Physical Activity and Nutrition

• Program Overview

Key Initiatives

• Activity-Friendly Routes >
• Breastfeeding
• Community Nutrition
• Early Care and Education
• Healthy Food Initiative
• Play Every Day
• Sugary Drinks
• Schools

Partnerships

• Alliance for Healthy Kids
• Healthy Futures

Publications & Materials

• Burden of Obesity
• Evaluations
• Fact Sheets
• Student Weight Status
• Play Every Day Materials
  • Physical Activity
  • Sugary Drinks

School Health Program

Program Contacts

3601 C Street, Suite 722
Anchorage AK 99503
Fax: (907) 269-5446
​pan@alaska.gov

• Katie Reilly, MPH​
  Unit Manager
  907-269-3457
• Ann Potempa, MPH
  Play Every Day Coordinator
  907-744-0474
  
• Diane Peck, MPH RDN
  Public Health Nutritionist
  907-269-8447
• Lauren Kelsey, MPH
  Public Health Specialist
  907-269-8165
• Jessie Doherty, MPH
  Public Health Specialist
  907-334-5966

Activity-Friendly Routes to Everyday Destinations

Our health starts long before we visit a doctor’s office. It begins where we live, work, learn and play. That’s where we find it easier — or harder — to makes choices that affect our health: Can our children walk to school? Can we get to our local park on foot, by bike, or by bus instead of by car? Connecting everyday destinations with activity friendly routes means that you should be able to safely get to stores, schools, workplaces​ and other places by walking, biking or bus. Every bit of physical activity adds up each day to help you stay healthy and prevent disease.

Improving safety and health

From 2019 to December of 2020, the State of Alaska Physical Activity and Nutrition program worked with the Vision Zero Anchorage team to connect safe routes for walking and biking with everyday destinations like schools, workplaces, stores and playgrounds. The reports that were published during this partnership are housed on the Municipality of Anchorage website.

Visit Vision Zero Anchorage​

• Anchorage Vision Zero Year 1 Update (2019)
• Vision Zero Intercepts Survey Report (2019)

Learn more

Read components of the Community Guide:

• Physical Activity: Built Environment Approaches Combining Transportation System Interventions with Land Use and Environmental Design
• Increasing Physical Activity: Built Environment Approaches (2017)
• Combined Built Environment Features Help Communities Get Active
• Physical Activity: Creating or Improving Places for Physical Activity
• Physical Activity: Point-of-Decision Prompts to Encourage Use of Stairs (2005)

Learn about the Surgeon General’s Step It Up! (2015)

• Step It Up! The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Promote Walking and Walkable Communities (2015)
• CDC Partner Guide for Step It Up!​ (2016)

Read about Physical Activity Recommendations for All Ages

Contact

For more information about the Physical Activity and Nutrition program’s efforts to connect everyday destinations with activity-friendly routes, please email pan@alaska.gov.

Webpage updated January 2022