PPH Partners

PPH Partners is a consulting firm founded by Dr. Tracy McMillan that focuses on bridging the gap between community planning and public health.  The firm specializes in community assessment, measurement and evaluation, with particular emphasis in the following areas:

• Children’s school transportation
• Safe Routes to School
• Non-motorized transportation
• Physical activity and traffic safety
• Healthy neighborhood environments

Dr. Tracy E. McMillan

Tracy McMillan has worked in the area of community planning and public health for more than 10 years.  She holds a Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of California, Irvine; a Masters in Public Health from Emory University; and a Bachelor's degree in Exercise Science from SUNY Buffalo. Through work with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Prevention Research Centers at the University of Washington and the University of South Carolina, Dr. McMillan developed a focus on policy and environmental influences on physical activity.  In 1998 she decided to continue her education in planning because it was clear that the fairly singular focus on individual physical activity behavior change that existed until the late ‘90s wasn’t working to affect health behaviors and health outcomes in American society. During her Ph.D. at UC-Irvine she worked most specifically on children’s transportation issues, particularly Safe Routes to School.  She was part of the team that did the first evaluation of the California Department of Transportation administered Safe Routes to School.  She also conducted a qualitative evaluation of the California Department of Health Services Safe Communities through Safe Routes to School program.

Dr. McMillan currently serves as a consultant to the Safe Routes to School Clearinghouse administered by the Highway Safety Research Center at UNC-Chapel Hill; the National Center for Bicycling and Walking; and the University of Houston on projects related to physical activity and community planning. 

She has served as a co-investigator on research funded by the National Institutes of Health, the California Department of Transportation and the Texas Department of Transportation and has been a consultant for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the California Department of Health Services, and the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation of Santa Ana, California. 

Her professional affiliations include memberships in the American Planning Association, the American Public Health Association, and the Transportation Research Board. Prior to starting PPH Partners she was an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Kansas, and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Texas School of Public Health.   She served on the City of Austin Mayor's Council on Fitness and was a Traffic Commissioner for the City of Encinitas, CA. 

She currently holds adjunct faculty appointments at the University Of Texas at Austin and Northern Arizona University.