Meet the Research Team

I received an MS in Nutrition Research in from Bastyr University in 2003, and my past research experience includes work on food variety and energy intake, rural childhood obesity prevention, nutrition education programs (SNAP-Ed and EFNEP), and nutrition in schools. Since 2015, I have worked with Dr. Seguin-Fowler on the following projects, among others: Strong Hearts, Healthy Communities; eHEART; the StrongWomen Follow-Up Survey; HEART Clubs; and StrongWomen, Healthy Hearts. My research interests are focused on effective community-based programs to reduce cardiovascular disease risk factor disparities, particularly among rural populations and midlife and older persons, including individual, social, and environmental/policy program components.

I received my Master of Science in Nutrition from Cornell University. I worked for the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University for 16 years on a variety of public health research projects as a study manager and interventionist. In 2020, I started working for Texas A&M designing and conducting program evaluations for 27 counties in South Texas. In addition to the program evaluation work for Healthy South Texas, I work on a variety of community-based health studies for Dr. Seguin-Fowler’s Healthy Living Team with the Texas A&M Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture. My research areas of experience and interest are centered around health advancement through multilevel interventions as well as pragmatic and meaningful program evaluation.

I joined the Seguin-Fowler Research Group in 2020 as a research specialist at Texas A&M AgriLife Research after working for 14 years at the University of Rochester, where I also received my MS in Health Professions Education. I have worked in a project management and research operations capacity across various clinical domains in primary care, oncology and hematology, dentistry, and oral health. My past research experience includes work on phase I-IV oncology trials, cancer-associated thrombosis clinical trials, dental practice-based research networks (PBRN), clinical evaluations of implant-supported/assisted dental prostheses, and community-based participatory research (CBPR) approaches to address healthcare disparities.

My professional career started in the field of social sciences where I earned my Ph.D. in developmental psychology at the University of Texas at Dallas. During my graduate training, my research interests included examining the bidirectional relationship between parents and their children with a focus on socio-emotional development. In 2019, I started my position as a research project manager at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. In this role, I managed large-scale research projects in hepatology, cardiology, and gastroenterology. My previous research experience includes work on evaluating hepatitis C screening efforts, assessing a blood pressure intervention integrated into electronic medical records, and extensive experience in intensive longitudinal studies. I joined the Healthy Living research group in 2021 as a research specialist. 

While completing my undergraduate degrees in International Affairs and Economics at Northeastern University, I worked in government and public policy at the federal and municipal level and developed a passion for research and statistics. I also spent several years at an international development NGO specializing in agricultural development. Following completion of my MS in Food Policy and Applied Nutrition from the Friedman School of Nutrition at Tufts University, I went on to manage two large multisectoral nutrition research projects in Ethiopia for the Friedman School. My research interests are economic development, maternal and child health, nutrition interventions, program evaluations, and health disparities. I am especially interested in the role of technology in increasing efficiency and innovation in research implementation and knowledge management.

I graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a Bachelor’s in Africana Studies and Spanish with a certificate in Global Health. I worked with the Center of Ethnic Studies on the Pittsburgh Transformations Project addressing healthcare and educational challenges following the COVID-19 pandemic. Following graduation, I moved to Dallas and began as a Program Aide working with Healthy Living at Texas A&M AgriLife. My research interests include nutrition, sustainable agriculture, and maternal and child health.

I obtained my PhD in Nutrition Science from Auburn University and my Master’s degree in Food and Nutritional Science from Tuskegee University. My research interests include dietary and lifestyle interventions to promote healthy living and quality of life. Examining the social, cultural, and nutritional determinants of diet-related health disparities in low-income populations, I am also interested in planning, implementing, and evaluating food and environmental systems to increase access to healthy food and physical activity in low-income populations.

I started as an Assistant Professor/Extension Specialist at Tennessee State University in Fall 2023.

I came to Cornell to study Community Nutrition in the combined PhD/RD program in Fall 2013 and joined the Seguin-Fowler Research Lab at that time. My research interests are focused on the design, implementation, evaluation, and dissemination of multilevel nutrition interventions targeting low-resource families. I am particularly interested in the policy implications of such approaches and seek to include economic analyses in my work for this reason. I completed a mixed methods evaluation of the Double Up Food Bucks program in Western New York; curriculum development for a multi-component community-based randomized trial (the F3HK program); a process evaluation of the F3HK trial; and a comparative cost-effectiveness analysis of the Double Up and F3HK programs while at Cornell. 

I started as an Assistant Professor of Food and Nutrition Policy at The Ohio State University in Fall 2018 and as an Assistant Professor of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Michigan in January 2024.

Originally from Hong Kong, I moved to Canada to pursue a Bachelor of Applied Science in Nutrition and Food at Ryerson University in Toronto. After graduating, I attended the University of Toronto to pursue a combined Master of Public Health and Dietetic Internship in Community Nutrition; subsequently, I obtained my PhD from Cornell University. My research experience includes work with Toronto Public Health’s food strategy team, evaluating the impact of two interventions—a healthy corner store and a mobile food market—in two low-income neighborhoods. My research interests include exploring determinants of healthy eating in different social and environmental contexts; using mixed methods to plan, manage, and evaluate relevant health-enhancing strategies, particularly among at-risk populations; and employing community engagement and capacity-building approaches to conduct health research.

I completed a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Boston College from 2019-2022 and started as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Relations and Applied Nutrition at the University of Guelph in 2022.

I joined the Seguin-Fowler Research Lab as a Postdoctoral Associate in October 2014 after spending several years studying and working internationally in nutrition and public health. My interests include the environmental determinants of obesity and chronic disease and the use of policies and programs to support healthier diets and increased physical activity. My primary research focus has been the influence of agriculture and food systems on what people eat. I hold a BA in Environmental Studies from Mount Holyoke College, an MPH and an MS in Agriculture, Food, and Environment from Tufts University, and a PhD in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. My doctoral research was based in Fiji and explored the use of nutrition-oriented value chain analysis to identify opportunities for public health action to improve fruit and vegetable availability, affordability, and acceptability.  

I started as an Assistant Professor of Public Health Nutrition in the Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences at the University of Vermont in January 2019.

I received an MSPH in Human Nutrition from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. My past research experience includes work on factors that affect household food security in Canadian cities, as well as interventions to reduce childhood obesity and improve healthy food availability in low-income communities. My research interests are focused on developing effective community-based health promotion programs , particularly among children and their families. I am also interested in the influence food and built environments have on people’s health and how environmental changes can impact the success of health interventions in at-risk communities.  

I started as an Assistant Professor NTT in the Department of Nutrition at Simmons University in August 2020.