Washington, D.C. – SOPHE CEO Dr. William Datema received the American School Health Association’s (ASHA’s) 2025 William A Howe Award during ASHA’s Annual Meeting in Denver last month.
The William A. Howe Award is ASHA’s highest honor. Established in memory of Dr. William A. Howe, a founder and first President of the Association, this award is given to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to school health. The recipient must have a long-term commitment to transforming schools into places where students can learn and thrive.
“As a 33-year member of ASHA, he espouses ASHA’s core beliefs that health and learning are intrinsically linked and schools are uniquely positioned to help students acquire healthy habits for a lifetime,” ASHA Executive Director Jeanie Alter said. “I believe that he has made outstanding contributions and performed distinguished service in school health as evidenced by his service to CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health. During his tenure he led national healthy schools programs focused on HIV, STIs, teen pregnancy prevention, nutrition and physical activity promotion, tobacco-use prevention, food allergy management, and asthma management.
“I am tremendously thankful to the leadership of the American School Health Association for this award,” Datema said. “I have been a member of ASHA for decades, and the organization and its members are dear to me. I am truly grateful to have been the Howe Award recipient during ASHA’s 99th year of service.”
For his entire 44-year career, Dr. Datema has advanced school health through his leadership at local, state, national, and international levels, advancing policy and leading programs on prevention, wellness, and chronic disease management. Most recently, as CEO of SOPHE, he has continued to champion equity, collaboration, and innovation in school health nationwide.
Datema also has extensive volunteer experience. He is currently the President-Elect of National PTA and a national board member of Action for Healthy Kids and the Healthy Schools Network. He has been a national or international board member for numerous other public health and education nonprofit organizations. He continues to initiate new school health partnerships such as the National Consensus for School Health Education, which led the update of voluntary national health education standards among other projects.
