Rate My Professor Katja Siefken

Katja Siefken serves as an Adjunct Lecturer at Adelaide University, associated with the Teaching Enterprise in UniSA Allied Health and Human Performance. She completed her PhD in Physical Activity and Public Health at Auckland University of Technology's Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition Research from 2009 to 2013. Her career trajectory includes roles as Senior Researcher in Prevention and Sport at MSH Medical School Hamburg from 2014 to 2016, Lecturer and Course Coordinator in the School of Health Sciences at the University of South Australia from 2017 to 2019, where she contributed to the Alliance for Research in Exercise, Nutrition and Activity (ARENA), and Professor of Physical Activity and Health at MSH Medical School Hamburg's Department Performance, Neuroscience, Therapy and Health since 2019.

Siefken's academic interests center on physical activity and public health, emphasizing the prevention of non-communicable diseases through sport-for-development programs, particularly in low- and middle-income countries and among socially disadvantaged populations. Her research examines physical activity's effects on mental, social, and physical health outcomes, policy implications, and planetary health considerations. Key publications feature 'How does sport affect mental health? An investigation into the relationship of leisure-time physical activity with depression and anxiety' (2019), 'Managing sport-for-development and healthy lifestyles: A case study of a multi-level, multi-partner sport-for-development programme in the South Pacific' (2019), 'Worldwide use of the first set of physical activity Country Cards' (2018), 'Striking a Balance: Physical Activity and Planetary Health' (2023), and 'Low global physical activity despite two decades of policy progress' (2026). She co-edited the book 'Physical Activity in Low- and Middle-Income Countries' (Routledge, 2021). Siefken co-founded the Journal of Sport for Development in 2012, acts as Germany's contact for the Global Observatory for Physical Activity (GoPA!) since 2014, advises the World Health Organization Physical Activity Unit, and co-edits the Journal of Physical Activity and Health, influencing global physical activity surveillance and policy.