Marlene K. Tappe Ph.D » Board of Directors

Biographical Info

Marlene K. Tappe, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus of Health Science at Minnesota State University-Mankato (MSU-M). Dr. Tappe earned her undergraduate degree at MSU-M and her M.S. and Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She was on the faculty of Purdue University for 19 years and spent two of those years with the Division of Adolescent and School Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Dr. Tappe then returned to Minnesota and was with MSU-M for 19 years including 11 years as the Chairperson of the Department of Health Science.

Dr. Tappe’s projects at CDC included co-authorship of chapter six of Physical Activity and Health: A Report of the Surgeon General and lead authorship of CDC’s Guidelines for School and Community Programs to Promote Lifelong Physical Activity Among Young People. Dr. Tappe served on the Joint Committees for National Health Education Standards which developed first and second editions of the National Health Education Standards (1995, 2007) and co-chaired the Standards Writing Group for the National Consensus for School Health Education (NCSHE) for the third edition of the National Health Education Standards (2022). She was a member of American Cancer Society’s (ACS) School Health Advisory Panel which facilitated the National Health Education Standards Implementation Training of Trainers as well as ACS and CDC School Health Education Higher Education Academies. Dr. Tappe also was a member of CDC’s Training Tools for Healthy Schools training cadre. She currently co-chairs the NCSHE’s Development Group, is the secretary of the Foundation for the Advancement of Health Education (FAHE), and represents FAHE on the Management Group of the NCSHE.

Dr. Tappe’s has received awards from the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, the CDC, the ACS, the American Association for Health Education, Eta Sigma Gamma, the Society of State Directors of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, and the Coalition of National Health Education Organizations. She was named the 2023 Distinguished Fellow of the Society for Public Health Education.