Bonnie van Dongen

Bonnie van Dongen is an Assistant Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam's Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Science. She holds a PhD from VU and master's/bachelor's degrees from Wageningen University in Health and Society. Her research focuses on school-based health promotion, community capacity building, and sustainable implementation of health programs in educational environments.

• Education: BSc/MSc in Health and Society (Wageningen University), PhD in Health Promotion (VU Amsterdam)
• Key Expertise: Health promotion in schools, participatory research, qualitative methodologies, adolescent health behaviors

Her work emphasizes creating healthy school communities through collaborative approaches involving students, staff, and parents. Notable projects include the FLASH intervention to build sustainable health-promoting frameworks and co-creating training modules for school advisors. She contributes to academic education in Health Sciences, integrating research, teaching, and practical implementation.

Her research outputs (9 articles/theses) explore topics like school health program effectiveness, community capacity evaluation, and youth engagement strategies. She collaborates with institutions like GGD and JOGG-NL on initiatives improving school food environments and health literacy.

Current efforts prioritize connecting academic education with real-world health challenges, emphasizing context-sensitive program design tailored to school settings.