Dr. Nico Pronk is President and Institutional Official of the HealthPartners Institute and Chief Science Officer at HealthPartners, Inc. Dr. Pronk is a Sr. Research Investigator at the HealthPartners Institute and holds academic appointments as Affiliate Full Professor of Health Policy and Management at the University of Minnesota, School of Public Health in Minneapolis, Minnesota and as Visiting Scientist of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts.

Dr. Pronk’s work is focused on connecting evidence of effectiveness with practical applications of programs and practices, policies and systems that measurably improve population health and well-being. His work applies to the workplace, the health system setting, and the community and involves development of new models to improve health and well-being at the research, practice and policy levels.

Dr. Pronk was confirmed by the White House to serve as co-chair of the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services’ Advisory Committee on National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives for the year 2030 (aka “Healthy People 2030”). He is a current member of the Food and Nutrition Board and Chair for the Roundtable on Obesity Solutions at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. He serves on the board of directors for the Health Enhancement Research Organization and is the founding and past president of the International Association for Worksite Health Promotion.

He is widely published in both the scientific and practice literatures and is an international speaker on population health and well-being. Dr. Pronk received his doctorate degree in exercise physiology at Texas A&M University and completed his post-doctoral studies in behavioral medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center at the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Other offices:

• Affiliate full professor in Health Policy and Management at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health in Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Visiting scientist in Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts
• Member of the Food and Nutrition Board at the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM)
• Chair, Roundtable on Obesity Solutions at the National Academy of Medicine (NAM)
• Founding and past president of the International Association for Worksite Health Promotion (IAWHP)
• Member of the Board of Directors for the Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO)

Joined the Institute: 1994

Education and training: PhD, exercise physiology, Texas A&M University; postdoctoral studies in behavioral medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh.

Overview/research interests: Dr. Pronk’s work is focused on connecting evidence of effectiveness with practical applications of programs and practices, policies and systems that measurably improve population health and well-being. His work applies to the workplace, the health system setting, and the community and involves development of new models to improve health and well-being at the research, practice and policy levels. He is widely published in both scientific and practice literature and is an international speaker on population health and well-being.

Current research activities and funding:

• Effectiveness of workplace interventions that integrate health promotion and occupational safety and health
• The role of business engagement in community health and well-being
• The impact of physical activity and sedentary behavior on employee performance and productivity
• The application of systems science in health policy and organizational decision-making
• The role of healthy living in disease prevention
• Summary measures of health and well-being