COLLEGE PARK, MD – February 10, 2011—Optimal Solutions Group, LLC (Optimal), hosted University of Maryland (UMD) School of Public Health Dean Robert Gold at its Annual Meeting on Thursday, February 3. The annual meeting focused on establishing goals, generating ideas and providing a framework for Optimal to meet its objectives by providing information, expertise, workshops, and training for its staff.

Dr. Gold is a nationally acclaimed expert in the application of technology in health education and health promotion. His research and evaluation articles have been published in journals and for organizations such as the American Cancer Society and the Addiction Research Foundation. In recent years, Dr. Gold has worked on the Accelerating Community Transformation project, which focuses on a national surveillance system evaluating factors affecting quality of life issues in communities associated with a five-year applied research project. Other projects include a Prevention Science Decision Support System for The Center for Substance Abuse Prevention and building a technology infrastructure for the Collaborative Center for Child Well-Being.

Just recently, Dr. Gold launched his Public Health Today blog where he will be discussing public health issues, highlighting publications, and ultimately facilitating communication among students, faculty, staff, health care professionals, and others interested in public health.

The meeting’s theme was “Collaboration,” and it covered how to leverage and compliment existing expertise and skills through planned collaboration and create actionable real-time data analysis, in addition to a review of the company’s 2010 performance and goals for 2011. Everyone at Optimal thanks Dr. Gold for sharing his experiences and looks forward to beginning a great year.

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Optimal Solutions Group, LLC

Founded in 2000, Optimal Solutions Group, LLC, is a nonpartisan public policy research and technical assistance firm that differentiates itself by its quantitative expertise and innovative approaches in order to provide rigorous, data-driven research and technical assistance to government agencies, corporations, nonprofit organizations, and philanthropic foundations. Located at the University of Maryland’s M Square Research Park in College Park, Optimal is a leader in driving real-time public policy research. Optimal has 60+ employees including multidisciplinary researchers that have backgrounds in economics, health policy, statistics, psychology, sociology, public policy, communications, education, urban planning, and business. Optimal has four research centers—Health; Education; Housing; Workforce Development and Social Policy.

UMD School of Public Health

University of Maryland (UMD) College Park, School of Public Health is a nationally accredited establishment with a mission to advance the public health needs and policies of the state of Maryland and beyond through research, discovery and practice. The School ultimately strives to produce a new generation of collaborative public health leaders. As part of the flagship campus, the University of Maryland College Park School, of Public Health leverages the resources available at UMD and other institutions to effectively address Maryland’s chronic and pervasive health problems.