Dr. Jason Fanning, Assistant Professor in the Department of Health and Exercise Science on the Reynolda Campus of Wake Forest, was appointed the Wells Fargo Faculty Scholar in July 2019.
The Wells Fargo endowment, established in 2011, aims to help recruit research faculty whose body of work could lead to business concepts or intellectual property that boost economic renewal in the Triad. Dr. Fanning is the third Wake Forest employee to receive the award since its inception.
Over the last three years, Dr. Fanning’s research has focused on the complex antecedents and consequences of health behaviors in the real world, particularly in regard to physical activity behaviors. This work has necessitated multidisciplinary expertise in behavioral theory; the use of emerging digital technologies to assess activity behaviors in real time; and application development to build interventions that can be delivered seamlessly in daily life.
Of particular note, the technology developed by Dr. Fanning during this study, which is easily and readily used by subjects on their mobile devices, has quickly come into wide use in studies across the Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist system.
The Wells Fargo Faculty Scholar Award has served as essential support for Dr. Fanning’s work throughout his time as a Wake Forest University faculty researcher and has been instrumental in Dr. Fanning’s continuing development as a model Wake Forest teacher-scholar.