简介

My expertise is in the area of nutrition education for limited-resource audiences that is designed to prevent obesity and chronic disease. I lead the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program for New York State and provide program leadership for Cornell Cooperative Extension's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program--Education. I have been active in national leadership for both programs. My research is closely integrated with the outreach provided by these programs. We have recently been named a Regional Nutrition Education Center of Excellence, funded by USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture and the Food and Nutrition Servies. The signature research program for this center is to investigate the additive effect of skill-based nutrition education in combination with changes in policy, systems, and environmental changes, designed to make healthy choices easier, on nutrition and physical activity behaviors in low-income populations. In addition, we have developed an innovative staff training model and I have conducted research regarding program management that supports staff effectiveness. Several current projects are guided by the socio-ecological model in bringing about changes at various levels of the environment that are conducive to healthy food and activity choices. We developed and tested a curriculum that targets low-income parents of of 3-11 year olds, integrating parenting practices with skills to promote healthy food choice and active play both at home and where children learn and play. A second, related project aimed to build the capacity of local Cooperative Extension staff to collaborate with agency partners to make community-level environmental changes. A third area of current research is the development a school-based intervention that includes changes in the lunchroom and parent engagement. PhD, 1990 - University of Texas at Austin MS, 1974 - University of Iowa RD, 1971 - University of Iowa BS, 1970 - University of Texas at Austin