SEPTEMBER NEWS
NEW SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY COMMITTEE MET
The Center hosted its first scientific advisory committee meeting late last month here in Omaha. These three national experts helped advise us on goals and scientific activities, and will be providing input on long-range Center planning and scientific work moving forward.
Meet our three scientific advisory committee members:
HEIDI BLANCK, MS, PhD
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Chief of the Obesity Prevention and Control Branch in the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health
Dr. Blanck has more than 15 years of CDC experience as a United States Public Health Service Officer and has authored more than 90 epidemiologic papers and reports in the areas of nutrition, physical activity, obesity and environmental exposures. She oversees CDC’s monitoring of state obesity prevalence and key nutrition and physical activity behavioral and systems supports. She is the creator and Senior Advisor to the agency’s Nutrition and Obesity Policy Research and Evaluation Network, an active member of the National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research, the HHS’ Healthy Weight, Nutrition and Physical Activity Taskforce and IOM Obesity Solutions Roundtable.
KEN RESNICOW, PhD
Irwin M. Rosenstock Collegiate Professor, Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health at the University of Michigan and UM Cancer Center Director of Health Disparities Research
Dr. Resnicow is an internationally recognized expert in design and evaluation of health promotion interventions and motivational interviewing, and is a leading expert in conceptualizing and designing culturally sensitive community-based interventions for health promotion. He is also an expert in community-based interventions for nutrition, physical activity and smoking prevention in minorities. He specializes in theory-based tailoring including ethnic identity and self-determination theory. His research interests include the design and evaluation of health promotion programs for special populations, particularly cardiovascular and cancer prevention interventions for African Americans; understanding the relationship between ethnicity and health behaviors; and motivational interviewing for chronic disease prevention.
MARY STORY, PhD, RD
Professor and Associate Director of Academic Programs, Community and Family Medicine, Duke University and the Duke Global Health Institute, Durham, NC
Prior to her work at Duke, Dr. Story was Senior Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs and Professor in the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health in the School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, where she was also Adjunct Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine. She concurrently serves as Director of the National Program Office for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Healthy Eating Research Program that supports research on environmental and policy strategies to promote healthy eating among children to prevent childhood obesity. She has conducted numerous school and community-based environmental intervention and obesity prevention studies for children, adolescents and families.
PRODUCE QUALITY LOWER IN RURAL AREAS
Postdoctoral Fellow Teresa Smith, PhD, worked with a team of researchers at Montana State University (MSU) that discovered produce quality at grocery stores is lower in rural areas compared to more urban areas – and that can influence purchasing and healthy eating behaviors.
“The average quality score in the most rural grocery stores was 3.5 out of 6, while the least rural stores showed a quality score of 5.67 out of 6,” Selena Ahmed, MSU researcher, said. According to Carmen Byker Shanks, the study’s lead author, the findings may help explain why people living in rural areas are less likely to consume the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables.
Click here to read about the study.
BLASER JOINS CENTER TEAM
Casey Blaser has joined the Center team as a graduate research assistant, primarily working on the National Early Care and Education Learning Collaborative (ECELC) project. Blaser is a University of Nebraska Medical Center PhD student studying biostats. After leaving his hometown of Genoa, Neb., he achieved a bachelor’s in mathematics and a master’s in statistics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. When not enjoying his hobbies of retro gaming and woodworking, he will pursue a career as a research statistician.
GRAPHIC HIGHLIGHTS ‘CHILD HUNGER ENDS HERE’
As part of our work on the Child Hunger Ends Here - Omaha Plan initiative, Center staff have created an infographic, "Hunger in Our Backyard." This infographic provides a brief overview of the project, which is a collaborative effort among various community partners to alleviate childhood hunger in the Omaha metro over a three-year period.
The infographic additionally showcases a selection of results from the first year of data collection (2014), describes the various community partners involved and their roles in the collaborative, and discusses the collective impact model that we hope will continue to help establish a sustainable initiative.
Thank you to our partners - Hunger Free Heartland, ConAgra Foods Foundation, Creighton University Financial Success Program, Hunger Collaborative, Food Bank for the Heartland, Douglas County Health Department and Omaha Public Schools.
BOARD MEMBER PROFILE: KATHLEEN LODL
Kathleen Lodl is a native of Schuyler, Neb., and has worked for the University of Nebraska Lincoln in Extension and 4-H for the past 20 years. She currently serves as Associate Dean and 4-H Program Administrator for Nebraska Extension. She refers to learning as her passion, and is “a long-term advocate of education, and loves being on campus and watching the ‘light bulb’ go off for students and youth.”
GSCN: Based on your work with 4-H in Nebraska, what do you value about the Center’s work?
Lodl: The investments the Center is making in health and nutrition, especially as to how they impact young people, are the right ones for the long-term success of the state. Being able to rely on the research of the Center helps us ensure the programming we're doing has the most benefit for the most people. It's a privilege to be a part of Nebraska 4-H, where we serve one out of three of those who are age eligible. If we can help increase the knowledge of those youth around healthy choices and influence their making of healthy decisions, it's a win for everyone.
GSCN: What first drew you to the Center, its work and/or its people?
Lodl: The evaluation work of the Center has been important as we think in Extension and 4-H about best program practices and the ways we can influence decision making among those with whom we work. We actually first came into contact when needing some work on national nutrition and health indicators to be used by 4-H across the country. That work is still being used to guide the program today.
GSCN: How do you see the Center’s measurement and evaluation expertise making a difference?
Lodl: The Center is known for quality, non-biased work that can be trusted. It is also done within the context of what is reasonable at a program level. That combination of research and application makes the Center's work unique and sought after as we try to get the most impact from programming. It's a one-of-a-kind jewel.
GSCN: Please share a favorite food memory.
Lodl: I come from a long Czech history of cooking and baking. Some of my favorite memories are learning to bake and cook with my Mom; skills and traditions I still use today.
EISELE FELLOWSHIP ENTERS SECOND YEAR
In support of our commitment to new, young researchers, the Eisele Family Foundation funds the Eisele Postdoctoral Fellowship, a two-year position, here at the Center. The first person to hold this position is Texas native Eric Calloway, PhD, RD, and he is beginning his second year of work.
Calloway’s first year has been spent focusing on grant writing and studying diet and food insecurity in low-income populations. His second year will continue this line of research and also expand into studying food policy and food access-related issues.
The vision for this fellowship is to assist junior scientists in their development in order to advance their careers either here at the Center or as future Center collaborators around the country. Key benefits to the Center are new ideas, perspectives and skill sets that are contributed to existing projects.
PINARD: PANEL ON STATE FOOD POLICY COUNCIL
On August 18, Research Scientist Courtney Pinard, PhD, participated in a panel discussion in Lincoln hosted by the Center for Rural Affairs to discuss the potential for creating a Nebraska Food Policy Council. The discussion was led by Mark Winne, a food system consultant, author and senior advisor at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future.
SMITH ELECTED PHS SIG CHAIR
Congratulations to Postdoctoral Fellow Teresa Smith for being named the incoming chairperson for the
Population Health Sciences Special Interest Group for the Society of Behavioral Medicine. Smith’s three-year term begins at the end of March.
PUBLICATION
McSpadden KE, Patrick H, Oh, AY, Yaroch AL, Dwyer LA, Nebeling LC. The association between motivation and fruit and vegetable intake: The moderating roles of social support. Appetite. 2015.
The Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition aids in survey development and evaluation for national organizations and others. If you are interested in finding out more about these services, please contact Dr. Amy Yaroch, executive director, at ayaroch@centerfornutrition.org.
