The University Awards Committee of Cal State Long Beach recently presented health professor Mohammed Forouzesh with a $2,000 check after announcing him as the recipient of the 2008 Outstanding Professor Award.
The Outstanding Professor Award, established in 1980, rewards and publicly acknowledges outstanding professorial performance. Each CSU campus has its own Outstanding Professor Award.
After the awards are given the CSU chancellor’s office chooses one Outstanding Professor at the system level, which will be revealed before the fall semester begins. Forouzesh says he is very pleased with the award. “I felt great [about the award],” Forouzesh said.
“This was a milestone in my career. I have been teaching for 32 years in total of which this year marked my 25th year of teaching at CSULB.”
Forouzesh has decided to put the money towards the Forouzesh Scholarship Fund. The fund is a personal scholarship Forouzesh developed through the CSULB Foundation to aid in professional development activities for students. The scholarship provides travel, professional membership and conference costs for health science students.
Donations such as these are part of what earned him the award. The committee uses several criteria – such as community service – to decide on each winner. They look at the professor’s charitable contributions, research activities and teaching capabilities.
Forouzesh also had to prepare documents on his achievements. Fellow faculty members agree that Forouzesh exceeded all of these requirements. According to Veronica Acosta-Deprez, associate professor of health science, Forouzesh has been known to spend time with students inside and outside the classroom.
“He always inspires his students by making sure they feel good about themselves,” Acosta-Deprez said. “He challenges them by thinking differently and by making sure they never fall short of realizing their full human potential even in the midst of adversity.”
While the awards committee made the ultimate decision on the winner and nominees, students had the opportunity to support their teachers. Forouzesh was nominated for the award by a group of his students.
Each student wrote a three-page letter to the University Awards Committee explaining why the professor deserved the award. “It is indeed an honor to receive this award, and being nominated for it by my students is an indication that I am making a difference in their lives,” Forouzesh said.
Forouzesh has been involved in public health his entire life. His father and several generations of his family were physicians. He followed in their footsteps by going pre-med. He has also been married to a nursing professor for 30 years.
According to Forouzesh, he was born to be in the health business, even as a child. “I started out as a teaching assistant at the University of Tennessee in 1976. I fell in love during my first three classes,” Forouzesh said. “You have so much opportunity to shape individuals and to transform them. This is the greatest honor to be a teacher.”
Forouzesh has served as chair of the CSULB Department of Health Sciences for three years, undergraduate program adviser for 11 years, and has been the department’s graduate director for the past 10 years.
The graduate program was recently given a full seven-year accreditation. This past year Forouzesh also proposed the creation of a health campus committee to address wellness policies at CSULB. The committee would look into CSULB efforts to keep the campus green and healthy.
It would focus not only on conserving energy but also on healthy eating habits. Forouzesh also does a lot of work outside of the CSULB campus. He has held national offices and is a recognized leader locally and nationally in tobacco prevention education and policies.
He also provides expertise in bioterrorism and has served as a consultant and evaluator for the Mass Small Pox Vaccination Exercise funded by the Department of Homeland Security.
