About Us

IPEN is the International Physical Activity and the Environment Network. It was launched at the International Congress of Behavioral Medicine in Mainz Germany in August 2004 and is coordinated by Jim Sallis, Neville Owen, Ilse DeBourdeaudhuij, Mike Pratt and Jacqueline Kerr.

James Sallis (USA), Ilse Debourdeauduij (Belgium), and Neville Owen (Australia), are collaborating on research to understand how attributes of the physical environment can influence active and inactive behavioural choices. These studies were stimulated by our wish to better understand the determinants of physical activity, so that more effective interventions can be developed and more effective public health policy strategies can be pursued. Our interest in ecological models of health behaviour led us to focus our research on particular physical activities (eg. Walking for transport, walking for exercise or recreation) and the attributes of environmental settings that might encourage or discourage these behaviours.

Our own experiences have involved collaborating closely across three different countries on a range of previous physical activity studies that have involved colleagues in several other countries. Our research has developed concepts, methods and measures that others have taken up and used in their own research, in different cultures and using different languages.

We are confident that the new ideas and methods now developed for the NQLS and PLACE studies will be very helpful to researchers elsewhere. The key ideas (creating environments and opportunities supportive of physical activity) have great potential to appeal to policy makers and practitioners. Indeed, environmental and policy strategies are being adopted with enthusiasm all over the world.

One of our main goals is to build and extend the base of scientific evidence that can support environmental and policy strategies. Strong scientific evidence from studies in a range of countries will take us a long way towards achieving this goal.



    Jim Sallis, Ph.D.

    James Sallis is Professor of Psychology at San Diego State University and the Program Director of Active Living Research.

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    Neville Owen, Ph.D.

    Neville is Professor of Health Behaviour in the School of Population Health and Director of the Cancer Prevention Research Centre at The University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. He was previously at Deakin University, as Foundation Professor of Human Movement Science, Head of the School of Human Movement and Director of Research for the Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences.

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    Ilse De Bourdeaudhuij, Ph.D.

    Associate professor at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Movement and Sport Sciences at the Ghent University, Belgium.

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    Lawrence D. Frank, Ph.D., AICP, ASLA

    J. Armand Bombardier Chair in Sustainable Transportation in the School of Community and Regional Planning and the Institute for Resources and the Environment at the University of British Columbia

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    Thomas L. Schmid, PhD.

    Dr. Schmid is Senior Evaluation Specialist and Director of the Active Environments (AE) workgroup, Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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    Jacqueline Kerr, Ph.D.




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    Nicole L. Bracy, Ph.D

    Nicole L. Bracy is a Research Scientist and Coordinator for IPEN.  She has a Ph.D. in Criminology from the University of Delaware and is excited to be back in her hometown, San Diego, coordinating the IPEN projects. 

    Nicole has a strong interest and background in community-based research.  Her dissertation research focused on policing and surveillance in public schools and she has published several journal articles and book chapters based upon this research.  While in graduate school, Nicole taught undergraduate courses in research methods and statistics and was the Project Manager for two large NIMH-funded research labs in the Psychology Department at the University of Delaware.  Prior to attending graduate school, Nicole worked for the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at UC San Diego conducting health outcomes research. 

    Nicole enjoys traveling abroad and experiencing local culture; in her personal travels she has visited Canada, Mexico, England, Italy and China.  She looks forward to visiting and learning from IPEN collaborators across the world.