PRESS RELEASE
UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS
COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS AND COMMUNICATION
CONTACT: Dr. Gayle Seymour at (501) 450-3295; gayles@uca.edu.
February 3, 2012
By Rachel McAdams
College of Fine Arts and Communication Media Office
CONWAY — Dr. Dina Zeckhausen, writer, psychologist and eating disorder expert, will address the University of Central Arkansas and the Conway community on disordered eating and positive body image on Wednesday, Feb. 22, at 6 p.m. in the UCA Student Center, room 215.
The event is free and open to the public.
Zeckhausen, with Sue Schroeder, artistic director for the CORE Performance Group, will also present workshops for local elementary school teachers during National Eating Disorders Awareness week at Conway Public Schools Annex.
Zeckhausen, nationally recognized, award-winning clinical psychologist specializing in eating disorders, body image and other women’s issues and founder of The Eating Disorders Information Network, will address the unique qualities of college life that contribute to dieting, binge eating, and eating disorders.
Using stories from patients, Zeckhausen hopes to help students understand how to negotiate pressures and stress related to college life. She hopes to empower students with information to help them find the right balance between heart, head and gut.
“I am thrilled to be part of the creative energy and enthusiasm surrounding this awareness campaign at the University of Central Arkansas,” Zeckhausen said. “These days so many people suffer in silence from disordered eating and body hatred.”
She received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Williams College in Massachusetts and her Ph.D. in clinical-community psychology from the University of South Carolina. She wrote a piece based on disordered eating, What’s Eating Katie?, which has since been adapted as a musical. She also wrote the first children’s book devoted to preventing eating disorders, Full Mouse, Empty Mouse: A Tale of Food and Feelings, which won the Gold Moonbeam Award in the Children’s Wellness Category as well as I-Parenting’s Best New Product in 2007.
The book inspired the CORE Performance Company, a contemporary dance group that will also be in Conway for the week, to create a narrative dance titled Food and Feelings, Listening to Your Body.
Zeckhausen has been interviewed on The Today Show, Entertainment Tonight, The Food Network, CNN and Headline News.
“Our mission is to let people know: ‘you are not alone,’ and ‘there is a way out,’ Zeckhausen said. “So many talented, creative people from all different parts of the university, and even Atlanta, are coming together to reach people with vital and potentially life-saving information.”
This presentation is supported by Mid-America Arts Alliance with generous underwriting by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Arkansas Arts Council and foundations, corporations and individuals throughout Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas.
This project is made possible by funding from Alternate ROOTS and the Ford Foundation through the ROOTS Tour & Residency Program. Additional funding is provided by the Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the Department of Heritage.
The project is also funded by UCA Center for Community and Economic Development, UCA Arts Fee through the Artists in Residence Program, UCA Office of Student Services, UCA Office of Sponsored Programs, UCA Student Dietetic Association, Faulkner County Healthy Weight Coalition and Conway Public Schools.
For more details and information about CORE Performance Company, visit www.coredance.org. For more information about the “Moving Toward Health” project, contact Dr. Gayle Seymour, associate dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication, at 501-450-3295 or by email at gayles@uca.edu.
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