Building Capacity in Physical Activity and Public Health.

As with any new and growing field of study, building capacity for research, teaching, and training remains of central importance. Capacity-building in the Physical Activity and Public Health field is perhaps even more critical, given the few formal doctoral training programs in the field and that we are a hybrid of exercise science, behavioral science, and public health science. This supplement of the Journal of Physical Activity and Health is intended to recognize the contributions of the Physical Activity and Public Health (PAPH) Postgraduate Course on Research Directions and Strategies in building such capacity. The 8-day course has been offered annually since 1995 and, through 2010, more than 440 fellows have participated. The course offers intense, focused training aimed at expanding the cadre of researchers to advance the scientific base in physical activity and health. The underlying assumption is that the body of knowledge on physical activity and health will develop optimally only if there are sizeable numbers of investigators who are prepared to compete successfully for funding to support research on relevant topics. Given the need to move science to action, a 6-day Physical Activity and Public Health Practitioner Course on Community Interventions was developed in 1996 and began to run concurrently with the Researcher course. This course has trained more than 360 fellows since its inception. The Practitioner course is an equally intense training experience focused on evidence-based strategies to promote physical activity. Fellows from the Practitioner course return to their states, communities, or communitybased settings armed with state-of-the-art information and resources to promote and increase physical activity. Two factors have been central to the success of the PAPH Research course over the years. First, it has been able to attract and retain the loyal commitment of a faculty that includes many of the field’s most notable scholars. It is particularly noteworthy that many of these leading researchers have participated in all or many of the annual courses. Second, and in the context of this special supplement, the course has consistently attracted highly diverse and motivated fellows. This special supplement celebrates the outstanding research produced by PAPH Fellows.