the American Academy of Health Behavior—the organization that specializes in research, a fellow in the American Association of Health Education in 2010, the 2003 SIU’s College of Education & Human Services “Researcher of the Year”, the 2008 AAHE Scholar of the Year, and the 2011 AAHE/HEDIR Technology Award.

Aside from all that, he is most known widely known for being the founder of the HEDIR, some would consider the FIRST social network for the profession, created to bring professionals together from across all work settings. The HEDIR continues to serve as a valued and lively resource for it’s nearly 2,000 subscribers today.

Other technological milestones:

Mark created a paperless e-journal in 1997, which was later purchased by AAHE.
He founded the HEDIR Technology Award and the Technology Seminar—also now maintained by AAHE.
Currently he is involved in producing HEDIR live webinars. In conjunction with HPCareer.Net has been able to offer CHES continuing education contact hours.

Has Mark achieved the goals he set forth for himself upon arrival at SIU in 1989?