Letter From ACHF Chair Michael Huey, MD
Dear College Health and Well-being Colleagues:
In so many ways, the winter of 2025-26 was a difficult and challenging one for our communities, our nation, and our world. As spring emerges, we look for greater warmth, light, and new growth, and we should. Spring is always an excellent time to take stock of both where we are and where we are headed.
In spring 2026, ACHA is well into its second century as the premier association for college health, and the importance of our collective work increases every year. Our future as an organization and a profession will be driven by ACHA’s successes of the past, but more importantly, by the dedication and creative thinking of our members and our current and emerging college health leaders. Our future will also require substantial resources to implement ACHA’s mission, updated strategic plan, programming, and research initiatives.
Your American College Health Foundation (ACHF) exists exclusively to support this important work. The ACHF Board of Directors is profoundly grateful to ACHA members for their gifts and contributions in 2025. Each individual gift, regardless of size, makes an impact. Not coincidentally, “Impact” is the name of our newsletter.
In this edition of ACHF Impact, you can learn about:
- 2024 Stephan D. Weiss Student Mental Health Award for project: Mood Lifters for Undergraduates Program
- ACHF Student Travel Award recipient and the opportunity provided by ACHF funding to attend the ACHA Annual Meeting in New Orleans
- Donor Spotlight: Gerri Taylor
- Status Report: Increasing Campus Vaccine Coverage: Eight Campuses, One Shared Goal
If you have any question about Foundation activities and priorities, please do not hesitate to contact me at mhuey@emory.edu. I hope to see you at the 2026 ACHA Annual Meeting in Denver.
Yours in Health and Well-being,
Michael Huey, MD, FACHA
Chair, American College Health Foundation Board of Directors
Emory University School of Medicine and Student Health Services (retired)
Consultant, ACHA College Health and Wellness Consulting
Bringing Evidence-Based Mental Healthcare to the Masses at the University of Michigan
In 2024, the ACHF Stephan D. Weiss Student Mental Health Award helped provide financial funding for the Mood Lifters for Undergraduates Program at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. The Mood Lifters programs is a peer-led, low-cost, group care model that successfully increased access to care, reduced anxiety and depression, and promoted well-being among students. Read more about the impact the program is having and how ACHF support helped make it possible.
An Aspiring Physician Assistant Finds Inspiration at the ACHA Annual Meeting
Naoshin Kaiser, a student at the University of Georgia, received the ACHF Student Travel Award to attend the ACHA Annual Meeting in New Orleans. “The scholarship allowed me to immerse myself in the dynamic world of college health, exposing me to innovative practices and a collaborative community that I may not have encountered otherwise. This experience broadened my perspective on how healthcare can be delivered to young adults and gave me valuable insights that will shape my approach as I pursue my PA career,” says Naoshin of the experience.
Donor Spotlight: Gerri Taylor
Gerri Taylor worked in college health for 34 years at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts, as a board-certified Adult Nurse Practitioner, Director of the Health Center and Associate Dean of Health, Counseling and Wellness. She is semi-retired but still focused on improving the quality of health services and care for college students through her work as a surveyor for Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care AAAHC. In this donor spotlight, Gerri shares why she supports ACHF.
Increasing Campus Vaccine Coverage: Eight Campuses, One Shared Goal
In Spring 2025, the American College Health Foundation (ACHF), with financial support from Pfizer, launched the Increasing Campus Vaccine Coverage (ICVC) Grant Program. The goal of the ICVC project is to improve overall student and community health by increasing vaccine coverage for college student populations with low immunization rates.
Now at the midpoint of the program year, eight campuses across the country are piloting creative, targeted strategies to close immunization gaps and build models that can be sustained on their own campuses and ultimately replicated nationwide.
Post Type
Articles
