Involved educator covers the campus

From day care to research institutes, scholar keeps busy

Educational studies Prof. Patricia Vertinsky has coined a term to describe herself and her relationship with UBC.

"I'm very much a `pan-campus' person, she says. "What I enjoy most after 25 years at UBC are the long-lasting academic relationships I have with colleagues across the campus."

She has served on more committees and boards than many seasoned community leaders.

The dozen or so she lists include UBC's Senate, Green College, St John's College and the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies.

She's played a key role in projects ranging from converting old army huts into day-care centers to promoting interdisciplinary research by co-founding the Individual Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Program and the Institute of Health Promotion Research.

She has also served as both an associate dean, Graduate Programs and Research, and head of the Dept. of Educational Studies.

Vertinsky's research focuses on the social, cultural and historical dimensions of health and the body, especially in relation to gender, aging and disability.

She has worked to advance understanding of the complex social and cultural determinants of health and exercise in society.

Among her recent international collaborative projects is a large study in Hong Kong of elderly people and their exercise habits in confined surroundings.

Personality and wide-ranging research interests only partially explain her familiarity with so many people and places on Point Grey.

"As a scholar, I have a responsibility to the campus community," she says.