Michael  Pratt

Dr. Pratt is the incoming director of the Institute for Public Health at the University of California, San Diego. He is currently a visiting professor in the Hubert Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health, at Emory University. Dr. Pratt held several leadership positions at the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including serving as the Senior Advisor for Global Health and as the first Chief of the Physical Activity and Health Branch.

Dr. Pratt founded the CDC World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Physical Activity and Health and the International Physical Activity and Public Health Course. Dr. Pratt is also an adjunct professor at the Schools of Medicine and Government at los Andes University in Bogotá, Colombia and a visiting professor at the Federal University of Pelotas in Brazil. He completed a master's degree in exercise physiology and Medical Degree at the University of Washington in Seattle, medical residency training at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, earned a master's degree in Public Health at the University of Minnesota, and is a graduate of the EIS epidemiology fellowship and preventive medicine residency at CDC. He is board certified in General Preventive Medicine and Public Health and is a Fellow in the American College of Preventive Medicine and the American College of Sports Medicine.

Dr. Pratt is an advisor to many global physical activity initiatives and ministries of health, including serving on the steering committee for the Lancet Physical Activity Observatory. Dr. Pratt's research interests include increasing global research capacity for physical activity and chronic disease prevention, physical activity policy and interventions, and evidence-based public health practice. He has published more than 150 papers is one of the most cited researchers in the field.