Fleur ter Ellen

I work as a PhD candidate at the Social Epidemiology section of the Department of Public Health. My research focuses on socio-economic disparities in obesity and the influence of underlying mechanisms in disadvantaged neighbourhoods on the health of its residents. In my work, I recognize the need to embrace the complexity of persistent public health problems and to engage with a wide range of stakeholders to tackle these issues. To prevent noncommunicable diseases such as obesity, we must recognize that individual parts of a system cannot be understood in isolation; they must be studied in relation to each other, to other systems and in context. I therefore have a particular interest in the possibilities of using system science techniques and tools in my work.  

Together with Joost Oude Groeniger, Karen Oude Hengel and Frank van Lenthe from the Department of Public Health (EMC) and Luc Hagenaars and Karien Stronks from the Department of Public and Occupational Health (AMC), I work on the ZonMw project GIOS. GIOS stands for Guidance for Integrated Obesity prevention policies: a Systems approach. GIOS aims to align integrated prevention policies more closely with the underlying causes of obesity and will provide a toolkit to support municipalities in the development and implementation of integrated obesity prevention policies.

I have completed a MSc in International Public Health and Health and Life Sciences-Based Policy at the Vu University Amsterdam in 2021.