Orkan Okan

Orkan Okan is researcher at Bielefeld University, Germany, in the Faculty of Educational Science, the Centre for Prevention and Intervention in Childhood and Adolescence (CPI), and the Interdisciplinary Centre for Health Literacy Research. He is project manager and researcher in the German national Health Literacy in Childhood and Adolescence research consortium (HLCA, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research), and project lead in the Health Literate Schools project (HeLit-Schools, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Health). His current research addresses health and health literacy policies considering children and adolescents and whole-school approaches in health promotion and health literacy. He is also collaborating in national and international policy initiatives on health literacy and health promotion. Orkan is currently vice president of the Health Promotion Section at the European Public Health Association (EUPHA), deputy chair of the Global Working Group on Health Literacy at the International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE), member in the Research Group of the Schools for Health in Europe Foundation, member in the International School Health Network (ISHN), and member of the Policy and Advocacy Board of the International Health Literacy Association (IHLA). Orkan is engaged in national and international networking and transfer activities, collaborative inter-sectoral action, and capacity building for health literacy.