In this episode, I connect with Dr. Jen Roberts, an Associate Professor at the University of Maryland, in the Department of Kinesiology, within the School of Public Health, for a detailed discussion about her work and study at the intersection of health and the built environment.

Active Towns Landing page for this episode for additional photos and content

Public health is and has been top of mind ever since the global coronavirus pandemic took hold, but there's a side to the study of public health that might not be as salient in our thoughts and that is the impact that our built environment has on our health, wellbeing, and specifically in encouraging and promoting healthy, active living.

Dr. Roberts didn't specifically set out to be an academic and researcher in this arena, but we are grateful that she found her way to this work, which includes serving as the Director of the Public Health Outcomes and Effects of the Built Environment (PHOEBE) Laboratory, leading the Purple Line Light Rail Impact on Neighborhood, Health and Transit (PLIGHT) Study, and heading up the NatureRX@UMD initiative on the campus of the University of Maryland.

Additional Helpful Links:

University of Maryland – School of Public Health

Professor Robert’s website and Twitter account

Richard Louv – Nature Deficit Disorder

ParkRX – Robert Zarr, MD, MPH

Campus NatureRX

NatureRX at Cornell

UC Davis Peer Program – NatureRXhttps://healthy.ucdavis.edu/healthy-campus-resources

Red Lining and Lack of Tree Canopy – NYT article

Rain gardens and nature integration – Active Towns video of the Indy Cultural Trail

Transit catchments areas: The Magic Hand of the Bike – Episode w/ Roland Kager

Health Belief Model – Dr. Marshall Becker

Active Towns Podcast episode w/ Charles T. Brown

Active Towns Podcast episode w/ Kelly Rodgers

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Credits:

All video and audio production by John Simmerman

Music:

Various mixes also by John Simmerman

Resources used during the production of this episode:

- My awesome recording platform is Ecamm

- Adobe Creative Cloud Suite

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Background:

Hi Everyone, my name is John Simmerman.

I’m a health promotion professional with over 30 years of experience and my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization of how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.

In 2012 I launched the non-profit Advocates for Healthy Communities as an effort to help promote and create healthy, active places.

Since that time, I've been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be, in order to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a "Culture of Activity" for "All Ages & Abilities."

My Active Towns suite of channels feature my original video and audio content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them.

Thanks for tuning in; I hope you have found this content helpful.

Creative Commons License: Attributions, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, 2021

Advocates for Healthy Communities, Inc. is a nonprofit 501c3 organization (EIN 45-3802508) dedicated to helping communities create a Culture of Activity. To donate, click here.