Faculty of HS | School of Human Kinetics | Personnel

Michelle Fortier

Telephone: (613) 562-5800 ext. 4275
Fax: (613) 562-5149
E-mail: mfortier@uottawa.ca
Office (building, room number): MNT 369

Rank

  • Full professor



Biography

Michelle Fortier is a physical activity psychology scientist who is a professor at the School of Human Kinetics at the University of Ottawa. Her research program aims to understand and promote physical activity behavior change with an emphasis on motivation. She has extensive research experience examining the determinants of physical activity adoption and maintenance in different healthy and clinical populations and has been involved in the development and evaluation of physical activity promotion interventions. Her latest SSHRC (2008-2011) entitled: Understanding Physical Activity Adoption and Maintenance in Cardiac Rehabilitation ranked 7th in Canada.  She was the lead investigator of the Physical Activity Counseling trial (PAC: 2004-2006: 682 677 $) which was a theoretically-based motivational randomized controlled trial investigated the effect of adding a physical activity counselor to the primary health care team. She is teaching a new physical activity counseling course stemming from this.  She has had funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care of Ontario and from the Canadian Institutes in Health Research (CIHR) and has published in such journals as Psychology of Sport and Exercise, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, and Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport. She is member of the International Society of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, the Society of Behavioral Medicine and the American College of Sport Medicine.



University Degrees

Year Degree Specialty Institution
1994 Ph.D. Psychologie Université du Québec à Montréal
1990 B.A. (spéc.) Psychologie Université d'Ottawa



Research Interests

  • Physical activity behavioral counseling interventions
  • Determinants of physical activity adoption and maintenance
  • Motivation/self-determination
  • Social influences



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