Faculty of Kinesiology

Dr. Dombrowski came to UNB in 2018 with a highly successful career at the University of Stirling, UK. Imagine leaving the beautiful UK for all this snow 😊.

Dr. Dombrowski is an expert in the development, testing and application of behavior change theory and interventions for health. He is particularly interested in aspects concerning maintenance in health behavior change interventions, and the use of evidence-based behavior change techniques to facilitate sustainable long-term change. He is already an Associate Editor for two of the top journals in Health Psychology.

Dr. Dombrowski came to UNB having had substantial success in acquiring external funding to support his research, including large international team grants in excess of 400k. Since arriving at UNB in 2018, he has received funding from NBHRF and has submitted 7 additional grant proposals. He currently has a grant (2.8M) that has been recommend for NIHR funding in the UK and a CIHR that has been recommended to the full proposal stage. Manage of these larger grants are associated with international collaborations which increases the scope and impact of the research findings as well as providing a strong network for students involved with the projects. To date, Dr. Dombrowski has mentored 72 undergraduate and graduate research students.

He has 5 papers that have over 100 citations each, including his seminal work on a refined taxonomy of behavior change techniques, and his systematic review on long-term maintenance of weight loss interventions, published in the British Medical Journal.

This URS will assist Dr. Dombrowski in transitioning his research programs to the Canadian context by solidifying collaborations within UNB and with other Canadian scholars. Dr. Dombrowski has two main themes for his proposed research related to the URS, the first builds on his recently published paper in the Lancet highlighting the need for a healthy environment for unborn babies to decrease the development of disease, the second addressed weight management for men with obesity, a major health concern in North American. Both have the potential for significant societal impact.

He will undoubtedly be a major figure internationally in Health Psychology.
In closing, I would like to share with you a quote from one of his colleagues, “you are very fortunate to have him and if I were you, I would do all I could to keep him!”.