Healthy Lifestyle Institute hosts second annual summit, announces ‘Schools on the Move’ initiative

John Jakicic

The Healthy Lifestyle Institute hosted its second annual summit on Dec. 6 on the Pittsburgh campus. The summit consisted of presentations and updates from researchers across campus on their work to transform lifestyle research into health and well being for people in all stages of life.

Housed within the School of Education, the Healthy Lifestyle Institute was founded in 2017 with a mission “to develop, translate and implement health and wellness programs” for the Pitt community and around the Pittsburgh region.

At the summit, the institute’s founding director John Jakicic (EDUC ’95G), introduced the Schools on the Move initiative, which will provide grants to support innovative physical activity programming at 43 K-12 schools in the Pittsburgh area.

“We’re asking teachers to get creative. We’re not just providing schools with basketballs and nets,” said Jakicic, who also serves as chair of the Department of Health, Physical Activity, and Exercise in the School of Education. “We’re really interested in seeing how these projects unfold.”