Archive for June 13th, 2012

The Deputy Chancellor of the University of New England, Scott Williams, has been appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List announced on Monday.

Mr Williams (pictured here) was honoured “for service to the community of New England through a range of contributions to higher education, business, local government, community radio and philanthropy”.

A graduate of UNE, his career has spanned aid work abroad, regional development planning, consulting in information technology and tertiary education, and co-founding and managing (1992-2011) a multi-award-winning small business – the Armidale-based international florists’ relay service Petals Network.

Receiving the honour had been “a humbling experience”, Mr Williams said, as there were “so many others deserving of honours” who represented – together – “the very fabric of our regional communities”.

Mr Williams was appointed as a member of the UNE Council in 1997 and has been Deputy Chancellor since 2008. He was Foundation Director (2000-2006) of the UNE Foundation, the charitable entity that works throughout the community to raise funds for scholarships, research, and teaching and learning at the University.

He himself is a donor of scholarships – UNE’s annually-awarded Scott Williams Opportunity Scholarships. “It’s been a very satisfying and rewarding experience to watch the recipients move through their studies at UNE and into the early stages of their careers,” he said. “I’d certainly recommend that experience to anyone thinking of donating a scholarship.”

He has also provided scholarships to schoolchildren in the New England region via The Smith Family.

Mr Williams’s local government service has included three years as President of Uralla Shire, and two terms as an elected regional representative of the NSW Shires Association. He was a Foundation Member of Armidale Public Radio 2ARM-FM, and also served as its Chairman.

A researcher at the University of New England is investigating psychological factors that may be contributing to the current epidemic of obesity throughout Australia.

A major aim of the study is to identify factors that affect people living in country areas rather than in cities.

The researcher, Michelle Owens, said that gaining an understanding of such factors would be an important step towards establishing clinical programs to treat obesity in rural areas.

“Most obesity research has focused on medical and environmental factors rather than psychological factors,” she said. “But obesity is often associated with psychosocial experiences – including discrimination, stigmatisation, reduced opportunities for employment, and poor self-esteem – that have a strong relationship to depression. While the relationship between obesity and depression is complicated, there are generally higher rates of depression in people with obesity.

“And, while obesity research has largely focused on the major cities, reports indicate that there are higher rates of obesity in rural than in urban populations.”

Ms Owens’s study is one of the first to investigate the possibility of specific links between geographic locations and psychological factors contributing to obesity. “If such links are identified,” she said, “this may assist in tailoring specific weight-reduction programs to meet the unique psychological needs of rural populations.” The project is part of her Master of Clinical Psychology degree program at UNE.

In order to collect the data she needs, she is conducting an online survey of people over the age of 18, and analysing the responses in relation to the participants’ weight, psychological factors, and where they live. In her analysis she is using the Australian Standard Geographical Classification of “remoteness”, which divides Australia into five zones: “major city”, “inner regional”, “outer regional”, “remote”, and “very remote” areas. (Details of this classification are at: http://www.doctorconnect.gov.au/internet/otd/Publishing.nsf/Content/locator.)

“Any information or personal details gathered in the course of this study will remain completely confidential,” Ms Owens said, “and no individual will be identified by name in any publication of the results.”

While she is interested in hearing from people in all five zones, she is particularly keen to receive responses from people living in “remote” and “very remote” zones. The online survey, which takes about 30 minutes to complete, and an information sheet for participants, can be found at http://tinyurl.com/7rtg5x6.

Ms Owens would like, eventually, to work as a clinical psychologist in a rural or regional area. “A psychologist’s consulting room isn’t the first place that people with an obesity problem tend to go to,” she said. “But I’m hoping that my study could contribute to a change in that.”