Providing health education for every body.
Over 40 years of experience and going strong.
Our Misson
McMillen Health is a non-profit organization and is one of less than four independently operated health education centers remaining nationwide. Our organization is recognized as the number one resource for health education in the Northern Indiana region—reaching more than 90,000 students annually.
McMillen Health’s Mission is to provide vital, effective preventive health education that promotes physical, emotional, and social well-being. We serve students of any age, ability, and backgrounds. Since we opened our doors in 1981, we have grown immensely in size and capability. We provide over 250 education programs on various topics offered either here at our facility, on-site at a school or organization within 150 miles, via distance learning, and e-learning. Our programs include general health; safety; HIV/STDs; drugs, alcohol, and tobacco use prevention; nutrition; fitness; and more!
McMillen Health develops custom curricula, media, videos, and resources for other organizations. Projects have included developing a secondhand tobacco smoking curriculum for the Indiana Department of Health; a wellness program for Healthier Moms and Babies involving videos, text messages, and consumer journals to use along with the program; and a COVID-19 campaign including videos, text messages, flyers, rack cards, and social media posts for Neighborhood Health in Fort Wayne; and more. To view our portfolio, click on our “Custom Resources” button below.
Our Values
We are committed to excellence in teaching preventive health education through
interactive learning. As such, McMillen Health values
the pursuit of good health as a right of all individuals;
the continued growth and survival of our community through a healthy population;
partnerships with the community and collaborations with institutions of higher education,
health systems, and non-profit agencies to enhance the health of the citizens in the region;fact-based health education beginning at an early age and continuing through the senior years;
preventive health education as the best method to assure a healthy population;
skilled, professional, experienced health educators who practice the strength-based approach to teaching;
effective assessment to enhance the quality of our programs; and
fiscal responsibility and board-involved fundraising as essential to the integrity and accountability of our organization.
Our Vision
We strive to be a nationally recognized source for preventive health education, known for
our positive impact on the physical, emotional, and social well-being of nationwide residents of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds;
our exceptional, diverse staff, who provides a distinctive brand of health education;
creating unique, interactive educational experiences for both children and adults, locally and nationwide;
our location, which is easily accessible to the public and serves all people in a dynamic, exciting environment;
the use of new technologies to educate audiences and instill positive habits, leading to a healthy lifestyle;
our leadership role in collaborative health efforts in the community; and
our contributions and enhancement of the quality of life in Northeast Indiana and beyond.
Our History
In 1977, the McMillen Alliance consisted of nine members from the Inter-Agency Drug Alcohol Council. They started what was, at the time, the Hinsdale Project. The name Hinsdale comes from the city in Illinois where the Robert Crown Center, the first health education center in the nation, was located. The McMillen Alliance visited Robert Crown to learn more about how to start an effective health education center. The Hinsdale Project would later be named the Harold W. McMillen Center for Health Education. In 2017, we began doing business as McMillen Health, a shortened version of our legal name.
McMillen Health’s property was originally purchased by Charles F. Moellering in 1871. A little over a century later, it was purchased by Jim Kelley and donated to McMillen Health in 1979. Construction broke ground in October 1979 and McMillen Health opened its doors in January 1981. McMillen Health is housed in a 16,000-square-foot facility with three themed teaching theaters, an auditorium, and many hands-on displays in our Great Hall.
In McMillen Health’s first year open, about 40,000 students visited our facility. Two full-time and five part-time educators taught all the programs. Ron Phillips was the first executive director. Our Transparent Anatomical Manikin (TAM) was donated to McMillen Health from the Junior League. In the beginning, we only had four health education programs. Over time, we have grown to now offer over 250 programs, on drug, alcohol, and tobacco prevention; human growth and development; social and emotional health; and many more!
In 2012, McMillen Health developed Brush, an oral health program aimed at low-income children and their parents. Brush now reaches 1.89 million professionals, children, and families nationwide. This model of developing curricula and other resources now allows McMillen Health to reach even more people with vital, effective preventive health education! We have worked with many organizations, including the Indiana Department of Health, Delta Dental Foundation of Michigan, Johns Hopkins, Healthier Moms and Babies, the University of Michigan, and others, to create high-quality, low-literacy health education resources.
Our TAM
You may recognize TAM from the cover of Nirvana’s 1993 album, “In Utero.” TAM, the Transparent Anatomical Manikin, is a life-sized, three-dimensional, transparent model of a human being created for medical instructional purposes.
Designer Richard Rush created TAM in 1968. She is a see-through reproduction of a female human body, with various organs wired so that specific body systems can light up on command or on cue with a pre-recorded educational presentation.
Only 42 TAMs were produced, and McMillen Health is the only health education facility fortunate to still have and use a TAM for education.
In 2019, TAM received a 21st-century update! Where her programs used to run on laser discs, she now runs on a new computer and can be controlled from a touch screen. She used to only be able to do a few programs and now the sky is the limit on how many things she can teach about the wonderful human body.
TAM has become a prominent member of the McMillen Health family. She helps teach several of our programs here at the center, hosts her own annual golf outing, and has her own merch. Now she has a blog! Check out TAMtalks for fun health-related topics and conversations.
