PRE-CONFERENCE EVENT - HIGHLIGHTED SPEAKERS

Dr Esther van Sluijs is leads the Behavioural Epidemiology & Interventions in Young People Programme at the MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge (UK). Her research focuses on understanding and changing young people’s physical activity and dietary behaviour in educational and family settings. In her research she applies a wide range of methodological approaches to improve understanding of intervention implementation and effectiveness, and drive progress. Esther holds a PhD in Public Health and Epidemiology from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and has been an expert advisor on children’s physical activity promotion for IOC and NICE.

Dr Nicole Nathan is an implementation scientist from the University of Newcastle in NSW, Australia. She has a background as a Health and Physical Education teacher, a PhD in Health Behaviour and 20+yrs experience as a public health manager. Working closely with health and education policymakers and practitioners, she has led transformative initiatives in schools, including Australia's largest population-wide obesity prevention program 'Good for Kids. Good for Life.' Nicole currently holds an NHMRC Investigator Fellowship focused on sustaining the implementation of evidence-based interventions in schools. She is the portfolio lead for sustainability research with the National Centre of Implementation Science, Deputy Director of the Hunter Medical Research Institute Population Health Program and co-Director of the NSW Health Prevention Research Support Program.

Russ Jago is Professor of Physical Activity and Public Health at the University of Bristol. He leads the UKRI-funded PASSPORT study. PASSPORT is developing a context-specific physical activity intervention for UK primary schools. This co-produced program will result in a bespoke intervention chosen by the school that is suitable to each school's setting, ethos, resources and demographic profile. The programme will be evaluated via a stepped-wedge design, and as part of the program of work, the team are developing the methods to facilitate the use of this design for public health interventions evaluated in schools

Dr Sally Barber is the Director of Physical Activity Research at Born in Bradford, Bradford Institute for Health Research. Her expertise is in the measurement of children’s physical activity and sedentary behaviour and designing, implementing and evaluating interventions to tackle children’s inactivity and reduce health inequalities. Sally is currently a Director of Research for the Sport England funded JU:MP Programme in Bradford where she leads the development and evaluation of a whole system physical activity intervention to improve physical activity and health outcomes for children aged 5-14 years old.

Stuart Fairclough is Professor of Physical Activity, Health and Wellbeing at Edge Hill University. His research focuses on 24-hour movement behaviours (which includes physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and sleep), health, and wellbeing, emphasising children and young people and the role of schools in activity and health promotion. He is also interested in movement behaviour metrics, and analysis approaches to better understand the relationships between movement behaviours and health and wellbeing. His research aligns with the behavioural epidemiological framework with key aspects of physical activity and sedentary behaviour measurement, their correlates, and interventions to change movement behaviours and health outcomes.

Anna Chalkley is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bradford. Anna’s research focuses on the development, implementation and evaluation of school-based physical activity interventions. Anna strongly believes in working at the interface of research, policy and practice in physical activity promotion to ensure that the work she does is impactful and is applicable to the real world. She is particularly interested in the translation of research and how it is used to inform policy and practice. Anna has acted as an advisor to a range of national and international health promotion agencies including Public Health England and the World Health Organization. She is currently Chair of the World Health Organization’s Health Enhancing Physical Activity (HEPA) Europe Network.

John Bartholomew, Ph.D., is a Professor of Kinesiology and Health Education and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Education at The University of Texas at Austin. He received his A.B. in Psychology from Harvard University and his Ph.D. in Exercise Science from Arizona State University. He has a long interest in the promotion of PAL with 30 published papers on the topic from work completed across the US and Europe. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Translational Journal of the ACSM and is a Fellow in the ACSM and the National Academy of Kinesiology.

Edd is a third year PhD student in Public Health and Behavioural Science at the University of Newcastle, Australia. His research is focused on the sustainability of physical activity policy implementation in primary schools. He completed his undergraduate degree in Health & Exercise Science at Teesside University and a post graduate degree in Sport & Exercise Science from Sheffield Hallam university here in the UK. After PhD completion Edd plans on continuing research within the space of implementation and sustainability of health programs to improve long-term health and wellbeing outcomes for children.

Dr. Gabriella McLoughlin is an assistant professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences in the College of Public Health at Temple University. Dr. McLoughlin received training in implementation science in chronic disease prevention as a research associate at Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. McLoughlin is deeply committed to improving implementation of evidence-based policies and programs to address health disparities. Current projects focus on addressing food insecurity and promoting physical activity in underserved populations through local and international collaborations. She is funded by the US National Institutes of Health, US Department of Agriculture, and Urban School Food Alliance.

Alfred Deakin Professor Jo Salmon is Director of the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, Deakin University and holds a NHMRC Level 2 Investigator Grant. She has >20 years research experience developing effective programs to promote children’s physical activity and reduce sedentary behaviour. She has been a Chief Investigator on >30 national and 14 international funded projects worth more than $28.8 million, and has supervised 26 PhD students to completion and 14 postdoctoral fellows. She has published her research extensively with over 400 publications. Jo is founding and current President of the Asia Pacific Society for Physical Activity (ASPA).

Dr Natalie Lander is a passionate educator with experience in secondary schools and tertiary settings and a Senior Research Fellow (Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition at Deakin University). Her research is informed by teachers and directly relevant to the teaching profession. Natalie has over 60 peer-reviewed papers and has presented her research at >30 international conferences. She has gained discipline-specific expertise in designing, delivering and evaluating interventions in education settings, using qualitative and quantitative analytic techniques to determine effectiveness, process evaluation, and implementation outcomes, and she has significant experience with population-level implementation trials in school and university systems.

Lauren is a Research Associate at Edge Hill University working in partnership with Together an Active Future, responsible for research and evaluation of whole school approaches to physical activity for children and young people. She completed her BSc and MSc in Physical Activity and Health at Leeds Beckett University. Her interests include 24-hour movement behaviours, mental health and wellbeing, and the role of schools in activity and health promotion. She is a people person and enjoys working alongside schools to improve physical activity and is particularly interested in translating research into meaningful outputs that schools can digest and use to inform policy and practice.

Andreia Santos is a health economist with experience in leading research projects involving a range of methods including economic evaluations and modelling of interventions and healthcare programmes, mixed methods evaluations of complex interventions and theories of change, and financing models. Her research is primarily focused on physical activity interventions and non-communicable diseases in countries of all income levels. Andreia also provides technical assistance in countries to make investment cases for multisectoral interventions aimed at increasing levels of physical activity. She is an Associate Professor at St Marys University and a consultant for the World Health Organization.