Dr. Keeley Pratt is an Associate Professor in the Human Development and Family Science Program, Couple and Family Therapy Specialization in the Department of Human Sciences at The Ohio State University (OSU). She also has appointments with the OSU Departments of Surgery and Pediatrics, in which she collaborates with the Comprehensive Center for Adult Weight Management, Metabolic, and Bariatric surgery and Nationwide Children’s Hospital Center for Healthy Weight and Nutrition. She also has a 15% appointment with the Ohio Agriculture Research and Development Center (OARDC) to develop community and healthcare extensions for child and adult weight management interventions. Dr. Pratt works in all these capacities to research family-based treatment methods and family factors that predict/associate with behavior change and weight loss over time.
Dr. Pratt completed her doctorate in Medical Family Therapy at East Carolina University, where she worked in a variety of weight management, healthcare, and community settings with rural, low-income racial/ethnic minority families. She completed a post-doctoral research fellowship at Research Triangle Institute International (RTI) in an Obesity Signature Program. Dr. Pratt is an Independently Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and AAMFT Approved Supervisor. She is currently an Associate Editor for two journals: Families, Systems, & Health and Bariatric Surgical Practice and Patient Care, and is a Special Topics Editor for the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH).
For over a decade, Dr. Pratt has worked with pediatric weight management programs and clinics, residential healthy lifestyle camps, adult outpatient weight management and bariatric surgery, and school-based settings as a researcher, clinician, and trainer/supervisor. She has received funding for her work and has conducted over 200 presentations at local, national, and international conferences and has produced over 60 peer-reviewed works. As a Family Scientist, licensed Couple and Family Therapist, and trained Medical Family Therapist she uses the Scientist-Practitioner Model- in which her clinical work informs her research, and her research informs her clinical work. Thus, all her research has direct implications for patients and families in weight management.