As a physical activity epidemiologist, I have guided many NIH research studies in the areas of both physical activity assessment and intervention. Most notably, I led the development of the physical activity component of the US Diabetes Prevention Project (DPP) lifestyle intervention as part of the national DPP Lifestyle Resource Core and also served as the PI of an NIH funded investigation of activity/inactivity in the entire DPP cohort using both subjective and objective (accelerometer) measures. In the past, I had maintained a similar role for several other multi-center and single site
studies. With a passion towards prevention, I now focus on translating the DPP’s successful behavioral lifestyle intervention into the public health arena. As PI, I am currently writing up the results of our highly successful NIDDK grant involving the translation of the DPP’s effective behavioral lifestyle intervention into several diverse community settings ranging from senior centers and the worksite to the military. My current research as PI is an NIH funded investigation examining whether the health of sedentary, overweight people can be improved with a program initially focusing on decreasing the amount of time they spend sitting, rather than starting with an emphasis on increasing the amount of time they spend participating in physical activities.