Thomas L. Schmid, Ph.D.

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. AE is exploring how urban design and transportation infrastructure influence levels of physical activity and health in the community. Basic research and practical intervention through policy and environmental change are the primary focus of AC, examples include working with the University of Washington to develop empirically based walking and bicycling audit tools and collaborating with Georgia Technical Institute to determine the effects of community design on physical activity and health. AE research focuses on formulating hypotheses on the relationships between community form and physical activity, developing tools to test these hypotheses and designing and evaluating environmental interventions and policies that promote physical activity. A growing focus of AE is policy research where policy is either the dependant or independent variable. AC recently developed a physical activiyt policy research agenda and established the physical activiyt policy research network (PAPRN). Policies that influence student and community members physical activity in and around schools are one of PAPRN’s inital research efforts. Dr. Schmid provides technical assistance in the design, implementation and evaluation of health programs to domestic and international agencies. Recent examples of international assistance include development of national and regional policy strategics for prevention of Cardiovascular Disease in Russia, improving community based maternal health care in Tanzania. Dr Schmid also serves as the CDC Principle investigator on the “Influences of the Built Environment on Physical Activity and Quality of Life in Bogota, Columbia” project. This Multi year evaluation is co sponsored by CDC, the Pan American Health Organization and the International Union of Health Promotion and Education. The evaluation will include an empirically assessment of the effects fo substantial environmental and policy changes in Bogota on level of physical activity and quality of life as well as a policy analysis of the factors which enabled these changes. Examples of Dr Schmids publication include Health and Community Design: The Impact of the Built Environment on Physical Activity ( Island Press), “A framework for evaluaitng communjty-based physical activity programs in Latin America” ( Promotion and Education) and “Public Health Policy for Physical Activity”(JPAH).