Rate My Professor Greg Welk

Gregory J. Welk is the Barbara E. Forker Professor in Kinesiology and a Distinguished Professor of Human Sciences in the Department of Kinesiology at Iowa State University of Science and Technology, where he has been a faculty member since 2000 and achieved full professorship in 2012. He earned a B.S. in Liberal Arts and Sciences with a concentration in Bioengineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1986, an M.S. and Ph.D. in Exercise Science from the University of Iowa in 1989, and a Ph.D. in Exercise Science and Physical Education from Arizona State University in 1994. Prior appointments include Director of Childhood and Adolescent Health at the Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research in Dallas, Texas from 1996 to 1999, and Assistant Professor in the Department of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance at Eastern Michigan University from 1994 to 1996.

Welk directs the Physical Activity and Health Promotion Laboratory at Iowa State, with research specializing in physical activity assessment in children and youth, validation of activity monitors including accelerometry and pattern recognition methods, development of youth fitness standards such as FITNESSGRAM, obesity prevention, sedentary behavior, energy expenditure, and school-based interventions. His contributions include developing calibrated online instruments for physical activity research adopted by the National Cancer Institute, establishing FITNESSGRAM as a national standard for K-12 school fitness assessments through the NFL PLAY 60 Partnership, and founding the Iowa State University Translational Research Network (U-TuRN) to facilitate community partnerships. Major publications encompass the textbook Concepts of Fitness and Wellness: A Comprehensive Lifestyle Approach (11th edition, 2016, co-authored with C.B. Corbin et al.), the edited volume Physical Activity Assessments for Health-Related Research (2002), and peer-reviewed articles such as Design and Evaluation of the NFL PLAY 60 FITNESSGRAM Partnership Project (2016) and Physical activity in US adults: compliance with the physical activity guidelines for Americans (2011, over 1300 citations). Welk holds Fellow status in the American College of Sports Medicine, Research Consortium of SHAPE America, and National Academy of Kinesiology, and was inducted into the Iowa Academy of Education in 2019. He has mentored over 30 graduate students and serves on scientific advisory boards including FITNESSGRAM and Dannon Foundation.