Posted 05/08/2007

Pate named to HHS advisory committee on federal
 physical activity guidelines

Dr. Russell Pate, USC associate vice president for health sciences, has been named to the U.S. Health and Human Services advisory committee helping develop the first federal guidelines on physical activity.

The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans is to be issued in late 2008.  The report will provide science-based recommendations on the latest knowledge about activity and health, with depth and flexibility to target specific population subgroups, such as seniors, children, and persons with disabilities, said HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt.

Pate, a professor of exercise science at the Arnold School of Public Health, is an expert on the overall health implications of physical activity and, specifically, youth fitness. He has published more than 170 scholarly papers and authored or edited five books. 

He coordinated the effort that led to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/American College of Sports Medicine recommendations on Physical Activity and Public Health in 1995. He served on an Institute of Medicine panel to develop guidelines on the prevention of childhood obesity and on the 2005 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. 

He is a former member of the science board of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports and a former president of American College of Sports Medicine. He has held leadership positions with the National Coalition on Promoting Physical Activity, the American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education, and the American Heart Association. 

Pate ran three U.S. Olympic Trials marathons and twice finished in the top ten in the Boston Marathon.