Cliff Baile: Obesity Initiative loses its ringmaster
It is a truth rarely acknowledged, that most university
faculty members don’t know what their colleagues do, nor are they motivated to
find out.
This is what Clifton A. “Cliff” Baile was up against when he
set out to organize the University of Georgia’s Obesity Initiative in the
summer of 2011. The plan involved mobilizing hundreds of researchers in dozens
of departments, spread out across the enormous Athens campus, to combat soaring
obesity rates in Georgia.
Many of these researchers, teachers and community outreach
experts had never met. All were busy
with their own work. If asked, most would have said they could not possibly
join another committee or take on anything new.
But Cliff, already a successful scholar, corporate leader
and entrepreneur -- decked out with as
many academic honorifics as a four-star general has medals and ribbons – was a
hard man to turn down.
Cliff had a lot of ringmaster presence: tall, with well-barbered
white hair, a deep voice, and a mischievous twinkle in his eye. I never saw him in a top hat and tails, but he
could have carried it off.
Like any good impresario, he knew how to do his homework.
Minutes into our first conversation, Cliff had discovered who we both knew in
Boston – though our years there did not overlap. He also understood that people
learn most of what they know about health, including nutrition and physical
activity, from the media. He saw news organizations, such as Georgia Health
News, as potential friends of the scientific enterprise. He knew reporters were
not the enemy.
I direct a health and medical journalism graduate program at
UGA, and students do hands-on reporting in Georgia. They were already
generating considerable coverage of obesity’s impact on individuals,
communities and the economy. If what Cliff proposed became a reality, and UGA
threw its resources at this growing problem, there would be even more stories
to tell.
Of course I said “yes” to Cliff and signed up with the
Obesity Initiative. Since 2012 I’ve participated in teams focused on maternal
and childhood obesity, community health and persuasive communication.
All told, the Obesity Initiative now has 130 UGA faculty
working together in 14 teams. These teams work on grants, experiments and
interventions dealing with virtual reality, the basic science of metabolism and
genetics, clinical research on diet and physical activity, community walking
programs and more.
When these groups convene, in conference rooms scattered
across the campus, Cliff and his program manager, Diane Hartzell, were almost
always there. If it was lunchtime, they brought pizza and fresh fruit. If the
conversation wandered, Cliff guided it back on track. If spirits flagged
because a grant proposal was turned down, Cliff got people fired up to try
again.
These are the most diverse groups of teachers, researchers
and extension experts that I’ve found on this campus or any other.
My guess is that Cliff recruited all these folks the same
way he did me: by taking a genuine interest in them, both professionally and
personally, and making them want to run away and join his circus.
It was a gift he had, even without the top hat.
Read more about Cliff Baile’s life and work here. http://news.uga.edu/releases/article/passing-obesity-initiative-director-clifton-a-baile/