Coursera: Finding Purpose and Meaning In Life: Living for What Matters Most

Vic Strecher

Vic is a professor at the University of Michigan’s Schools of Public Health and Medicine. An innovative teacher and researcher, in 1995 he founded the UM Center for Health Communications Research, studying the future of digitally-tailored health communications when fewer than 15% of Americans had Internet access. He’s also an entrepreneur, founding HealthMedia, a digital health coaching company that was sold to Johnson & Johnson in 2010. More recently, Vic created Kumanu, a digital platform designed to help individuals and organizations live more purposefully. Vic and the organizations he founded have won numerous national and international awards, including two Smithsonian Awards, the Health Evolution Partners Innovations in Healthcare Award, and the National Business Coalition on Health’s Mercury Award. In 2010, Vic won the University of Michigan’s Distinguished Innovator Award. In late 2017, Dr. Strecher was the Donald A. Dunstan Foundation’s “Thinker in Residence” in Adelaide, Australia to develop a “Purpose Economy” of business, government, and communities. Hi 2009 TedMed presentation has been cited by MPHonline as one of the “Top 10 Ted Talks on Public Health.” Vic’s latest neuroscience, behavioral, and epidemiologic research; his two books, Life On Purpose and the graphic novel On Purpose; and his business Kumanu, are focused on the importance of developing and maintaining a strong purpose in life.