URI_Research_Magazine_Momentum_Fall_2015_Melissa-McCarthy

Greaney says education, skills building, and increasing self-efficacy are key to promoting physical activity. Short-term goals for her studies include continuing to identify sociodemographic, behavioral, and health-related factors associated with physical activity across the lifespan. The long-term goals center on developing widely used intervention strategies to promote physical activity among groups with the greatest health disparities that can be sustained while not being cost prohibitive. “I do not think we have the definitive answer of how to best increase the use of interventions, but we do know that we need to understand the social context of and design interventions that can be incorporated into a participant’s life,” Greaney says. Self-monitoring remains critical to inspiring a change in habits, but many people seeking change do not consistently track behavior. The web-based tools used in intervention studies likely need work to promote sustained use and to appeal to a wide audience, according to Greaney. Greaney worked as a postdoctoral fellow on the SENIOR Program (Study of Exercise in Nutrition in Older Rhode Islanders) with URI Gerontology Professor Philip Clark from 2001 to 2004. She then went to the Harvard School of Public Health and then the Center for Community-Based Research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Greaney says she is happy to return to URI to work with former and new colleagues. “It is exciting to be on the ground floor in developing URI’s new health studies major and to ensure that students are acquiring the knowledge and skills needed to promote health and well-being whether it be through health promotion, health administration or health services on a state, national or international level,” she says. Greaney says she was drawn back to the University because: “For me, URI offers a nice balance between the important role of research and teaching. I like being around students and enjoy teaching as well as advising students. I find students’ enthusiasm and excitement invigorating.”

Mary (Molly) L. Greaney Assistant Professor, Kinesiology; Di rector, Heal th Studies

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