Biography

Palma Chillón has a Bachelor’s degree on Physical Activity and Sport Sciences (1999), a Bachelor degree on Occupational Therapy (2005) and Phd in Physical Activity and Health (2005), at the University of Granada (Spain).

Her main interest areas are physical activity and Physical Education in young people. Regarding physical activity, the research focuses on active commuting to and from school through the study of the determinants and correlates, health benefits (social, psychological, and cognitive), design of valid and feasible tools, and school-based intervention programs for promoting active school transport and other health-related behaviors. Regarding Physical Education, the research focuses on promotion health within the school curricula.

Her professional career started as a Physical Education Teacher in Junta de Andalucía (2000-06) and followed as a teacher in the School of Sport Sciences at University of Granada (2005-currently), where she works nowadays combining teaching, researching and business activities.

She has published 98 articles (35 in Q1; 35.71% and 15 in D1; 15.30%), obtaining 1300 total citations and h-index score of 24. She has also participated in 29 projects (22 national or regional and 7 international) financed with a total of 8.721.800€ (7,267,800 € from international projects). In 7 of these projects she has been the main researcher. She has visited research centres of high international academic level, such as the University of North Carolina in the United States, the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the University of Cambridge in Europe. In addition, she shows a high participation in international conferences constantly along the time and invited lecturers in scientific events.

Palma Chillón focuses her current researching on promoting active commuting to school in young people and she collaborates with a relevant interdisciplinary team, including computer science, urban architectures and environmental science; in addition the work is based on social improvements and she collaborates with practitioners, skateholders and politicians from local and national government institutions in order to extend the potential benefits from researching to the society.

Despite of the scientific production, Palma Chillón has produced several news for disseminating the information in the society through national and international means of communication and working with primary and secondary schools to spread the message among young population.

Highlighted publications

1. Gil-Espinosa, F. J., Cadenas-Sánchez, C., & Chillón, P. (2019). Physical fitness predicts the academic achievement over one-school year follow-up period in adolescents. Journal of Sports Sciences, 37(4), 452-457.
2. Herrador‐Colmenero, M., Harrison, F., Villa‐González, E., Rodríguez‐López, C., Ortega, F. B., Ruiz, J. R. & Chillón, P. (2018). Longitudinal associations between weather, season, and mode of commuting to school among Spanish youths. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 28(12), 2677-2685.
3. Chica-Olmo, J., Rodríguez-López, C., & Chillón, P. (2018). Effect of distance from home to school and spatial dependence between homes on mode of commuting to school. Journal of Transport Geography, 72, 1-12.
4. Villa-González, E., Barranco-Ruiz, Y., Evenson, K. R., & Chillón, P. (2018). Systematic review of interventions for promoting active school transport. Preventive Medicine, 111, 115-134.
5. Herrador‐Colmenero, M., Villa‐González, E., & Chillón, P. (2017). Children who commute to school unaccompanied have greater autonomy and perceptions of safety. Acta Paediatrica, 106(12), 2042-2047.
6. Huertas-Delgado, F. J., Herrador-Colmenero, M., Villa-González, E., Aranda-Balboa, M. J., Cáceres, M. V., Mandic, S., & Chillón, P. (2017). Parental perceptions of barriers to active commuting to school in Spanish children and adolescents. European Journal of Public Health, 27(3), 416-421.
7. Mandic, S., Flaherty, C., Pocock, T., Kek, C. C., Chillón, P., Ergler, C., & García-Bengoechea, E. (2017). Parental perceptions of cycle skills training for adolescents. Journal of Transport & Health, 6, 411-419.
8. Chillón, P., Panter, J., Corder, K., Jones, A. P., & Van Sluijs, E. M. F. (2015). A longitudinal study of the distance that young people walk to school. Health & Place, 31, 133-137.
9. Villa-González, E., Ruiz, J. R., Ward, D. S., & Chillón, P. (2015). Effectiveness of an active commuting school-based intervention at 6-month follow-up. The European Journal of Public Health, 26(2), 272-276.
10. Chillón P, Evenson KR, Vaughn A, Ward DS. A systematic review of interventions for promoting active transportation to school. International  Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity 2011, 14(8):10. Q1.