Rodrigo Reis, PhD

Rodrigo Reis, PhD

Unit Founder

Dr. Rodrigo S. Reis is a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, where he serves as Director of the Office of Public Health and Assistant Vice Provost. He has held leadership roles at the university, including Co-Dean, Chair of the Urban Design and Public Health MPH specialization, and Associate Dean for Public Health, spearheading strategic initiatives around environmental health, sustainability, and environmental justice. Previously, Dr. Reis served as a professor in the Urban Management Graduate Program at the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná in Curitiba, Brazil. Dr. Reis’s research centers on physical activity and public health, focusing on community interventions, built environments, active transportation, and physical activity surveillance. He is a member of the Lancet Physical Activity Series Group and has co-authored influential studies published in The Lancet in 2012, 2016, and 2021. In addition, he contributed to the Urban Design, Transport, and Public Health series published in The Lancet (2016) and The Lancet Public Health (2022). Dr. Reis has also led and collaborated on international projects such as Project GUIA (Guide for Community in Latin America), the IPEN Network (International Physical Activity and Environment Network), the HULAP project, and other multi-country studies. In policy and practice, Dr. Reis has worked with the Brazilian Ministry of Health on developing and monitoring the National Plan for Combating Non-Communicable Diseases. He has partnered with the Pan American Health Organization and the Ministry of Health in Brazil to implement evidence-based public health and physical activity promotion courses, contributed to CDC physical activity courses in Latin America, assisted with the U.S. National Physical Activity Plan, and supported PAHO/ASPPH epidemiology and public health courses throughout Latin America. Dedicated to building research and practice capacity across the region, Dr. Reis is a founding member and former president of the Brazilian Society for Physical Activity and Health and a founding member and current board member of the Latin American Congress of Physical Activity and Health Research.