George A. Kelley, FACSM
SPPH Research Professor
Dr. George A. Kelley, FACSM, is a Research Professor in the School of Public and Population Health with a secondary appointment in the Department of Kinesiology at Boise State. He spent the previous 22 years as a tenured Full Professor in what is now the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at West Virginia University (WVU).
A 1980 graduate of the Department of Kinesiology at Boise State, Dr. Kelley is currently responsible for teaching a graduate-level Systematic Reviews with Meta-Analysis course as well as a Physical Activity Epidemiology course. A national and international authority on systematic reviews with and without meta-analysis, Dr. Kelley’s own research focuses on using the systematic review and meta-analytic approach to examine the effects of exercise and physical activity on health-related disease.
In addition, Dr. Kelley collaborates with numerous others both nationally and internationally on their own exercise and non-exercise meta- analytic research, including guidelines development. Dr. Kelley has received external funding as Principal Investigator
from sources that include the National Institutes of Health R01 mechanism, American Heart Association, and Department of Defense. In addition, he has participated in various roles on externally funded grants totaling more than $41 million. To date, he has authored more than 170 publications in peer-reviewed journals, the majority as first or senior author. Based on Google Scholar, his current h-index of 62 for research productivity is approximately three times higher than the average for full professors in medicine (https://doi.org/10.1097/acm.0000000000003185) and considered “Outstanding” based on Hirsch’s categorization (https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0507655102).
Amongst other awards, Dr. Kelley has received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Boise State in 2008, Outstanding Alumni from the Boise State Department of Kinesiology in 1999, Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research from the WVU School of Medicine in 2010, the WVU Health Sciences Center’s Outstanding Researcher and Scholar Award in 2018, and the WVU Student Association of Public Health Graduate Teacher of the Year Award in 2019. In addition, Dr. Kelley served as the 2021 International Distinguished Scholar Lecturer at the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California (UABC) at Ensenada campus, México, a virtual series of lectures on meta-analysis that included 298 participants from seven countries: Costa Rica, Colombia, Spain, USA, Brazil, Chile, and México. He also serves in various statistical advisory roles for 13 different non-predatory, peer-reviewed journals (emphasis on systematic reviews, with or without meta-analysis).
With a firm belief in modeling the healthy behavior he seeks from others as a public health professional, Dr. Kelley currently averages more than 2,000 intensity minutes of exercise per week by cycling 150-200 miles per week, resistance and balance trains three times per week, and walking or hiking 25-35 miles per week. He has been tracking his exercise and nutrition intake for more than 40 years.
Contact Information
Office: Remote
Email: georgekelley@boisestate.edu