dr. MPM (Marleen) Bekker

Marleen Bekker is an Associate Professor of Health Policy and Politics in the Health and Society group at Wageningen University Group. Her research interests lie at the intersection of health and democracy, and consist of whole of society approaches to integrate health into economic and urban design policies; governance of Planetary and One health issues; and the relation between political institutions (parties, interest representation, economy), societal innovations and the public’s health. Initially trained as a nurse, she holds degrees in Health Policy and Management (MSc Maastricht University), Sociology of public health science and policy (PhD Erasmus University Rotterdam), and she received training in public administration and political science (NIG). She combines theories on sociological institutionalism, science and technology and new public governance with methodologies of qualitative comparative research, responsive evaluation, and qualitative system dynamic modelling. Marleen is research coordinator of the Health and Society group.

Marleen teaches and coordinates the BSc course Environmental Assets for Health and the Introduction to Global One Health Minor course. Past course contributions include Public Health and Welfare redistribution; Health Policy and Politics (EUR); Policy implementation; Transitions in Governance (RU); Science Communication, and Health Policy and Action (WUR).

Additionally, she acts as policy adviser to the Dutch Ministry of Public Health’s Prevention Knowledge Platform and is member of the European Public Health conference board. Besides several consultancies she also led the Public health policy and politics section of the European Public Health Association for six years.