Rebecca J. Donatelle, Ph. D.
OregonState University
Rebecca Donatelle is an Associate Professor in Public Health and is the Coordinator of Public Health Promotion and Education Programs in the College of Health and Human Sciences. She has a Ph.D. in Community Health/Health Education, a Master of Science degree in Health Education, and a Bachelor of Science degree with majors in both Health/Physical Education and English. She is also a Certified Health Education Specialist.
Becky is a highly involved, student-centered teacher and mentor for undergraduate and graduate students in the Department of Public Health at Oregon State University. Although her main emphasis is in the area of Public Health Promotion and Health Education, she teaches a wide range of students from many disciplines on the Oregon State campus. Courses she teaches that are relevant to personal health include Principles of Health Behaviors, Stress and Health, Violence and Public Health, Epidemiology and Control of Chronic Diseases, Introduction to Human Disease (Communicable), and a new course on Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
In addition to her varied teaching responsibilities, Becky is an active researcher in the area of health behaviors and behavior change including studies with a focus on motivating behavior change, the use of social support in facilitating behavior change, the use of community supports to assist individuals in changing high-risk behaviors, and the role of stress in health and disease.
Becky has also conducted extensive research in the area of decision-making and factors influencing the use of alternative and traditional health care providers for treatment of low back pain; illness and sick role behaviors; women's decisions about treatment for breast cancer and cardiac rehabilitation.
Donatelle has received the Leadership Award, outstanding teacher award in her college, and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Presidential Award for Promising New Research in the Smoke-Free Families National Initiative. She has been an active member of several state and national committees and task forces and continues to work to reduce risk for high risk populations, particularly women and the elderly. Donatelle has written many books, including Access to Health (Benjamin Cummings), Wellness: Choices for Health and Fitness (Thomson Publishing), and AIDS and STDs: A Global Perspective (Pearson Custom Publishing), and she has written several chapters and manuscripts for various health-related books and journals. In addition, Donatelle is a co-author on Benjamin Cummings' newest personal fitness and wellness text, Get Fit, Stay Well!