Benedicte Deforche
Biography
Benedicte Deforche is full professor at the Department of Public Health and Primary Care (Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences) at Ghent University (UGent) and assistant professor at the Department of Movement and Sport Sciences (Faculty of Physical Education and Physiotherapy) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). At UGent, she is chair of the research unit Health Promotion and president of the Master in Health Promotion. At the VUB, she is teaching ‘Physical activity and health promotion’ to master students in Movement and Sport Sciences, major physical activity, fitness and health. Benedicte Deforche is nationally as well as internationally recognized for her expertise in health promotion. She has been Member-at-Large of the International Society of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical activity for a maximum term of six years (2011-2017) and is fellow of this international organization since 2017. She is principal investigator for the Flemish part of Belgium of the Health Behaviour in School Aged Children Study (HBSC), a WHO collaborative study on adolescents’ health behaviour in 44 countries. She is president of the prevention commission of ‘Kom op tegen kanker’, member of the advisory board of Eetexpert, member of the General Assembly and Board of Directors of the Flemish Institute Healthy Living and member of Education and Society Committee of the Flemish Education Council. She was president of the advisory group ‘Nutrition and Physical Activity’ of the Flemish Minister of Health from 2014 till 2017.