On November 13, 2024, Prof. Dr. Gabriele Bolte, Prof. Dr. Birte Berger-Höger, and Prof. Dr. Benjamin Schüz were unanimously re-elected by the Institute Council of IPP as the Board of Directors of the Institute for Public Health and Nursing Research (IPP) at the University of Bremen. Gabriele Bolte was confirmed in her position as Managing Director of the IPP. All candidates accepted their election. The members of the Institute Council thanked the members of the Board of Directors for their dedicated work during their previous term, which led to the successful further development of the IPP. They congratulated Gabriele Bolte, Birte Berger-Höger, and Benjamin Schüz on their re-election and wished them success in their new term of office.
Since 2013, Gabriele Bolte has held the position of Professor in Social Epidemiology at Faculty 11 Human and Health Sciences. As a human biologist and epidemiologist, she heads the Department of Social Epidemiology at IPP, which since 2019 has also served as the WHO Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health Inequalities. The department's primary research focuses on environmental justice, health-promoting urban development, equity impact of public health interventions, and gender-transformative health research. Among other roles, Gabriele Bolte serves as an Appointed Member of the "Environmental Public Health" Commission of the Federal Ministry of Health at the Robert Koch Institute, in collaboration with the Federal Environment Agency and the Academy for Territorial Development in the Leibniz Association. She has been a member of the IPP Board of Directors since 2013, serving as Managing Director since 2014.
Following her studies in Theoretical Medicine/Human Biology, Gabriele Bolte earned her doctorate in Human Biology from the University of Marburg in 1996. In 1999, she obtained her Master of Public Health following postgraduate studies in "Public Health and Epidemiology" at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich. She completed her habilitation and received her teaching qualification (venia legendi) in Epidemiology from the University of Ulm in 2006, and from Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich in 2008. After various positions as a research associate, Gabriele Bolte served as Environmental Epidemiologist at the Bavarian Health and Food Safety Authority from 2004 to 2011, and as Head of the Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Unit from 2011 to 2013.
Since 2020, Birte Berger-Höger has led the Department of "Nursing Science Evaluation and Implementation Research" at the Institute for Public Health and Nursing Research (IPP) and holds the position of Junior Professor of Nursing Science, specializing in Evaluation and Implementation, at Faculty 11 of the University of Bremen. The department focuses on promoting evidence-based nursing practice to prevent over-, under-, or inappropriate care of nursing patients and their relatives. Since 2020, she has served as spokesperson in the Education and Training Division of the German Network for Evidence-based Medicine, and since 2024 as Co-spokesperson of the Special Interest Group "Decision Coaching" of the International Shared Decision Making Society. Since 2022, Birte Berger-Höger has been a member of the IPP Board of Directors.
Following her training as a healthcare and nursing professional, Birte Berger-Höger studied Vocational Education at the University of Hamburg, specializing in Health Sciences and Social Sciences, and completed her doctorate there on the topic of Decision Coaching by specialized nursing professionals in oncology. Subsequently, she worked as a research associate at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, where she participated in several research projects.
Benjamin Schüz has led the "Health Promotion and Prevention" group at the Institute for Public Health and Nursing Research (IPP) since 2017. The department focuses on applied research to improve health promotion and health-relevant behavioral patterns across the lifespan. He also serves as Co-Speaker of the Leibniz ScienceCampus Digital Public Health Bremen, a major interdisciplinary research consortium funded by the Leibniz Association and the State of Bremen, dedicated to investigating the potential of digital applications in public health. In 2022, Benjamin Schüz was appointed to the IPP Board of Directors.
Following his degree (Dipl.-Psych.) in Psychology from Freie Universität Berlin, Benjamin Schüz completed his doctorate in Health Psychology at the same institution in 2007. Subsequently, he worked as a research associate at the German Centre of Gerontology in Berlin, followed by a position as Associate Professor at the University of Tasmania, Australia, from 2011 to 2017. His research focuses on examining and modifying socio-structural disparities in health-relevant behaviors.
Contact:
Prof Dr Gabriele Bolte, MPH
Managing Director
Head of the Department of Social Epidemiology
Institute for Public Health and Nursing Research
Department 11 Human and Health Sciences
University of Bremen
Grazer Street 4
28359 Bremen
Phone: 0421/218-68820 (secretary's office -68821)
E-mail: gabriele.bolte@uni-bremen.de
https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/institute-of-public-health-and-nursing-research
